User reviews

I really liked Last Shift. It did a lot with it's low budget and managed to be a genuinely unnerving and interesting horror movie that felt new and original.

I was really quite excited to see Malum. Some more critical folks out there said it was unnecessary, but I really liked the idea of seeing what Di Blasi would do with the original story given feedback from the original, a bigger budget, and time to think.

Well, for the most part, Malum follows Last Shift quite closely. The overall plot is almost entirely the same and a lot of plot points from Last Shift are recreated.

But Malum does add a fair amount of background and extra exposition, either by adding to existing moments from the original film, qnd by adding entirely new scenes.

The problem is, these additions actually take away far more than they add to the film. It was the vaguearies of the original that helped it shine; the viewer being trusted to make connections and fill in the blanks. Malum, by comparison, spells everything out.

There are other issues too. The deranged cultists are so stereotypical that it's hard to take the performances seriously. The special effects, though apparently more sophisticated and expensive, are actually a lot less convincing (I'm trying to avoid spoilers but The Reveal is probably a prime example). And the ending is not only predictable, irrespective of whether you've seen the original film or not, but also deeply unsatisfying and frustrating.

I want to be clear: I didn't hate Malum. I actually enjoued it, despite some serious flaws; it kept me interested and entertained.

But, having seen Last Shift, the "original draft" of the film, I'm left wondering why it was made, because it has literally already been done much more effectively. By the same director, no less!

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.

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.

Not sure why the reimagining of Last Shift was needed..... It is difficult to comprehend where these raving reviews came from and if they actually watched the movie. ????

Jessica Sula and Yahtzee the pig had decent performances in their roles Apart from that the plot dragged on and left a WTF confused feeling, was hard to follow, and left me falling asleep and not caring by the end of the movie. There were a few good special effects 40 minutes into a movie but likely more entertaining watching them in a clip.

Overall I would rather be in a haunted mold infested prison then sit through this again.

...then the director must have had an awful lot of really competent help creating Last Shift, because that is a well done, well acted and well written horror film, while Malum is a schlocky gore fest with inane acting and dopey dialog.

Just watch the first 15 minutes of Malum and then switch over to Last Shift and watch the first 15 minutes of that. It is a travesty how badly Malum compares to Last Shift in the same scenes - the acting is abysmal, in particular the alleged actress in Malum compared to the believable actress in First Shift, and the dialog has been severely dumbed down in Malum - and the dialog in First Shift was simplistic enough.

Really, nothing about Malum is horrific, unless you count what it's done to the reputation of the director.

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.

Malum is an absolute disaster of a horror movie that fails to deliver any genuine scares or engaging storyline. From start to finish, it's a complete letdown. The director's attempt to remake their own film, Last Shift, only showcases their lack of creativity and imagination.

The plot is as predictable as they come, following the tired formula of a rookie police officer uncovering a mysterious cult. There are no surprises, no original twists, just a rehashed narrative that fails to offer anything new to the genre. It feels like a cheap cash grab, relying on jump scares and excessive violence to compensate for its lack of substance.

The characters in Malum are nothing more than mere cardboard cutouts. They lack depth, development, and any semblance of relatability. It's impossible to invest in their fates when they are so poorly written and underdeveloped. Even the talented cast couldn't salvage this sinking ship.

Furthermore, the film's attempts at creating a chilling atmosphere fall flat. The scares are predictable and cliché, relying on tired horror tropes that we've seen a thousand times before. It's a shame that the movie relies more on cheap thrills than genuine psychological horror.

In terms of production value, Malum does little to impress. The visuals are lackluster, and the special effects feel amateurish. It's clear that the budget was allocated more towards marketing than actual filmmaking. The end result is a visually unimpressive and forgettable experience.

Overall, Malum is a prime example of a wasted opportunity. It fails to deliver on its promises of terror and suspense, instead serving up a bland and uninspired horror flick. Save your time and money and explore other genuinely terrifying movies that offer something fresh and innovative.

