Malum

There was something very, very familiar about the storyline in "Malum", as if I had actually seen it before somewhere. Perhaps I am mistaken, but I sat with an overwhelming sense of 'I have seen this already' throughout the course of the 92 minutes that this 2023 movie played for. And then I found out that director Anthony DiBlasi's 2023 movie was just a remake of his own movie "Last Shift" from 2014. How lame was that?

So if you have seen the 2014 movie "Last Shift", do yourself a favor and skip on this 2023 movie. Talk about a lazy approach to directing.

The acting performances in the 2023 were fair enough, however I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie. But they performed well enough.

Now, if you haven't watched the 2014 movie "Last Shift" already, then I guess you will find some entertainment in this 2023 remake. But if you have watched the 2014 movie, there is very little to be thrilled about in the 2023 unnecessary remake.

I wasn't overly thrilled with the 2014 movie, and even less so with the 2023, especially given the lazy approach of just re-shooting the movie almost scene by scene. That really is milking the cow and beating a dead horse. Yet, I managed to sit through the entire 92 minutes here.

I am going to rate the 2023 movie "Malum" a mere three out of ten stars, solely because this had all been done and seen before, and from the very same director nonetheless.

Wow, I don't even know where to begin... it's not the worst thing ever made, but it's definitely not anywhere near as good as last shift. I'm a way, it feels like it's all around a worse film. I'm not really sure what the aim was in all of this?

There was moments that weren't terrible, but I can't think of anything that I enjoyed better than I did Last Shift?! It was just silly and dull til the end where it almost became haunted house level bad looking and tried way too hard to be "weird".

I'd highly recommend that you see Last Shift instead and don't really invest too much time or care into this one. I was rather excited for it, but in the end, I'm just underwhelmed.

As a casual viewer of horror movies, it's quite concerning to see directors resorting to rehashing their own movies, especially when they were mediocre to begin with. Malum, a remake of Last Shift, is just another example of egotistical directors trying to salvage their past failures with bigger budgets. Last Shift had some potential. It's disappointing to see a director not learn from their mistakes and try to make up for it by throwing more money at the problem. The only thing that seems to have improved in Malum is the soundtrack and production value, but that doesn't make up for the lackluster storyline and characters. To be honest, Malum is just another generic horror movie with no real substance or creativity. The constant terror and violence get old quickly, and it's hard to invest in characters that are one-dimensional and uninteresting. It's a shame that there are no fresh ideas or surprises in this movie, and it's certainly not worth the time or money to watch.

When LAST SHIFT (2014) came out, it was the first film I'd seen in a few years that unnerved me. It was creepy & gritty. It felt like they did a lot with a small amount of money. When I found out that MALUM was a "re-imagining" of LAST SHIFT with the daughter being race-swapped, I had concerns.

Right from the jump, the acting in this movie is awful. It had some positive things going for it because its the same filmmaker. Its shot pretty decently and there's some good special effects. It just doesn't have that grittiness like LAST SHIFT. It's by no means high polish, but its more polished than its predecessor. It felt like a tv movie that was done to push a more diverse main character. Very unnecessary film.

I want to preface this review with the fact that I had a good time with this movie. It was fun, scary and successful as a stand alone. Being a fan of its predecessor, Last Shift, inevitable parallels and comparisons will be made. While both had their own pros and cons, I think at the end of the day I personally liked Last Shift better. Two of my main criticisms with Last Shift was the backstory/elaboration on plot and the budget.

Right out the gate Malum does a great job at giving a little bit more background on the characters and their story, making it feel like a more well-rounded throughline with a cohesive and concise point. However, as quickly as it took up for the slack in the story, it added another element specifically regarding the main girl and her involvement that almost negated its prior clarity and was left open ended and me scratching my head. Now, with all that said, at its foundation this is still an entertaining, intriguing story regardless and they did a good job at really sticking to its original core.

As far as the budget goes, the picture quality was great in this and vastly improved from Last Shift. I think that ended up being a positive and a negative aspect because while Malum was "aesthetically superior", something about the grittiness of last shift with the picture quality and special effects almost made it a little bit more real, down to earth and therefore creepier. Something about Malum just wasn't quite as spooky as I wanted it to be and it definitely relied on jump scares. There were for sure some cool moments involving the breaking of appendages and gnarly movie make up, but even then, star-faced Hellraiser guy looked pretty silly... so it's a tossup.

As far as everything else goes, I thought it was generally successful. The scenery, props, lighting, makeup and effects were all very cool. The acting was decent across the board, if not a little mediocre. The main girl did a fine job, but was particularly successful in scenes of high intensity emotion. There was one stand out performance from a woman playing a prostitute that is to be of note.

I was really excited about this reimagining, and while it didn't hit exactly what I wanted it to be, it was still successful in its own right. I hope it gets the attention it deserves along with the director and Last Shift. Would recommend.