User reviews

I would have given it a 5.5 if I could, but since we round up here on IMDB I went with 6. Many of the commenters are right when they say it has strong "Halloween" vibes. Sure it's a bit cliche at times, but it's a slasher, and an homage to 80s slasher films, so that's to be expected. It's apart of the genre. I liked it in general. The acting was good and certainly better than most 80s slasher casts. Story was solid enough. And as someone who's always liked 80s horror it was nostalgic. People giving it a 1 are just trying to manipulate the rating in my opinion, and if you like 80s slasher films, I think you'll like it.

The movie director has seen Halloween for sure and was pretty inspired but didn't really know how to express that. This is why he made such a dull and ridiculous film. It was an amateur attempt to make a fiction movie. Malevolence 3: Killer is full of bad acting, bad editing and pretty long scenes that look like a first movie making task at film-making school. If you are a horror fan, don't waste your time on this pile of rubbish.

The first two relied more on psychological study, character development, intense brooding tension n the juxtaposition of tranquility (amazing photography) and underlying danger, this one is a straight up slasher filled with cliches. Saw this last nite n was disappointed.

So aft his lair gets busted n two people survive the harrowing nite, Martin while on the run from the FBI, somehow tracks the two survivors with their wallet. A big question. Why werent the survivors given ample security. How did Martin get hold of the wallet. Towards the end too, a survivor is left without any security inspite of the survivor's phone taken away by Martin while the same FBI guy is pursuing the case. Martin is shown as an introvert, illiterate, traumatized n homegrown boy but he manages to track down his original address while our FBI guy later realises that Martin's mother has relocated. The killings get lousy as none of the victims puts up a fight n it gets filled with cliches. This time the cinematography ain't that great n a sex scene with nudity is added to titillate. Generous with 7 for Mena's effort n his one man show with tackling different technical aspects of the films.

So, assume the quality of a film can be represented on a spectrum. In one extreme, you have the best possible films, and in the other, the worst possible ones. It sounds intuitive that, as viewers who are looking to have a positive experience, it would be in our best interest to only watch cinema that is closer to the good side of the spectrum, and yet, somehow, most of us can recognize there's actually plenty of enjoyment in watching a distinctively bad film unfold before our eyes. This, I'll argue, often has to do with how raw and genuine the artistic vision of a bad director tends to be: whether it is Tommy Wiseau's "The Room", James Nguyen's "Birdemic" or the entire filmography of Neil Breen, all of these are unified by the fact that they are auteur films where a madman is using his rudimentary knowledge of cinematic language to express his most intimate will, providing us with such joy in the process to the point where watching them might actually produce the same sort of pleasing mental phenomena we get from a genuinely good film, perhaps even raising some interesting questions about the nature of our own aesthetic judgement.

The problem is, there's clearly an artistic vision behind Stevan Mena's Malevolence 3: it's trying really hard to be a throwback to 1980s slasher horror, with the antagonist fundamentally being a legally distinct version of Michael Myers and the narrative sharing the same sort of structure you'd expect from a Friday the 13th film, and yet, somehow, it never gets to the point of actually invoking that sensation of authorship. The direction is profoundly incompetent, on the first 10 minutes alone you'll find everything from poor editing choices (the film starts with a static frontal shot of a house and then cuts to a pan that goes from a tree to the exact same house, as if it's only now establishing a location) to poor performances (the very first line delivery sounds hilariously unnatural) and the occasional rubbish ADR (two characters have a conversation where one of them was clearly recorded in post with an entirely different microphone), however, despite these blunders, the actual camerawork and sound quality is just average enough to pass for an actual movie - and interestingly, that's actually to its detriment, since it turns a potential so-bad-it's-good experience into one where it's just a bad film plagued by jarring issues all around.

