Is Malignant Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Yes, 5 out of 10. It's a murder mystery with some loud noises and a very strange explanation.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
5 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Low
The dread fades once the movie explains itself.
DOG
Dog: fine
no dog in it.
Ruling: Watch it with the lights on and a friend who likes to guess along.
Malignant runs 111 minutes and begins in a research hospital where something goes wrong with a patient named Gabriel. Twenty-seven years later, a woman in Seattle starts having visions of murders.
The premise, briefly
A woman named Madison starts having waking visions of brutal murders, and then she learns the murders are actually happening and have something to do with her past.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Gabriel is Madison's parasitic twin, sealed inside her skull, and he takes over her body to kill. Madison regains control, locks him away in her mind, and tells him she will be ready when he tries to escape. She and her sister Sydney both survive.
The scene you're dreading
The police station, near the end: Gabriel takes over Madison's body in the holding cell, kills the other inmates and most of the officers, then heads for the hospital.
The dog
There is no dog in Malignant, so no dog dies.
It is a gory mystery with loud jumps, and the ending is a happy one by this movie's standards.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
Dr. Weaver and the cancer that talks through speakers
The movie opens in 1993 at Simion Research Hospital, where Dr. Florence Weaver and her colleagues Victor Fields and John Gregory are treating a violent, disturbed patient named Gabriel. Gabriel can control electricity and can broadcast his thoughts through speakers. He gets loose and kills a number of the staff. Weaver decides he cannot be helped and says that the cancer has to be cut out. That is all the explanation the movie gives for now. The next scene is set 27 years later, in Seattle, and it concerns a woman with a husband problem.
Madison Mitchell comes home to Seattle, and she and her abusive husband Derek fight about her miscarriages. Derek slams her head into a wall and she bleeds. Madison locks herself in her room and dreams that someone enters the house and kills Derek. She wakes to find his body, and an intruder knocks her out. In the hospital, her sister Sydney gives her the news that she lost the baby. Detectives Kekoa Shaw and Regina Moss interview her and let her go. Madison tells Sydney that she was adopted at eight by Sydney's mother and remembers nothing earlier. The killer abducts a woman who runs a Seattle Underground tour, Madison's wound keeps bleeding, and she sees Weaver being bludgeoned.
Madison's imaginary friend is calling
Shaw and Moss find a photo of a young Madison in Weaver's house and learn that Weaver was a reconstructive surgeon. After Madison sees Fields being killed, she and Sydney go to the police. The killer phones Madison and says he is Gabriel. Their mother tells the sisters that Gabriel was Madison's imaginary friend, and possibly a person from her life before the adoption. In Weaver's records, Shaw finds something tying the doctors to Madison, and that leads him to Gregory's body. A hypnotherapist helps Madison recall that she was born Emily May and that Gabriel once almost got her to kill Sydney, who was still unborn. The kidnapped woman escapes from the attic of Madison's house, which shows Gabriel had been living there. The police arrest Madison, and the woman, who is Madison's biological mother Serena, goes to a hospital.
The cancer was a brother the whole time
Sydney goes to the abandoned hospital and finds out that Gabriel is Madison's parasitic twin. He was a half-formed child growing out of Madison's back. Weaver removed most of him but destroying his brain would have killed Madison, so she sealed it inside Madison's skull, where it stayed dormant until Derek hit her. In the holding cell, other inmates attack Madison and Gabriel takes over. This is the scene to brace for, near the end. He kills the inmates along with most of the officers at the precinct, then heads to the hospital where Serena is recovering. Sydney and Shaw try to stop him, but he pins them down. Gabriel is about to kill Sydney for taking his place in Madison's life when Madison wakes up and takes control of her body back.
The ending, explained
Inside her own mind, Madison locks an enraged Gabriel behind bars. He promises to escape one day, and she tells him she will be ready. Gabriel then sinks back into her head. Back at the hospital, Madison lifts the bed that was pinning Sydney and says that although they share no blood, she will always love Sydney as a sister. Serena watches, relieved. Madison, Sydney and Serena are all alive at the end. The faint electric hum that came with Gabriel's attacks can still be heard.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether there's a scene after the credits.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: no dog in it.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Malignant scary?
Malignant is a 5 out of 10 with low dread. It has loud noises and jump scares, a lot of gory killing, and a strange mystery once it explains itself.
How does Malignant end?
Madison takes control of her body back from Gabriel, locks him away in her mind, and says she will be ready when he tries to escape. Madison and Sydney both survive.
Does the dog die in Malignant?
There is no dog in Malignant, so no dog dies.
Is there a post-credits scene in Malignant?
Nobody has confirmed whether Malignant has a scene after the credits.
Who is Gabriel in Malignant?
Gabriel is Madison's parasitic twin brother. Most of his body was removed, but his brain was sealed inside her skull, and he can take control of her body to commit murders.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of Malignant is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
You can skip the 111 minutes of Malignant and still know about Gabriel. Install Scaredy Cat and it will blur horror before you see it.
