James Wan made his bones with original horror films like Insidious and the original Saw before kickstarting the based-on-real-facts Conjuring franchise and then expanding to tentpoles like Furious 7 and Aquaman. Now he’s back with an entirely original horror idea in Malignant, and by the early looks of things he hasn’t lost his touch in the horror genre.
Malignant, which comes from a story by Wan and Ingrid Bisu and a screenplay by Akela Cooper, sees a woman named Madison tormented by dreams of grisly murders, only to soon realize that her visions are actually happening in real life. A mysterious presence from her childhood, Gabriel, appears to be behind them as he works his way to Madison.
Wan directs Annabelle Wallis (The Mummy, Annabelle) and a supporting cast that includes Maddie Hasson, George Young, Jacqueline McKenzie, Jake Abel, McKenna Grace and Michole Briana White.
The trailer includes some cool effects of Maddison’s visions and teases some of the potential scares. Check it all out below.
Malignant is set to debut simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max on Sept. 10, as part of Warner Bros. strategy for its 2021 releases of day-and-date releases, with the movies appearing on the streaming service for no extra cost for the first 31 days of its theatrical release. The studio has already announced that this will not continue in 2022.
This strategy, along with the arrival of popular shows like Mare of Easttown and Hacks, have helped HBO Max get its footing in the streaming market alongside competitors like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus. It’s library of current and classic movies and TV shows from both HBO and Warner Bros., among others, offers thousands of popular titles.
HBO Max is available on Roku, YouTube TV, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Google TV and Android TV. HBO Max is priced at $14.99 for its ad-free, all-included subscription package, and $9.99 for its ad-supported package, which does limit some content (most notably the Warner Bros. same-day releases).
