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Maléfique

Maléfique

Fantasy · Horror · Mystery · 2003

Four prisoners discover a handwritten book of black magic in their cell, and decide to use it to escape.

Movie details

Maléfique

“Will you make it out alive?”

2003 Fantasy · Horror · Mystery 1h 30m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

5.9 / 10

Community rating

Four prisoners discover a handwritten book of black magic in their cell, and decide to use it to escape.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Maléfique?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Cassie, a 13 year old Gothic girl, is trying to fit in at her new school. To entertain herself, she plays a series of pranks on the popular kids and her younger brother, Max. When she goes to a Halloween store looking for new tricks, she finds a little book called "The Evil Thing"

Twice-Told Tales

Twice-Told Tales

Horror · 1963

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The Asphyx

The Asphyx

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Hugo is a brilliant turn-of-the-century scientist, loved and respected by his family and friends, admired by his colleagues. But he is a man quickly becoming obsessed with a curious and frightening question...What is the mysterious apparition found in the photographs of his dying subjects?

The City of the Dead

The City of the Dead

Mystery · 1960

In Whitewood, Massachusetts, a presumed witch places a curse on the town before she is burned at the stake. 300 years later, a college student arrives and checks into the mysterious Raven's Inn to research the town's history with witchcraft.

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The Cellar

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When Keira Woods' daughter mysteriously vanishes in the cellar of their new house in the country, she soon discovers there is an ancient and powerful entity controlling their home that she will have to face or risk losing her family's souls forever.

X: The Unknown

X: The Unknown

Horror · 1956

Army radiation experiments awaken a subterranean monster from a fissure that feeds on energy and proceeds to terrorise a remote Scottish village. An American research scientist at a nearby nuclear plant joins with a British investigator to discover why the victims were radioactively burned and why, shortly thereafter, a series of radiation-related incidents are occurring in an ever-growing straight line away from the fissure.

House on Haunted Hill

House on Haunted Hill

Horror · 1959

Frederick Loren invites five strangers to the party of a lifetime and offers each of them $10,000 if they can stay the night in the reportedly haunted house. Armed with a gun for protection, each guest arrives in a hearse and will either leave in it much richer…Or dead.

Mermaid Down

Mermaid Down

Horror · 2019

A mermaid is ripped from the ocean by a fishing crew only to be tortured and to have her tail cut off. A seemingly helpful stranger intervenes, but then locks her away in an institution for mentally disturbed young women, where no one believes she is a mermaid. With no way out, she is forced to count on her survival instincts, and fight for her life at all costs.

Saloum

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Three mercenaries extracting a druglord out of Guinea-Bissau are forced to hide in the mystical region of Saloum, Senegal.

Monster Summer

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When a mysterious force begins to disrupt their big summer fun, Noah and his friends team up with a retired police detective to embark on a monstrous adventure to save their island.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Eric Valette

Written by

Franck Magnier · Alexandre Charlot

Gérald Laroche

Gérald Laroche

Carrère

Philippe Laudenbach

Philippe Laudenbach

Lassalle

Clovis Cornillac

Clovis Cornillac

Marcus

Dimitri Rataud

Dimitri Rataud

Pâquerette

Didier Bénureau

Didier Bénureau

Hippolyte Picus

F

Félicia Massoni

Claire Carrère

Geoffrey Carey

Geoffrey Carey

Charles Danvers

Court is in session

Put Maléfique on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Arthouse Gremlin

“Its refusal to behave is the point.”

The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Oddness is not depth.”

A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.