"Malum" a bigger-budgeted redo that grows less effective

Malum (2023)

Usually, the best remakes are movies that left room for improvement. “Last Shift,” an occult/psychological horror indie from 2015, is not one of those movies, but its director, Anthony DiBlasi, has remade it anyway with more resources, more characters, and more blood as “Malum.” The edgy build-up remains, but DiBlasi (a protégé to Clive Barker) and “Last Shift” co-writer Scott Poiley spell out their original demonic lore and lean into more of an anything-goes dream logic. Less is almost always more, and this is one of those times.

In this reimagining, rookie police officer Jessica Loren (now played by Jessica Sula) requests her first shift to be at the decommissioned Lanford Police Station where her late father worked. It’s also the same place where, just a year ago, Daddy snapped, murdered co-workers, and took his own life after heroically saving three women from a Charles Manson-like farm cult. The creepy goings-on in this deserted precinct are all connected to dead cult leader John Malum (Chaney Morrow) and his female followers, the Flock of the Low God. The longer the night, the more Jessica learns about her family’s involvement with Malum.

What was genuinely scary nine years ago is still mostly effective up until a point in “Malum.” After a startling cold open with Jessica’s father Will Loren (Eric Olsen), there’s still a nightmarish uneasiness to watching Jessica try to get through her first shift all alone (or is she?). Again, the setup is still practically the same and methodically crafted to make certain beats land their scares (like the flashlight in the forbidden holding cell coming from a source other than the homeless man). Director Anthony DiBlasi and his team deliver some freaky imagery and slicker cinematography, and a sequence in a shooting range elicits the necessary chills. The practical effects from RussellFX (effects master Josh Russell) are also impressively icky and often very much from the “Hellraiser” family (Russell did supervise on the 2022 reboot). 

In what should be a thrilling ride the whole way through eventually devolves into an onslaught of “is-this-really-happening?” hallucination shocks and made-you-jump flash frames. Jessica Sula (2017’s “Split”) shoulders a lot of this by herself, reacting like a horror heroine with a badge, protection, and a little more smarts, as well as the vulnerability of her grief and living with the stigma of her murderer cop of a father. Other performances have a more go-for-it, over-the-top spirit but don’t always convince. While “Last Shift” did a lot with a little, “Malum” does too much with more. It’s as if the bigger budget and the expansion of the Malum Flock mythology just got away from the filmmakers. 

Grade: C

Welcome Villain Films is releasing “Malum” (92 min.) in select theaters on March 31, 2023.