Last Shift (2014) actually happened to be my favorite horror movie of that year. It was a huge surprise watch for me going in completely blind, not having even seen a preview... Malum is a remake/reimagining of that movie by the same writer/director, Anthony DiBlasi. I questioned the existence of this remake after I saw the trailer since it's only 9 years after the original, and I still question its existence after watching it.

Don't get me wrong, it's a decent watch & a solid horror movie with improved production, graphic gore and an expansion of the cult premise. With all of the added aspects it's strange that it's only 4 minutes longer than the original. But I feel like this is an example of "less is more" where the ambiguity of Last Shift worked more in its favor, while the expansion of the lore regarding the cult makes Malum feel more derivative. There is a particular creepy "jingle" that is used in both movies, but I feel it is over-used in this movie. Also, there are certain aspects of Malum where it can't seem to decide what it wants to be. There's just too much here that reminds me of Hereditary (and other movies), which is somewhat ironic since the same evil entity is mentioned in Last Shift, but not in Malum (if I remember correctly).

However, I can recommend this movie whether or not you've seen Last Shift, but you may enjoy it more if you haven't seen it. It manages to be effectively creepy like the original while being more polished. For streaming, maybe wait for the rental price to go down.

I gave Last Shift (2014) a 8/10. I give Malum (2023) a 6/10. A solid effort with improved production, but it overall falls short of the effectiveness of the original. It's definitely not a bad remake, just not a necessary one.

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around why "Last Shift" needed a "re-imagining"? As one of the truly great horror films of the last 10 years, I was actually looking forward to the writer/directors next film, and when I heard it was going to be a "re-imagining" of the movie, it raised several alarms. After watching the film, I can confidently say that the only reason this was done was to race swap the main character, and to me, this is one of the most offensive things anyone can do to an already established franchise.

Aside from some great acting by the Male cast members, and some great SFX and gore, this movie is less frightening, less dynamic and definitely less memorable than Last Shift. In fact, I watched this with my partner and in the end he said, "The person who made this should never be allowed to make another movie in their lives". Was this the reaction the creative team was going for, because I'm guaranteed he wouldn't have had the same reaction to Last Shift.

As it stands, I'm getting tired of these creative teams forcing diversity and race-swapping characters just to meet a quota. But I guess that precious ESG score to guarantee funding for projects is more important than creative integrity these days, isn't it?

Summary; Don't watch this movie and just watch Last Shift again. This re-imagining is worse in almost every possible way, and wont be remembered nearly as fondly as the film it claims it is.

Malum is the brand new feature film from Welcome Villain films. It's co-written and directed by Anthony DiBlasi, the same man who brought us Last Shift. The horror genre is flooded with all kinds of remakes, reboots and television adaptations from mainstream franchises. Malum is a refreshing change of pace in that regard, because it's being marketed as sort of a reimagining of Last Shift.

While that description is accurate, I would argue that Last Shift and Malum are two different movies. Much like how The Evil Dead relates to Evil Dead 2. It uses the best elements from Last Shift, taking an already familiar plot and changing it for the better with a higher budget and better pacing; all while cranking the volume of intensity to 11. Malum is an even darker version of the film in terms of scares, imagination and sadistic cruel violence. The film's opening scene is jaw dropping to say the least, and it's merely a taste of the hellish nightmare to come.

The basic plot of Malum is very similar to Last Shift where a rookie cop looks over a closing police station. After spending the majority of her shift by herself, the old station turns into a living nightmare involving creepy weirdos, a snuff film and a blood thirsty cult. This time around there's more meat to the story, focusing even more on the personal relationships of the main character. Malum also leans heavier into the "cult" aspect of the plot, leading way to some incredible performances and amazing Sinister style visuals. Because of this, Malum makes for a more engaging experience compared to its predecessor.

Once the psychological horror kicks in, the terror never stops. Combine this with a perfectly fitting musical score from Samuel Laflamme, who I might add is most notable for his works on the Outlast video games, the film cooks up the perfect recipe for suspense. Malum features a ton of genuine heart pounding jump scares, along with violent death scenes that narrowly avoids feeling mean spirited. The level of violence in Malum is visceral and downright brutal with some visually graphic blood and gore.