Narrative-wise, Malevolence 3 can be boiled down to every single slasher movie ever made, like it's built around a generic blank slate that's the filmmaking equivalent of a videogame asset flip. There's a mysterious mute killer on the loose in a small suburban American town, and there are a couple of teenagers who decide to spend the night over together, and I mean, it's not hard to see where it goes from here. Unsurprisingly, most characters have no more development than the most basic stock archetypes - you see, one of the girls dresses immodestly and has loud sex in her bedroom, which means she's the extroverted dirtbag character, whereas the other one reads books and refuses to engage in premarital intercourse, which means she is the pure and kind-hearted one! - and their arches primarily consist of being inert cannon fodder for the really bland and rudimentar kill scenes, eventually leaving no room to any actual character growth. Equally pitiful is the attempt at trying to establish a historical setting: apparently, the film is meant to be set during the 90s, and director Mena seems to think that merely adding an old iMac to the protagonists' bedroom and having some characters driving around in a Mercury sedan is enough to fully convince the spectator of that, never mind the obviously contemporary fashion, interior decoration, dialectic mannerisms and the 2010s police Dodge Charger just all making their way into the frame throughout the length of the film. And although I guess directly commenting on the ending would no longer make this a spoiler-free review (as much as there's anything worth spoiling), it might suffice to say that, if you've watched any sequel to a slasher that's trying to set itself up as a franchise, you probably know exactly how it's going to go.

The final product, above all, feels like an attempt at trying to appease to an old school crowd that grew up with the traditional 80s horror formula whilst failing to understand how that exact same formula is still in excessive use today, making this an utterly pointless effort in trying to recapture something that's already over-saturating cinema in the first place. It's not that throwback retro horror is inherently bad by itself, David Robert Mitchell's "It Follows" is an excellent example of that exact same sort of nostalgia done right: it retains the atmospheric wide shots, the night lighting and the hard synth soundtrack that wouldn't be out of place in a John Carpenter film, but it backs all of that with a far more sophisticated use of movement, composition, sound and editing, coupled with a narrative that explores some philosophically introspective reflections about sexuality and mortality, in a way that actually outgrows most of Carpenter's filmography and instead becomes its own thing. Ultimately, the fundamental difference between the concept of these two films is that Mitchell primarily took the aesthetics of his reference and added his own substance into it, while Mena is stuck with the vague ideal of a slasher movie that cannot have any more substance than its basic layout. In the end, it's no surprise that the result is just dull, derivative and painfully unremarkable.

Malevolence 3 is a worth follow up to the first film (the second was a prequel). Once again we get way better acting than we normally do in these smaller independent movies, great photography, a good script, and a good continuation of the story. The gore quotient is upped in this movie (as is usually the case with sequels) but is still not completely over the top. Once again we rely more here on suspense than an "ick" factor. I really enjoyed this movie and will definitely return to these movies time and again. Highly recommend!

If you look not so carefully you'll note that qll the reviews that give this a 9 0r 10 have similar headers. FAKE REVIEWS.

This is my HONEST assessment of the film.

The production values are better than a lot of the really bad horror films out there but that doesnt make this a good movie.

In fact, it's pretty awful.

The acting is atrocious and the directing is that of a high school student. One has to wonder how someone put up $750K for this crap.

And folks, can you stop with the brooding music already? It's been doe over and over and now it's just annoying. Stephen Mena should not be allowed to make another picture

I have watched all 3 Malevolence movies and to be honest I have seen a lot of bad horror movies come out repeating the same stories over and over again to make a buck. I'm not here to slam them so they will remain nameless. The best thing about this trilogy is its originality. Sure it borrows some cinematography from great ones but the storyline is original even if some of the scenes are intentional. The best in the series I think was the second which was the prequel to the first with a outstanding performance from Brett Rickaby playing Graham Sutter. Now as far as this movie Malevolence 3 is concerned I am just happy we all got to see it noting that this film was shelved for a long time....The film pic ks up where the first Malevolence left off and continues from there. Stevan mena's score from the opening credits lets you know that we are back in Martin Bristol's world and the story continues.... Only problem i had with the movie was 2 things Martin should have retained the mask from the first to keep him a little more menacing and mysterious like in the first.. Also correct me if i'm wrong, the issue of Martin not being able to feel pain was lost in this movie and because his mother was in it i felt it should have been touched upon. I loved this trilogy and I salute Stevan Mena for coming full circle. I know some people may disagree with my take and that's fine we all have different viewpoints. I just hope we have not seen the last of Stevan mena even if he goes forward with something completely new... I will always be a fan.

