Oct
06
2018
0

31 Days of Horror 2018: Day 6- Malevolent

Day 6 on our sojourn through spooky flicks, and today’s offering is the 2018 chiller Malevolent. Jackson (Ben Lloyd-Hughes) and Angela (Florence Pugh) are a brother and sister team who, along with friends Elliot (Scott Chambers) and Beth (Georgina Bevan), run paranormal scams on people who believe their homes to be haunted. They are hired to investigate a haunted old foster home by the woman who lives there (Celia Imrie), where three girls are said to have been brutally murdered by a serial killer. The group move their equipment in, set to stage their scam with spooky noises and Angela’s “visions”, but it quickly becomes apparent that this haunting is all too real, and the group have their very lives at stake. 8/10 stars

The made for Netflix film, directed by Olaf de Fleur Johannesson (Brave Men’s Blood), does a nice job at establishing a creepy atmosphere and providing a couple of satisfying though predictable twists. The cast is very good in their roles, with Lloyd- Hughes (Insurgent) making for a smooth con man and Pugh (The Commuter) is convincing as the sister with psychic abilities. Imrie (A Cure for Wellness) has a nice creepy vibe to go with the haunted proceedings. The gory make-up effects are nicely done, and the characters are fairly well defined. All told, this is one of the better horror films to check out this year. Now showing on Netflix.