The biggest complaint I had with Last Shift was that dragged in parts and left me with more questions than answers. The pacing of Malum is much better in comparison. You can clearly tell that Anthony DiBlasi used the higher budget to his advantage. Jessica Sula plays the role of the rookie cop in the film, and she's an absolute pleasure to watch onscreen. The entire cast fits perfectly in their roles, and to me there was no ounce of wasted dialog. There's even some moments of humor within the banter of fellow police officers.

When you watch Malum for yourself, make sure you're paying close attention. Spooky things tend to pop up during the movie, making it an intense thrill ride from start to finish. Even compared to Last Shift, Malum stands out as its own monster. The intensity that the film possesses is due in large part to the powerful musical score. I can almost guarantee that Malum will make you jump out of your seat. It's 90 minutes worth of madness, and if you're a fan of the original film, you'll be pleasantly surprised with what Malum has to offer.

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.

Now, it's no secret that Malum is a remake of writer/director Anthony DiBlasi's own film, Last Shift, from 2014.

The only other time I can recall something like this being done is with Evil Dead 1 & 2.

But, let's be real...this is no Evil Dead (not even close).

In that case, they took a film that was limited by budget constraints, and experience...and improved it...to create the greatest franchise in the history of horror.

But the potential was there.

And it's just not, here.

It's pretty clear that DiBlasi's plan was to recreate the success of the Evil Dead model.

By improving the special effects, and upping the gore.

However, unlike Evil Dead 2, this film is arguably worse than the original.

As it seems to have become more convoluted and confusing in the process.

The main problem with this film, is that there is no clear distinction between what is "real", and what is psychological.

It seems he has tried to improve upon the original by expanding the backstory, via the inclusion of an introduction, relating to what happened to the father of the main character.

And substituting the bioclean guy with her mother.

In a desperate attempt to add nuance to the film.

However, this only acts to blur the lines between the "real" and psychological even more.

Rendering it even more of a confusing mess than it was before.

It's actually much more clear that the station is haunted in the original installation, than in this film.

So, even though they upped their special effects game (and the amount of gore, in general).

The original film seems to have a more cohesive plot structure and storyline.

Most of the re-imagining has come through the monsters.

However, they just come off as cheap Cenobite ripoffs that feel out of place in the universe of this film.

So all the attempted "improvements" have only acted to make the film worse than it was before.

Despite it's bigger budget.

Which goes to show that making things more complex, doesn't necessarily make them better.

Sometimes keeping things simple can be just as, if not more so, effective.

So the fact that this film was made as it is...is confusing, at best.

3 out of 10.

I'm struggling to understand why someone would feel the need to remake Last Shift. It's like the remake of Psycho. It's not literally frame my frame, but it's pretty damn close. It just adds a lot of nonsense and special effects that the film didn't need to achieve something way more disturbing than this tripe. Despite what was obviously a much higher budget in an amplification of gore factor, it's a pale shadow of the original.

This one lacked everything the original one had. There's no primal dread, there's no terror atmosphere, and there's no room for your imagination to take the story to a place that scares you.

I know there's no such thing as an original idea. However, based on the source material, I would expect more than I got.

You can't reproduce the acting, you can't reproduce the feeling, and you can't make me care.

I was not invested in this movie for one second. I hated it.

Actually, I really did hate it. So, I guess they did invoke an emotion in me. It's just probably not the one they were hoping to get.

There are enough reboots or remakes of major horror franchises. I don't understand why they thought it would be a good idea to take a relatively unknown and under appreciated film that has not been around long enough for its fans to be ready for a remake.

That being said, I'm biased.

I can't judge the movie on its own premise because the premise has already been established by another movie that I love, and I don't care who made it (they should be ashamed of themselves for destroying their own work).

It's just another run of the mill Hollywood remake cash grab. I could've saved my time and just rewatched Last Shift. I would have been much more satisfied.

Sorry if that is unacceptable to anyone, but it is my opinion.

I strongly suggest if you watch this movie, you watch Last Shift first. In this case, the source material is way better.

