Malignant dir. by James Wan, and: After Yang dir. by Kogonada (review)

Reviewed by: Malignant dir. by James Wan, and: After Yang dir. by Kogonada Ayla McCullough (bio) Rev. of Malignant, directed by JAMES WAN, featuring Annabelle Wallis, Maddie Hasson, and George Young, New Line Cinema, 2021 After Yang, directed by Kogonada, written by Alexander Weinstein, featuring Colin Ferrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja, A24, 2022. Following the US Supreme Court's June 2022 decision to repeal Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the African American Policy Forum issued a statement decrying the ongoing corrosion of American civil and reproductive liberties by the Right, focalizing the disproportionate and devastating consequences for marginalized individuals and communities across the nation. As black, women of color, and decolonial feminisms have long avowed, reproductive justice concerns are inextricable from slavery, eugenics, and forced sterilization, all of which have particularly tyrannized the reproductive capacities of non-white bodies. In a sociopolitical milieu where the slogan "my body, my choice" will acquire increasing notoriety under an antidemocratic leadership, this sentiment likewise reveals the possessive individualism denied to enslaved or colonized populations. In fact, Andrea Smith argues that moving beyond the pro-life versus pro-choice dichotomy is crucial for reproductive justice movements since "pro-life pits fetal rights against women's rights whereas pro-choice argues that women should have freedom to make choices rather than possess inherent rights to their bodies" (166). According to Smith, reproductive issues must be extrapolated to social justice efforts more broadly, including the dissolution of capitalism, which neither pro-life nor pro-choice positions account for thereby maintaining the gendered and racial inequalities that constitute reproductive politics. While overturning Roe v. Wade has and will continue to exert unspeakable material violence, the pandemonium might be an opportunity to reconsider Smith's claim; what would it mean for poor [End Page 117] women, women of color, Indigenous women, and women with disabilities to "possess inherent rights to their bodies" instead of recentering the tacit whiteness of reproductive rights discourse (161, 166)? Given the circumstances in which all "women" will differentially lose their bodily autonomy as states assume increasing control over reproduction—further exacerbating unequal access to medical and health services for trans and non-binary identified people—James Wan's recent horror film, Malignant, resonates newly. The film follows Madison, an adult adoptee, as she uncovers the mystery behind a series of sudden hallucinations in which people are brutally slain. Terrorized by these waking nightmares, she delves into her pre-adoptive history seeking answers. With the unwavering support of her adoptive family, Madison discovers that these attacks are being carried out by Gabriel, a malignant teratoma who has been dormant within her since childhood. Infuriated that he was (mostly) excised when Madison was a patient at the Simion Research Hospital, Gabriel exacts revenge on everyone responsible for his exclusion, including the doctors and their birthmother, who relinquished them after an unwanted pregnancy. Intent on usurping Madison's body and mind, Gabriel's power escalates until she vehemently reclaims her autonomy, repressing bad "biology" altogether. In Malignant's opening scene, the growth is introduced as Gabriel, a patient at the hospital; he is portrayed as a threatening entity, becoming "more malicious" to the point of being uncontainable (00:01:10–00:01:17). At the same time, the scene depicts his desire to return home after discovering his identity and origins. Shifting to the present day, the film shows a pregnant Madison entangled in an abusive marriage. When her husband suspects that she will have another miscarriage, he throws her against the wall, reawakening Gabriel as her head splits open. Malignant details Madison's gradual coming to terms with the monstrous protuberance that increasingly commandeers her body-mind. Her status as an adoptee is disclosed as she laments her inability to reproduce, which she learns is connected to Gabriel (he consumes the fetuses to gain strength). Meantime, Gabriel rehearses his own pain by pursuing and killing the team of medical specialists who authorized his removal. We learn he could not be fully extracted without endangering Madison, so the doctors suppressed what remained by suturing him inside her head. A composite of flesh, hair, and teeth with a...