WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Malignant, now playing in theaters and on HBO Max.
Malignant might be James Wan's most cartoonishly twisted film yet, which is saying something given that his earlier horror works feature evil ventriloquist dolls and demons that collect marionettes. That's no accident, either; Wan has described the project as a genre-blender inspired by the kind of bizarre 1980s horror/thrillers "you would discover on the back shelves of video stores," as well as the films of Brian DePalma and David Cronenberg. Still, out of all the influences Wan has named for Malignant, none are more obvious than that of Dario "Master of the Thrill" Argento and his 1977 classic Suspiria.
As different as their plots may appear on the surface, Argento's Suspiria and Malignant are both slasher mysteries that center on an enigmatic, supernatural serial killer. At times, the villain in Suspiria takes on the form of a menacing figure with gloved hands, much like the malicious, scraggly-haired monster in Wan's movie. Malignant's antagonist also prefers to use a makeshift dagger to slay their targets, similar to how the murderer in Argento's film often stabs their victims to death with a knife.
Those familiar with Suspiria will be hard-pressed to miss the ways Malignant also borrows from the movie stylistically, from its rolling overhead camera shots to its splashes of boldly red and blue hues. What's more, Joseph Bishara's dramatically ominous music often takes on a life of its own in the same way that Goblin's hissing, shrieking score threatens to overwhelm Argento's film. But whereas Argento is (fairly) criticized as being misogynistic for the way he lets the camera linger on the dead bodies of the killer's female victims in Suspiria, Malignant is less voyeuristic in the way it depicts its onscreen carnage. Wan's thriller even makes its protagonist, Maddie, complicit in its villain's murderous acts by having her (and, in turn, the audience) envision them as they happen.
Wan is effective in the way he uses these elements to simulate the feelings of confusion and encroaching terror that Maddie experiences throughout most of Malignant, making it all the easier for audiences to empathize with her as she attempts to uncover the truth about the movie's killer, Gabriel, and her connection to them. These are the same emotions Argento seeks to evoke in Suspiria, as the film's lead, Suzy Bannion, tries to understand who or what is behind the string of strange events and deaths at the prestigious dance academy she only recently joined. This approach serves both movies well during their first two acts, which are mainly focused on creating a growing sense of dread and distress.
If there's a downside to all this, it's that Suspiria and Malignant end up suffering from a lot of the same problems in their third acts. For all the wild plot twists and bloody mayhem these films deliver during their climaxes, they're dragged down by having to first explain how their respective villains -- a coven of witches and Maddie's evil twin, who lives inside her head as a teratoma -- actually operate. That not only leads to some tedious scenes full of exposition, but it also calls attention to all the earlier plot points that, in hindsight, make less sense. This, in turn, muddles the movies' underlying metaphors and makes it harder to discern what, exactly, their stories are going for.
Ultimately, however, Malignant works for the same reason Suspiria does. Each film ends with its main character regaining their personal agency; Maddie locks Gabriel away in a literal prison within her mind and takes back control of her own body, much like Suzy, having been groomed to become the witches' latest victim, defeats the coven by killing its leader, Helena Markos. As much as Wan's movie succeeds in paying homage to Argento's classic up until that point, it's this emotionally satisfying payoff that really allows Malignant to stick the landing and stand alone as a worthy work of horror cinema on its own merits.
To see how Wan's movie borrows from Argento's Suspiria, Malignant is now playing in theaters and streaming on HBO Max.