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Malevolent is a Netflix British horror arthouse movie that jumps on the bandwagon of a paranormal investigation gone wrong. It’s not about investigators, though. It’s about a spiritual cleansing crew, but with a twist. The protagonists are cheaters.
It’s branded Netflix original, but going by the logic of what is a Netflix original, this movie is not. It’s not exclusively produced, developed, or distributed by Netflix, so I don’t understand why it’s branded as such.
Malevolent is about a group of four spiritual cleansers who aren’t a hundred percent legitimate. The lead character is for real in the sense that she is an actual psychic, but the others aren’t and they scam their clients.
As always, I haven’t read any review of this movie before writing my own, but I’m sure others are going to whine about it being slow. It’s slow, but it’s not a defect actually, it’s more how you build-up to a shocking ending.
Yet, I think this movie could have benefited from a rewrite of the script. One of the bad guys is very shallow and could have been either fleshed out better or written out of the script entirely.
I liked the performance of all the cast. Even the parts of the bad guys. The suffering expressions of both Scott Chambers’s and Florence Pugh’s characters were very well acted and I felt bad for them.
I got a The Turn of The Screw vibe at the beginning of the movie and had high expectations after such a thrilling beginning. It might have been due to the mansion where most of the movie develops.
I like it when a movie makes the hair on the back of my neck rise with shock and uneasiness like I felt watching this movie in the last part when everything goes to pieces. That feeling of repulsion that body horror situation and the misfortune of the characters produces is gold.
One of the body horror scenes is a gut-wrenching accident. It’s one of those moments when feeling extremely uneasy I just mentioned. It’s gory, but kind of minimalistic at that. It shows that with a well thought out situation, how just a little gore can cause horror feelings in the watchers as it happened to me.
I liked this movie and didn’t like IMDb’s audience ranking of it. I’d agree that it’s kind of imbalanced and the baddies may feel a good deal underwritten, but if you pay attention the backstory is very verbose, and that dimension irons out any apparent lack of antagonist development.
The moral of this horror arthouse movie’s story: untruth doesn’t pay, a very traumatizing and mentally scarring retribution is the karma you’ll reap if you scam people making them believe that you are communicating with their deceased relatives.
Those who are into paranormal investigation horror movies should watch this movie by all means. Horror movie watchers that have knowledge of paranormal, occult, and spiritual technicalities might see its subtle details.
If you think all horror movies have to have a perfect balance of all the elements involved in the story, and you want to be engrossed in the evil reality of the antagonist, this movie may not be for you.
What do you Think about Horror Arthouse?
I know that arthouse is not the best format for horror movies, but sometimes arthouse horror movies are effective. What did you think of Malevolent? How does it compare to other horror arthouse films? Please let us know in the comments below.
© Shock Depot 2021 — Review of MALEVOLENT Netflix Horror Arthouse
