Malignant | 2021 | R | – 2.9.6

Why is “Malignant” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “strong horror violence and gruesome images, and for language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes many gruesome murders by bludgeoning, stabbing, breaking necks and arms, a shootout in a police station leaving many dead and bloody bodies, scenes of operations and excising tissue and organs, and over 15 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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After a home invasion leads to the murder of her husband, a woman (Annabelle Wallis) is haunted by visions of other brutal murders and finding the answers to what is causing the hallucinations reveals a bloody web of deception. Also with Maddie Hasson, George Young, Michole Briana White, Jean Louisa Kelly, Susanna Thompson, Jake Abel, Jacqueline McKenzie. Directed by James Wan. [Running Time: 1:51]

Malignant SEX/NUDITY 2

 – We hear that a 15-year-old girl was raped and became pregnant and that the child’s mother told her that it was a transgression against God, and that the child died in childbirth.
► A man and woman flirt in a few scenes. A woman teases a man saying, “That cute little actress throws you a bone and you chase it like a dog.”
► A shirtless man is seen in a mirror and then seated in a bathtub (his bare chest and partial abdomen are shown). A woman wears low-cut tops that reveal cleavage in a few scenes. Two men in an MMA match are shown with bare chests, abdomens, backs and legs to the upper thighs. A woman in a jail cell with other people urinates and we see her adjust her skirt when she stands up; her bare legs to the upper thighs are seen.