DONT WATCH IT. ITS AWFUL. DISSAPOINTMENT. TRASH. COMEDY. BAD COPY OF HALLOWEEN WITHOUT A MASK.

Bad, just bad. So, so bad.

I'm not sure how so many people found this entertaining.

This movie is so bad. Please do not waste your time on this.

I haven't seen such awful acting , horrible movie...it doesn't deserve even 1 star ..it's actually should be -0

Yes, this is possibly the most slavish Halloween rip off since He Knows You're Alone, Final Exam, and Offerings, but it's almost refreshing to see someone focus more on suspense than goofy twists and non-stop gore these days.

Director Steven Mena knows how to build suspense and release the tension with a well timed jolt even if the story itself leaves a little something to be desired. Much like Halloween, it's ridiculously simple with only a few little detours here and there (such as the scenes with Adrienne Barbeau) which try and add a little meat to the story. These scenes end up feeling like an afterthought and could be cut altogether. It's sort of a shame how little Barbeau is given to do considering her scream queen pedigree. Still, it's always nice to see her pop up in something.

While it is a bonafide Halloween rip off, I'd venture to say it's still more effective and frightening than most of the sequels in that franchise.

Don't believe high rating. It has nothing to do with 80's movies. Instead of watching this movie better do something else. Please remember we have limited time on earth. If you really are desperate to kill some time you can always watch movie trailers.

KILLER is the third installment in Director, Stevan Mena's "trilogy". Opening with the finale of MALEVOLENCE, it shows the escape of Martin Bristol into an unsuspecting town. Elle (Katie Gibson), a struggling college student, and her two housemates are about to find out that they have bigger problems than just inconsiderate boyfriends and the world's slimiest landlord. Martin is on a singular mission, and only future corpses stand between Martin and a big reunion.

Definitely the lesser entry in the series, it's not bad, although some of the acting is surprisingly wooden, and the ending is less than satisfying.

THINGS NOT TO DO, EVER: #1- If you see someone being dragged into a dark garage, don't follow them! #2- If the murdering maniac is indestructible, don't lose track of him!

BEST HUMOROUS PART OF THE MOVIE: Adrienne Barbeau's character, Meredith telling an FBI agent about the result of her late husband's smoking habit! Pure gold!...

Do you want best actors in the earth? Watch this movie. Oh gosh, they're just like macdonald the best ever. My dear; just focus on the perfect dialogue, yeah I know it's very very hard.and don't forget to focus on the "robot" walking, this skill like disease and every character having it .. I have more than 1000 great things. But I can't continue because of my sh#### grammar..

Saw the premier last night and loved it. A must see for fans of classic 70's and 80's horror films. They don't make them like this anymore. I was a fan of the previous films in the Malevolence trilogy and this doesn't dissapoint. I recommend this one as well as the others in the trilogy. I will definitely add this dvd to my horror dvd collection.

So bad... the story might work if it wasn't for all the glaring inconsistencies and ho-hum acting. Another hour and a half wasted.... it's a good thing I don't have a life.

Horrible script, plot ,story line, acting and in everything. Must have been a good movie though if you were to watch in early 40s or 50s but definitely not for 2018. It was written, directed and cast by those people who will never have a brain tumor in their lives as they don't have one. I was so bored out of my skull watching this and stopped after the first 10 minutes.