Malum (2023)

Malum: Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should | 1/5 Stars

Written by Noah Dietz: 2/1/2025

I first watched Last Shift in 2016 and I won’t try to posture, it scared the shit out of me. It had lurked in the halls of the golden age of Netflix’s horror selection and, as somebody who was rather religious at the time, the pentagram carved face had put me on edge. Watching it alone with headphones in the dark made this hit home in ways I hadn’t expected: it was mean, dark, and mostly delivered on the premise at hand. When I decided to revisit it with my partner in 2024 I was slightly disappointed, but it still had a lot to appreciate. It was reasonably tight, had a solid premise, and was generally the kind of thing that makes indie horror worth looking at.

Malum is not that.

When I heard that Anthony DiBlasi had remade his film Last Shift, I was excited. The idea that we would get something fresh on the shoulders of an already decent concept was exciting. There’s only a few major issues I have with Last Shift, and unfortunately they are mostly all things this film decided to pull into the primary focus. The cult is brought in as a much heavier role than they had in the original, which I feel is a mistake. Originally they functioned much more as an overhanging, oppressive force. We know they exist, they seem to be operating within the film, but we don’t hand them any more reveals than we need to. Connecting them directly to our lead is a move that just makes the story feel even more tired than it already is. The sense of familiarity that a remake automatically brings should not be bolstered with the inclusion of clunky, well-trod tropes.

Another issue is the pacing. For only running five minutes longer than Last Shift, Malum is a horribly dragging movie. My memory of the original is that it was a reasonably tight, well-edited film. It had a story to tell and didn’t mess around with cumbersome plot points that divert from the atmosphere it was cultivating. We didn’t need the intro with the cult and Will, we didn’t need the familial connection, and we didn’t need the random addition of the buddy cop dynamic. Even the change from the original reason to keep the station open at all is just confusing. It’s incredibly disappointing to see a revisit from the original creator that almost unilaterally manages to diminish his previous work.

Something I can say is a lot of the FX work is great. The CG is minimal and almost the practical effects look really solid. The pillowcase-wearing cultists are wetter and bloodier than ever, and it adds a strong level of unease to most of the scenes in the station. When coupled with the animal style eye reflections in the final act, you do have a truly uncomfortable slew of horror antagonists and boogie men. Some of the effects occasionally look corny, but none of them look cheap.

Forgive my phone picture of a computer screen, I wasn’t able to find a clearer image than my own amateure hour snap of it.

I’m putting this at the end because it doesn’t really have much to do with the film itself, but I’m so deeply frustrated with the costuming decisions in this. A repeatedly featured character is shown wearing the kind of shirt you see at a renaissance faire, and there is a symbol on the chest the entire time. The symbol is a kolovrat, which is primarily associated in recent memory with sects of nazi Germany as well as currently active Russian nazi groups. Not only does that out them as using one of the cheapest "viking shirts" available on amazon, but it means they didn't care enough to look into what they had going on with the incredibly prominent symbol they allowed in their film. We can be better than this. Even if it wasn’t what the symbol meant here, why would you allow such a distracting symbol to be shown in every scene the mother is in? Those who know will find it incredibly distasteful, and those who don’t will wonder what connection to the film it could have, considering the heavy amount of satanic symbology used. At best, it’s ignorance and a full lack of consideration, and at worst it was intentional.

All in all, Malum is not worth your time. If you look up the story and find it to be compelling, I would advise you watch the superior original. Tragically this one is a pass for me, and has hurt my already tenuous feelings about the director.