Movie Review: Malevolent (2018)

Am I doomed to be underwhelmed by the offerings of horror this October season?????

Malevolent (2018) is a Netflix original. Angela and Jackson are brother and sister who have started a ghost busting business to con grieving families out of large sums of money. It’s clear Angela is unhappy with the arrangement but is easily influenced by her brother. It is also clear from the beginning that Angela’s “powers” aren’t all fake. A visit to her granddad explains their mother died after receiving ghostly visions and removing her own eyes. Obviously, Angela’s real fear is turning out like her mother. Her brother owes money to some dodgy individuals who give him a beating and it’s only for this reason she agrees to go and do this one job with him. It is at the site of a multiple murder of young girls, who were tortured and had their mouths sewn up. The mother of the child murderer wants the ghosts to shut up so hires them.

This movie had an interesting story but took too long to get there. It’s very hard to feel any sympathy towards Jackson’s character. Towards the end there’s some gory moments but I started to lose track of the story. It had potential but the story had to be told better, suspense was really lacking and they seemed to save everything up to the end but by that time I’d lost interest. It’s a shame as there were some solid actors that didn’t get a chance to show their potential (James Cosmo and Celia Imrie). There were lots of plot holes, Elliott (Angela’s love interest) was indestructible for example and the story was really under developed. I LIKE SOME DECENT BACKSTORY. There were lots of nose bleeds and I’d had enough of Rose McGowan’s nose bleeds in Paranormal: White Noise.

5/10. Potential but lost itself along the way.