What is wrong with those first reviewers? It's so cheap to overrate Malum (2023), and mention all kind of superlatives for the cast, story and goreness. So I have seriously warn you that this movie let all alarm bells ring in the most negative way; neither the cast, nor the story, nor the horror effect do amuse! Malum exists in a dimension that even is able to control its director as nothing makes any sense. The over-all level of acting is so low that I constantly had the urge to stop this movie. But my curiosity overwon and I tortured myself to watch it till the end. No creativity at all during 87 minutes; nothing new and never any unexpected shudder. Stop wasting small budgets to create non-inventive remakes of average movies.

Did there really need to be a reboot from an earlier horror that in itself was a decent effective horror with a good Carpentersque soundtrack, creepy setting and solid camerawork. Like Haneke's own Funny Games it's a reluctant remake.

It goes on and on with too much emphasis on ghosts disappearing then reappearing and visa versa, predictable levels of characters turning up then disappearing and a friendly pig wandering around the desolate police station.

It has a Silent Hill level of make up that works kinda well but ultimately I've seen this type of horror way too many times before.

No more.

Malum is an independent film that seems to have a tiny budget. It definitely shows, but it still manages to pull off a cool horror flick.

It's relatively slow but I wasn't bored. The director got what he needed out of his cast, including one really good performance by a prostitute. The dialogue is pretty good.

But the real question is, how is the horror? It's pretty good for most of the movie, then really awesome later in the movie. There are a bunch of super creepy scenes. They do a phenomenal job with the practical effects.

A couple things brought the movie down in quality in my eyes. The first is some really bad editing throughout. The second is the sound design. So many things should have been way louder, like the guns. It felt like it was missing an impact.

One example, a door is about to slam shut. She tries to stop it. The editing goes from door swinging shut to her banging on the shut door. No shot of the door slamming shut. No sound either.

Even with it's flaws, I had a pretty good time with this movie. The payoff during the climax is worth the buildup. Malum is definitely not for everyone. But for a horror fan/movie fiend like me, it satisfied the craving. (1 viewing, opening Thursday 3/30/2023)

First of all, when I first watched the trailer of the movie I really liked it, even though I didn't really had high expectations about that remake, because it wasn't necessary. The plot of the movie was very interesting and exactly the same just like the previous movie. Sadly, the storyline wasn't well-written, not well-explained and it was way different than the original movie. The main character (Jessica) was very interesting and likeable, but she wasn't well-developed. The filming location of the movie was similar to the first movie, just a big old creepy abandoned police station. In my opinion, it was as scary as the original movie and there were too many creepy jumpscares. Also, the killcount of the movie was very bloody and gory. The opening scene was very creepy and kinda promising. However, the ending scene wasn't so good, because it was full of plot holes. Overall, it wasn't a nice remake, not well-written and I wouldn't recommend it to my friends.

I'll preface this by saying I think the whole trend of satanic panic style horror movies are played out and boring. It doesn't touch on any fears of mine, so it doesn't do much for me and altogether the satanic panic has ruined many lives and doesn't deserve the resurgence it is getting.

That being said, there was some great fun to be had in this film!

The good: -fantastically fun practial effects and gore scenes.

-actually decent jumps cares. Jumpscares don't do much for me but these were at least fun imo.

-this would make an amazing video game adaptation. Especially in VR.

-some lovely cinematography -great acting by the protagonist

The bad: -the plot was a bit muddy and didnt really wrap up nicely. Didn't feel satisfied at the end.

-some of the baddies were pretty corny/cheesy/edge lordy -again, satanic panic and demons and all that aren't scary to me, personally. Played out n boring. Cults are scarier when they are Christianity adjacent.

Either way I think it's fun enough to be worth a watch if you can stomach some pretty heavy gore.

Malum (2023) is a reimagined Last Shift by the original writer and director Anthony DiBlasi. The storyline follows a newly trained police officer who decides to take as a first assignment doing the night shift at a closing police station...the same police station her father killed two police officers and himself when he was an officer. She starts finding clues about her fathers past and unweaves a web of the events that led to his death and why she starts seeing strange things around the station.

