Movie Review: MALUM

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: March 31st, 2023 / 03:26 AM

MALUM movie poster | ©2023 Welcome Villain Films

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Jessica Sula, Candice Coke, Chaney Morrow, Eric Olson, Britt George, Natalie Victoria
Writers: Anthony DiBlasi & Scott Poiley
Director: Anthony DiBlasi
Distributor: Welcome Villain Films
Release Date: March 31, 2023

MALUM is a remake of 2014’s LAST SHIFT. Both films were directed by Anthony DiBlasi, and written by DiBlasi & the late Scott Poiley.

In MALUM, as in LAST SHIFT, a young woman rookie police officer takes on the final watch at a decommissioned police station. The difference this time around is that our rookie, Jessica Loren (Jessica Sula), specifically wants this task.

At the start of MALUM, we see footage from the “Malum Flock Compound,” where young women murder each other and there’s a makeshift throne painted with an inverted pentacle.

Police Captain Will Loren (Eric Olson) is being hailed by his team, and the press, as a hero for rescuing three young women from the Malum cult. Loren dismisses the praise, unhappy that he wasn’t able to save a fourth victim. Then there is a multi-casualty tragedy. One year later, Jessica is determined to find out what happened at the old station.

The cops at the new station has their hands full, as followers of the late John Malum (Chaney Morrow) are wreaking havoc around the city. Consequently, there’s no immediate help available when Jessica starts getting menacing phone calls and then more tangible threats.

DiBlasi makes good use of the ominous empty space and has a sure grasp of horror imagery. He also comes up with a solid back story, revealed in well-timed installments. The mythology of “the low god” and “the Temple Baron” is evocative in a quasi-Lovecraftian way.

However, there are a few issues. For starters, the filmmakers have a problem that plagues a lot of films about cultists. A little sing-song taunting by true believers goes a long way, and then they become more annoying than scary.

Another matter is that so much of the action is hallucinogenic that we start not taking anything too seriously, as so much of it evaporates. Like Jessica, we have trouble separating visions from reality, but whereas we understand why this is being done to her, we wind up more confused than terrorized.

Then there’s Jessica herself. While Sula delivers a performance with conviction, Jessica is so easily unnerved (at least, for someone with a badge and a gun) and so unable to come up with short-term plans that suspense decreases rather than increases as the action proceeds.

MALUM is a horror film that delivers the goods in terms of both blood and lore. However, it winds up feeling more like a collection of linked set pieces than a propulsive narrative.

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