Malignant Rotten Tomatoes Score Is Out

The Rotten Tomatoes score for James Wan's new film Malignant is out, and while it's no Shang-Chi, it's certainly...nice. With 29 reviews at the time of this writing, Malignant currently enjoys a 69% "fresh" rating on the review aggregator. There are not yet any customer reviews posted. This may be a case where the score doesn't tell the whole stories, because anecdotally, there seem to be a lot of very strong reviews among those who liked the movie, suggesting that the "pretty good" suggested by a 69% might be more like "great, but not for everyone."

While this is the score the film has debuted with, there is still some opportunity for it to swing significantly up or down. The relatively few reviews is a result of Warner Bros. holding the movie back from reviewers. This is often a symptom of a studio that lacks confidence in the movie, but given Wan's track record and the fairly solid initial score, it seems more likely that this was done in order to prevent spoilers from getting out ahead of the film's release.

ComicBook's Nicole Drum called Malignant "fresh, original horror with a few fumbles" in her 3.5-star review.

The film tells the story of a woman who starts having visions of grisly murders as they happen, quickly discovering that the killer is a dangerous entity from her past. You can watch the full trailer in the video at the top of the page.

Like every other Warner Bros. movie that has been released this year, Malignant won't have an exclusive theatrical release. The film will debut on HBO Max the same day it hits theaters (September 10th), where it will be available to stream with a subscription for 30 days. This doesn't apply to the $9.99, ad-supported HBO Max plan, however. You must have the full $14.99 plan in order to access the new Warner Bros. offerings as they make their debuts. 

Malignant stars Annabelle Wallis (The Mummy), Maddie Hasson (Mr. Mercedes), George Young (Containment), Michole Briana White (Dead to Me), Jacqueline McKenzie (Palm Beach), Jake Abel (Supernatural), and Ingrid Bisu (The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It).

Wan directed Malignant from a screenplay written by Akela Cooper (M3GAN). The story comes from Wan, Cooper, and Bisu. Wan produced alongside Michael Clear, with Eric McLeod, Judson Scott, Bisu, Peter Luo, Cheng Yang, Mandy Yu, and Lei Han serving as executive producers.

You can take a look at Malignant's official synopsis below.

"In the film, Madison is paralyzed by shocking visions of grisly murders, and her torment worsens as she discovers that these waking dreams are in fact terrifying realities."