As previously mentioned, this movie is directed by Anthony DiBlasi (The Last Shift) and stars Jessica Sula (Split), Natalie Victoria (Last Shift), Clarke Wolfe (Torn Hearts), Candice Coke (La La Land), Monroe Cline (Don't Worry Darling), Chaney Morrow (Haunt) and Kevin Wayne (The Magnificent Seven, 2016).

This movie is a horror enthusiasts dream and one of the better cult movies I've seen since Midsommar. The premise is outstanding and the cult opening followed by the firing range scene is a perfect way to set the tone for the movie. There's some solid jump scares, the gore is fantastic throughout the film and there's a 10/10 blood splatter scene that I adored. There's also a good use of a baseball bat. The acting in this is fairly solid - the mother, cult leader and homeless man are delivered to perfection. The depiction of the demon in this is also outstanding. The ending twist and movie close was also fantastic.

Overall, if you can get past the bad decisions made by the main character throughout the picture, the horror elements are a 10/10. I would score this identical to the original Late Shift, a 7.5/10, and strongly recommend it.

Malum: It's a reboot/remake of Last Shift which ties in a more interesting tale. Jessica is a rookie cop, she volunteers to take the last shift at a police station which is effectively already closed. A year ago her father also a cop went crazy at that station, killing other cops and then taking his own life. This was just after he had rescued three girls from a cult which worshiped a Demon, the Low God, they had already sacrificed another girl. Three cult members die in odd circumstances in the station. A strange night passes at the station, Jessica is visited by other cops, a homeless man and a streetwalker. Someone also abandons a pig outside the station, it has a pentagram painted on its back, What is really happening and what Jessica imagines starts to blur. The cult seem to be back, spreading chaos on the streets, abducting girls again. Plenty of jump scares and gore. What's more impressive though is how the back story is related through found footage. The cult leader John Malum was indeed a scary person and it looks as if a ritual is taking place place in real time, Malum does contain some elements of Folk Horror. Heads are bashed in, people shot and decapitated as narrative unfolds. This is not a film for the squeamish, Some secrets are also revealed. This film can be confusing at times especially in the final act but it's certainly worth watching not least for it's old building setting which provides so many opportunities for surprises. Shades of Assault On Precinct 13 also creep in. Directed by Anthony DiBlasi, who co-wrote the film with Scott Poiley. 7/10.

I've come to this review in a slightly unorthodox way compared to other reviewers. Going in, I knew *nothing* about this movie. I enjoyed the first half, but very much disliked the second, and afterwards came to IMDB to see what people were saying. That's when I discovered it was a remake by the same director of his own movie.

Lots of people were saying that the original was superior, despite the tiny budget, but I put it down at first to people always hating on remakes. But there was enough promise in the opening 20 minutes of Malum to make me wonder what the original idea was. And so, just a few days later, I tracked down Last Shift.

Oh. My. God.

Last Shift is such a superior movie, it's not even a contest. It made clever use of its budget, built gradually, contained spooky ghost story material and jarring scares, and had an ending that made sense. Compare to Malum, which goes off the rails into Surrealville very quickly, so that nothing can be scary because we don't know if anything is 'real', and they're two very different experiences.

For me, this isn't a director saying "Now that I have a bigger budget, I can present my perfect vision to the audience". Instead, it's a director saying "How can I recycle my old premise and make something more commercial?" It looks like he saw the rave reviews films like Hereditary were receiving, and decided to basically copy it. And 'pastiche' is definitely in DiBlasi's toolbox - after all, the ending of Last Shift essentially took the twist from festive offering A Christmas Horror Story, immediately followed by what looked like the final frame of Krampus - similarities far too specific to be coincidence. But in Last Shift, other than a couple of moments where the practical effects looked a little silly, everything worked better. Officer Loren's reasoning and actions mostly made sense; her backstory wasn't needlessly tied to the weird cult, so we didn't have to spend so long on the setup; she didn't accept the crazy goings-on at the police station so readily; she actually saw things that led her to uncover a ghostly mystery, as opposed to Malum's overwhelming bombardment of fragmented images and ambiguous scenes.

In a nutshell, Malum takes what was a coherent story, and tries too hard to make it ambiguous in the style of an a24 movie, but without much actual content to work with. A completely bizarre decision by the filmmaker.