Malum

I have worked night shifts ever since 1998 and it all started at my first night job at a company called Odal. My first night job here was to check so there were no leaks from wheat, corn and other cereal being transfered in so called silos. When there was a leak we had to take a shovel and remove the leaks by hand, we could not use any machines. So there were times we had to fix it, i suppose the good thing was that we could keep ourselves busy at least. I would also run samples of wheat and corn in a machine to check water levels in the product. It was at this night shift work i started drinking coffee because an older gentleman called Nisse who have worked there for over 30 years said:- If you want to stay awake i suggest you have a couple of cups at least. I really didn´t mind working night shifts since it was more calmer than daytime shifts and you could also walk more free in the industrial building. If nothing happened during night shift you could just check leaks and see if there is anything else that needed to be done. I do remember one night when an old elevator got stuck with me in it and i could use the elevator phone at least and luckily Nisse answered my call and helped me out. It turned out that this old elevator have had problems before in this old part of the industry and Nisse just said:- Well, i don´t think the boss will fix another one, we already had this elevator since i started working here. So after that night i never went into that elevator again, i took the stairs instead even if i had to carry heavy bags. Speaking of night shifts there are plenty of horror films that have taken on the subject of working during night. One of the films i am especially thinking about is an independent film called Last Shift from director Anthony DiBlasi. I remember when Last Shift came out and i found myself a DVD copy and i was really surprised. Last Shift turned out to be a very effective religious horror film that takes place in a police station that´s getting closed down. Police Officer Jessica Loren ( Juliana Harkavy ) accept to take on the last working shift at this station during night. When she begin to see strange things happening, she will find out that this police station have more than just one secret hidden from the public. For an indepenent horror film i have to say Last Shift was more effective than i expected. Not in my wildest imagination would i have expected a remake of Last Shift to be made almost 10 years later, but here we are with a film called Malum. When i first heard this film was coming out i had my doubts since i am a fan of the original film, but i decided to give this film a chance in case i would enjoy it. Is this one of the better remakes we have seen in recent years, or is Malum a disaster from start to finish?

Police Captain Will Loren ( Eric Olson ) was respected at his job and people appreciated his good personality. Until one day when he went completely insane after rescuing three girls from a vicious religios cult, and killed two people before shooting himself with a shotgun. After the tragic murders Will´s daughter Police Officer Jessica Loren ( Jessica Sula ) want to honor the legacy of her father by working a shift at the same station where all of this happened. She knew he wasn´t a bad man deep inside, but clearly something went wrong. At the station she is not treated with much respect because of her father´s background but she decides to do the best she can out of the situation. This night is not only going to change the life of Jessica, but she will also understand why her father lost his mind.

I am going to be honest and say that Malum is even better than Last Shift for a number of different reasons. So let us discuss on what details makes this film better than the 2014 original film and let us begin with the technical level of film making. Malum is more professionally filmed than Last Shift with very well made colorful scenes, that matches very well to the religious cult influences that the story behind Malum carry all the way throughout the film. I also feel that this film works more effective as a horror film thanks to much more creativity in the horror influences that they used in this film. That does not mean i think Last Shift is a bad horror film, i still enjoy it to this day. But it becomes very clear that they really tried harder on Malum to make the horror story more effective and it really pays off. I really enjoy some of the practical make up effects in Malum where you can tell they really tried to make it look good. Especially the design of a so called demon ( if i can call it that ) towards the end and the practical effects in that scene looks gorgeous. There are some other scenes where the practical effects gets a chance to shine as well but let us move forward to what especially works better in Malum than in Last Shift. The acting in this ( remake ? ) film of Malum is much more powerful than in the original film. It is as if they understood that if we are going to make this film work we need to improve several details to please the fans of Last Shift. And they clearly did their job where lead actress Jessica Sula ( who you might recognice from Scream TV series ) does her best acting performance i have seen her do so far in a film or TV series. Her character Jessica does not only work very well with the story, but you can also see her as a realistic cop character. There are some other great performances as well but i might as well bring up one detail i think they could have done better. Since some scenes look very smiliar to Last Shift they could have tried to surprise us a little bit more. Other than that i am really surprised over how much i enjoyed Malum. Director Anthony DiBlasi ( who also directed Last Shift ) proves that you can make a smiliar film again almost 10 years later and make it work. Malum is one of the better horror films i have seen this year and im definetely picking this film up on physical media. If you are a true horror fan you definetely need to experience Malum in your living room.

Rating: DDDD