'Malignant' movie

Is A Mediocre Mess

Overused tropes, uninteresting script create horror film that waffles between intense and campy

MIA NGUYEN Mercury Staff

While there are well-written horror movies and comical horror movies, “Malignant” was a mediocre mash of overused tropes combined with a laughable script.

After suffering a spousal beating, Madison Mitchell (Annabelle Wallis) struggles with visions that incapacitate her, forcing her to witness gruesome murders committed by a dark force that is aching to burst free. As the murders pile up, Madison goes from a witness to a suspect, leaving viewers wondering if the crimes are the work of a supernatural being or the protagonist herself.

James Wan, director of the “Saw” and “The Conjuring” series, has had a long history of creating horrific stories, but “Malignant” was more comical than anything. Rather than focusing on advancing the plot, the film seemed more focused on shock value from disturbing special effects. The movie was not frightening, and I wish Wan had incorporated more jump scares and psychological horror rather than rely on cliche plot twists.

Upon watching the trailer, I had high hopes, especially since Wallis has had roles in notable works such as “Peaky Blinders” and “The Mummy.” But the script failed to thoroughly dive into her character’s potential. Madison is first introduced as a woman struggling with a history of miscarriages and an abusive husband, and Wallis’ wide eyes and animated expressions conveyed a sense of mania wonderfully. Unfortunately, cheesy dialogue and underdeveloped storylines caused Madi- son to feel less like the heroine and more like a minor character. The only distinctions between her character and the rest of the ensemble were her penchant for cringeworthy lines and her rushed backstory.

Many horror movies fail to make female characters anything more than two-dimensional victims. Some films like “Scream” and “Ready or Not” give their female leads opportunities to showcase more than just fear. These female leads are fully realized figures that audiences are rooting for, while “Malignant’s” usage of bland characterization made me indifferent to Madison’s fate.

In contrast to Annabelle Wallis’s performance, the rest of the casts’ performance was far more entertaining. Madison’s younger sister, Sydney (Maddie Hasson), stole the show. While Madison struggles with her strange psychic connection to the killer and loss of her recent pregnancy, her sister devotes herself to caring for Madison. As the detectives remain suspicious of our heroine, Sydney embarks on a mission of discovering the truth of Madison’s unknown past. Complete with doe eyes and a sense of justice, Sydney is the true hero.

Wan knows how to use overused horror cliches to his advantage, causing them to be a focal point of his films. The determined and seasoned detective (George Young), splatter gore and ominous phone calls have been utilized in films before, and Wan combines these factors with dark

In essence, video games are just moving pixels on a screen given meaning by game developers. And while SNKRX is basically just a modified Snake game, it’s one of the most entertaining collections of polygons in recent memory. There are two ways to describe SNKRX’s premise. The simple way is that you build up a “snake” of squares that generate polygons to get rid of other polygons on the screen. Your goal is to build the snake properly so that it doesn’t disappear by getting hit by the other polygons.

The fun way, the engrossing way, the way that the game pulls you in, is that you are building a party of fantasy heroes to fight through 25 arenas against perilous foes. The heroes will automatically attack any enemies in range of their spells, and between arenas you gain access to a shop to buy more heroes. Like Teamfight Tactics, buying duplicate heroes will make them stronger, and different classes of heroes have synergies that provide partywide buffs. Get three mages together and the enemies’ defense will be lowered automatically. Get three warriors together and all the warriors will gain defense. The game becomes a Snake variation of an auto-battler, getting the player to reroll the shop to try and build the best polygonkilling snake of heroes they can.

That’s not to say that the game doesn’t play up the “RPG Battle” fantasy as much as it can with said polygons. Each hero on the snake has its life bar shown when you take damage, and when a hero dies, the game will slow time and the music to force the player to acknowledge their loss. The sound effects are on point for all the spells, with “knives” having a metallic clang when they hit the wall and lightning bolts, well, just looking and sounding like lightning bolts. Different spells of different classes are color-coded so that you can tell them apart in the wild mix of colored circles and squares on the screen of a lategame run. Just by listening, you can tell when your wizard has fired off their spell or when your warrior has swung their sword.

