The latest effort from horror filmmaker Anthony DiBlasi, Malum is in effect a reworking of his very own Last Shift from 2014, but “why the remake?” you may ask. Well, first and foremost, it offers the opportunity to up the ante in every department.
The story is about the fallout after the apprehension of a Manson-like cult led by the titular John Malum, who have terrorised the local area until hero cop Will Loren saves the day. Loren is plagued by the guilt of not saving all the victims however, and in a truly shocking opening sequence we jump ahead to a year later. Will’s daughter Jessica follows in her father’s footsteps, taking the night shift at the now closed police station where he previously worked.
The opening 10 minutes establish the scene, and the remainder of the film takes place over one harrowing night. As soon as Jessica enters the station, DiBlasi creates an effective, unsettling tone, through a mix of eclectic characters, tension-filled direction and a haunting score, and as the night carries on things become stranger and stranger. First, a greatly stressed homeless man bangs on the door of the station, seemingly upset about being unable to save someone, after which a pig turns up at the door with an occult symbol painted on its back in what appears to be blood. All the while Jessica handles prank calls from an increasingly disturbing woman, and receives only the vaguest support from the cops based at the other station.
By the time Jessica begins to look into the events involving her father, things have started to get really weird …
Going into Malum, I anticipated another fairly routine low-budget effort from Welcome Villain Films, but DiBlasi has crafted some genuinely effective nightmare fuel here.
Going into Malum, I anticipated another fairly routine low-budget effort from Welcome Villain Films, but DiBlasi has crafted some genuinely effective nightmare fuel here. After the opening act, much of the film uses a sense of dream logic where all rules are disregarded, and the focus shifts to creating as many unsettling sequences that can be crammed into its relatively short runtime. What you’ll find here isn’t revolutionary, and there does tend to be an over-reliance on jump scares at times, but there’s rarely a sequence that fails to deliver on its intention to either creep you out or, failing that, disgust you. When it comes to horror in the vein of Malum, that’s precisely the position we should be left in.
Make no mistake, Malum can be pretty violent at times, but it’s not the cheap, empty gore that your average shocker relies upon. The effects work is very impressive for a film of this size, and it’s the manner in which the horrific imagery is worked into the creepy atmosphere that stands out.
As her namesake, Jessica Sula does a solid job in the lead role – even though the dialogue in the script is a little basic (when it’s not plain rubbish). Sula does her best to handle that aspect to her performance and, thankfully, the makeup of the film leaves dialogue feeling rather secondary anyway. Where she really comes into her own is around the 30-minute mark, when the true terror begins to rain down, and as the film draws towards its manic conclusion, the nightmare goes into overdrive – and with it goes any strong sense of plot. Jessica faces the demons of her past and present in a bloody, brutal finale that leaves her looking like Carrie crossed with Ash from Evil Dead.
Overall, the success of Malum will boil down to your own expectations. If you’re hoping to find anything new here then you’ll be left disappointed, but if you’re simply on the hunt for a small indie horror that can supply those short, sharp shocks and grizzly gore aplenty, then put Malum high on your watchlist.
Malum is out now on Screenbound Pictures Blu-Ray
Joe’s Archive – Malum
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