Malum ★★★

IT’S rare that a director remakes their own film.

Michael Haneke’s Funny Games is the only one that springs immediately to mind.

A recent example is the 2023 American horror film Malum, directed and co-written by Anthony DiBlasi, who made basically the same film in 2014, then called Last Shift.

The 2014 version is widely acknowledged as a very solid, low-budget horror and still the better version of the story about a rookie police officer terrorised by paranormal occurrences during an overnight shift alone at a soon-to-be closed station.

The station has specific relevance for Jessica Loren as her father was based there until he enexplainably killed several of his colleagues before ending his own life.

The incident followed the arrests of several members of a suicide cult which has some lind of connection to Jessica’s late father.

A rookie cop takes the last shift at a decommissioned police station where members of a cult committed suicide years prior. When she begins experiencing paranormal occurrences throughout the night, she begins to uncover the truth about the cult and its connection to her family’s past.

I haven’t seen Last Shift so cannot compare, but Malum is also what I would term very solid.

It has a terrific opening and builds a good premise during the first act. The tension and atmosphere are maintained throughout with some well-executed jump scares.

It’s let down a little by the acting overall, but Jessica Sula makes an impact in the lead role.