Malignant VIOLENCE/GORE 9

 – A shadowy being has long straggly hair that hangs over its malformed face and we see a partial glowing green eye and exposed teeth; it speaks with a gravely, growling voice.
► Alarms blare in a hospital and we hear that someone has gotten loose; personnel go toward a room where we hear sounds of people being killed, a man is thrown through the door and slams into a wall, a man opens the door and his arm is broken (we see a bloody bone sticking out through his arm), and a woman shoots into the room with a tranquilizer dart and we see several dead bodies inside the room as the perpetrator is strapped into a chair behind a plastic sheet (we see a form writhing and hear screeching). A woman gets a strange phone call as another woman hears noises in her house, lights flicker and her head bleeds; the second woman sees the first woman, who asks her what she is doing in her house, and the second woman watches as the first woman is murdered by being bludgeoned to death with a heavy object (blood and matter spray on a cabinet). A man sees a window in his apartment open and follows watery footprints into a dark closet; he closes the window and climbs into bed, a woman wakes up in bed and sees the man sleeping as a shadowy being crawls across her and attacks the man stabbing him repeatedly as the woman watches and screams (we see him later covered with blood and his face is partially missing exposing skull and teeth); we see the bloody remains later when police detectives arrive. An armed man searches an apartment and finds a dead man covered with blood in a bathtub, the man is attacked by a shadowy being that slashes him on the face with a dagger and the man shoots as the being runs out of the room, crashes through a window and drops down many levels of a fire escape, the man chases the being and falls from the fire escape onto a dumpster and bounces to the ground, continues chasing into dark tunnels, and an abandoned carriage rolls toward the man and he dodges out of the way as the being drops from the top of a carriage and climbs a wall to get away. A shadowy figure attacks many police officers in a station killing many of them; we see arms breaking with blood and bones exposed, a woman is slashed across the abdomen, many people are stabbed and slashed with blood spurting, and officers shoot at the killer without effect, and the killer throws a chair across the room to strike two officers that fall to the floor.
► Women in a jail cell mock another woman, they shove her, hit her two women stomp on her while she is on the floor (blood pours from her mouth); she gets up and she parts the hair on the back of her head to reveal a brainy-textured face and bloody tissue; the woman then attacks all the other people in the cell and kills them all by punching through one person’s chest, snapping the arms of a person, crushing heads, pushing a woman’s eyes with her thumbs and slamming a guard against the cell bars. A man wakes up to sounds in his kitchen and finds the blender running and unattended, the fridge door opens by itself, the TV in the another room switches on and changes channels and he sees someone sitting on the sofa; no one is there when he switches on the light and someone drops from the ceiling and attacks him slamming his head into a wall and we hear a loud crack; we see the man’s dead body with his head twisted around unnaturally and neck bones pressing through the flesh. A woman in underground tunnels disconnects lights after a tour and hears noises and clanging inside the dark tunnels; she walks toward the sounds, runs back to the power cables to turn the lights back on when she hears footsteps running toward her, she looks up and sees something falling toward her from the rafters and she awakens lashed to a ceiling and gagged. A woman tied to a ceiling and gagged tries to get loose and a dagger is thrown toward her from across the room; it sticks to a plank of wood next to her face. A woman tied to a ceiling and gagged cuts the ropes around her hands and drops to the floor of the attic breaking through and crashing to the floor of the room below (we see her bloody face). A man moans and says that his pacemaker is burning before his chest explodes and we see a patch of blood on his shirt. A man shoots a woman and a woman throws a dagger hitting him in the shoulder, another woman is trapped under a hospital bed that has been overturned on top of her, and she is shot in the head (blood splatters on the wall), and holds a hand over a woman’s mouth in a hospital bed smothering her. A woman’s skull closes in the back with squishing sounds and blood.
► Several scenes show surgical procedures with instruments cutting tissue, removing organs and other flesh, and blood oozes from incisions; we read medical records that indicate something abnormal and a reference to someone being able to manipulate electricity. A woman wakes up in several scenes, moans and holds the back of her head and we see blood on the pillow where she had been sleeping. An unconscious woman with stitches in her face is shown in a hospital and a nurse tells a man that she is “In God’s hands.” A husband and his wife argue bitterly, he grabs her and shoves her hard against a wall causing damage to the wall and we see her head bleeding (she moans). A partially formed, malformed being is shown in a few scenes with humanoid features and in a couple of scenes we see the being attached to the back of a person’s head and body.
► A young girl takes a kitchen knife and stands over a birthday cake that transforms into a woman sleeping in bed and when she wakes up and calls the child’s name the girl screams; another woman remembering the incident screams and thrashes in a chair. A woman at home alone sees streetlights flicker and turn off, her house lights flicker, she runs through the house checking windows and doors and finds one door standing open, she closes it and it opens again, she locks herself in a room and repeats, “It’s all in my head.” A shadowy form lunges toward a woman as she tries to get out of her house, she runs through the house and is thrown back onto the floor when she tries to hold a door closed and we see her unconscious. A woman drives to an eerie, dark, abandoned research hospital and searches through files in a dark basement room; she hears noises and leaves. A man watches an MMA match and we see one man thrown to the mat.
► A woman is shown in a hospital bed recovering from a beating and head injury and she yells and moans when she is told that she lost her unborn child. A woman is locked in a jail cell with others and she yells, “I’m not supposed to be here.” We hear that a 15-year-old girl was raped and became pregnant and that the child’s mother told her that it was a transgression against God. A woman in a police interrogation room yells at two detectives and the lights blow out. A husband tells his wife that she needs to stop getting pregnant and that he is tired of watching his babies die inside her (we understand that she has miscarried previously). People accuse a young girl and a woman of lying in several scenes. A woman talks about a patient in a hospital getting stronger and she seems concerned. A husband apologizes to his wife for shoving her and says that he will try harder. A woman tells another woman that she was adopted and that they are not biological sisters. A woman conducts an underground tour and talks about the great fire of 1889 in Seattle. A garbled voice says on a telephone, “I’ll make them pay one by one.” A woman describes having no friends when she was young. A young girl talks on a play telephone and says, “Please don’t hurt the baby.” Graffiti in an abandoned research hospital reads, “Welcome to Hell.” A young girl says, “He told me to kill Billy,” and “He tells me to hurt people,” and, “He’s the Devil.”
► A woman vomits into a toilet and we hear retching and splatters (we do not see goo). A woman urinates in a toilet in a jail cell (we hear the trickle). A pregnant woman moans and holds her back.
► An eerie building looms over rough waters below craggy rocks and we see it in a few dark and foggy scenes. We see an artist rendering of a shadowy being with long scraggly hair and malformed facial features. A woman installs extra locks on her doors.

Malignant LANGUAGE 6

 – About 16 F-words and its derivatives, 9 scatological terms, 2 anatomical terms, 6 mild obscenities, name-calling (malicious, tough old bird, cute little actress, freak, bogeyman, sick in the head, dumb, the Devil, Pollyanna, aggressive, abomination, monster), exclamations (yeesh), 6 religious profanities (GD), 22 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh my God, In God’s hands, I swear to God, Jesus, Oh God, The Devil, Holy [scatological term deleted]). | profanity glossary |

Malignant SUBSTANCE USE

 – A husband apologizes to his wife for shoving her and says that he will try harder and that he has stopped drinking.

Malignant DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Rape, teen pregnancy, religious fanaticism, miscarriages, spousal abuse, repressed memories, imaginary friends, mental illness, adoption, family, having a biological connection to someone.

Malignant MESSAGE

 – Having a biological connection to someone isn’t always a good thing.