And speaking of sounds, the game has a wonderful soundtrack to punctuate the Snake battling action. The songs increase in tempo and excitement as the game progresses, with late-game runs fueled in part by the banging soundtrack. You can even purchase the soundtrack separately on Kubbi’s Bandcamp, and even if you don’t play the game for that long, I highly recommend the soundtrack.

Once you beat the game, you gain access to the new game plus looping options, which increases both the difficulty and the max party size, letting you play with more synergies but also increasing the navigation difficulty. The bigger the snake becomes, the easier it is to get hit by stray enemies, forcing you to strategize where to put all of the heroes on your snake which increases the depth of the game even more.

I’ve already spent over five hours on this game, and for only $2.99, SNKRX will provide a fun and hectic explosion-filled experience. If you need to scratch that auto-battler itch, want to play along to a great soundtrack or just need a fun excuse to waste 30 minutes, SNKRX is the modern Snake game for you.

I give SNKRX a 4.5/5.

Music, mythology and Madonna

Local artist Armando Sebastian discusses his eclectic sources of inspiration

BLAKE BATHMAN Mercury Staff

Touting an impressive three solo exhibitions this year alone, Dallas-based visual artist Armando Sebastian is dominating the DFW art scene. Sebastian’s work captures a dense collection of inspiration, from Mexican folk art to Madonna, in unique and engaging portraits. “Serenade,” Sebastian’s current exhibition at Cluley Projects, features the artist experimenting with the connections between music and his work.

I had the opportunity to speak with Sebastian about “Serenade” and the many sources of inspiration for his work. Focusing on his career, this interview peeks into Sebastian’s curiosity and idiosyncratic character.

(Interview edited for clarity)

BB: Your exhibition at Cluley Projects, “Serenade,” opened about two weeks ago. The opening reception went great; there were a lot of people there really enjoying your art. How do you feel about it?

AS: I mean, it feels – it's, it's every word, you know? When I'm at my openings I’m like a spectator too. I kind of detach from my work and just let the paintings be the star. I like when people actually can connect to my work. So, it feels good. You know, it's a reward for the long hours that it takes to paint.

BB: You can really see those long hours in your work, especially with those new oil paintings that you made for “Serenade,” like the one with the woman by the water. The title is “Moonlight,” I believe?

AS: Yeah, it's called “Moonlight” or in Spanish it’s “Rumbos de Luna.” Sometimes I title my paintings in both languages, but it's not necessarily a translation. It has the same meaning, but they’re different phrases. So Rumbos de Luna means like, the path that the moonlight is showing you or following the moon, but it'll sound weird in English. So that's a way for me to try to engage the viewer with my work.

BB: And there's so much to engage with. I also notice a romantic theme across your works in “Serenade.” Where did the romantic impulse come from and what were you inspired by when you started considering the idea of “Serenade”?

AS: My first thought about “Serenade” was, why not make a show that is going to be inspired by songs I have always liked? Music to me is like water. I'm not a musician, I don't play any instruments, but I feel like I can connect to music. Music has always been part of my work. But more than that, I wanted the pieces to be like a piece of music for the people. To me, all those paintings in “Serenade,” including “Rumbos de Luna/Moonlight,” they were serenading to the spectators. Does that make sense? I could be literal and paint a Charro underneath a window serenading someone, but that's not the way I do it.

BB: Your paintings are like, in the way that songs are, self-contained and melodic poems. You get the impression from the painting, and you walk away with something meaningful. Which reminds me of the work of Frida Kahlo, which your work references especially with its ex-voto iconography.

AS: I feel very flattered when my work is compared to hers, but I feel like the people see that connection because we were inspired by the same things. I love Catholic imagery, which she did, and I grew up in a very traditional Mexican family. We are both Cancers. I grew up looking at Diego Rivera’s art, and other Mexican artists, which she did too.

So, I feel like I grabbed the same ingredients, but I'm making a different recipe. Sometimes, I don't mind being obvious