‘Malum’ (2023)
A successor of sorts to Anthony DiBlasi’s ‘Last Shift’ (2014), ‘Malum’ is a horror thriller that follows a rookie police officer, Jessica, tasked with the last shift at a defunct police station. What follows is a journey of discovery as the young officer tries to uncover what had happened to her father following a fatal cult take-down.
The film opens on Jessica as she is shown the ropes in managing the old police station for a final shift. Tasked with redirecting calls to the new station and making sure things stay quiet, Jessica starts to experience surreal visions and horrifying encounters. In dealing with a tramp, the officer is locked in the holding cell with the homeless man and is assaulted by and unseen force.
Soon a couple of officers arrive to assist her, but disappear without having helped. After encountering a streetwalker, Jessica embraces the fact she may not be alone, with the station harbouring an evil presence. Taking calls in relation to the cult from which her father, also a police officer, had rescued three girls, Jessica begins to break down, calling on her commanding officer to ask for help. Receiving reassurance and advice to field the calls to find the girls held hostage, Jessica remains at the station.
Uncovering a memory stick containing the cult leader’s police interview with her father, Jessica sees the interview inter-spliced with fragments of the past, showing her mother, Diane, to have formed part of the cult. Diane soon arrives at the station and confirms she had escaped the cult. Calling again for assistance, Jessica realises she is being steered by the cult and had been talking to one of their members over the phone when calling for assistance from the new station. Wandering the station to find Diane, Jessica encounters further cultists, witnesses the execution of the kidnapped girls and encounters the cult leader.
Driven to a breakdown, Jessica is encircled by the cult and faces the demonic presence, the Low God, worshipped by the cult. Armed with a shotgun, Jessica tries to escape and shoot down the entity only to eventually shoot her own mother. Utterly devastated, Jessica takes her own life and is dragged off by the cult and placed in a throne as queen alongside the cult leader.
Fiercely intense, ‘Malum’ delivers a protracted narrative of paranoia, leading the main character through progressively intense and extreme visions of suffering and horror. Underscored by a through-line dealing with cults, the film forgoes elaborating on the minutiae of the lore for the cult, the background in its formation or needless details on the hierarchy or purpose of their cause. Rather refreshingly, ‘Malum’ focuses solely on the cruelty of the cults actions, delivering a horrific illustration of the level of insanity the members have been driven to and the consequences their actions have had on the people around them.
‘Malum’ is greatly impacted by the sound design utilized to represent the major shifts in Jessica’s journey, cleverly leading the audience and surprising us without only resorting the the use of overtly jarring loud noses and jump-scares. Through masterful composition and overwhelming auditory cues, ‘Malum’ sustains an increasingly intense air of suspense, ultimately descending into absolute madness, dragging the viewer down to hell alongside Jessica.
Jessica Sula portrays her namesake in the film, delivering an impactful performance in a complete breakdown, conveying the degradation of her character and utter destruction of her as an individual as the character endures for so long the torment of the cultists.
As a spiritual successor or reboot, ‘Malum’ redelivers Anthony DiBlasi’s ‘Last Shift’ with a refined focus on the main character and her motivations. Re-delivering the horror story with an added emphasis on Jessica’s sanity, namely the likelihood it is all a figment of her imagination, ‘Malum’ additionally incorporates a greater use of sound to underscore that shift, delivering a new, more terrifying experience.
Score: 4/4
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