Malignant writers James Wan and Ingrid Bisu share unlikely sources that inspired creation of the film’s killer
Wan and Bisu discuss their inspiration for coming up with the horror film's real star

[This piece discusses spoilers from Malignant that—if you’re curious about the movie—are a lot more fun to discover for yourself.]
There’s a moment near the end of James Wan’s Malignant when Gabriel, the shadowy killer we’ve been following throughout the story so far, is fully revealed. Within seconds of seeing him appear, it’s clear that the movie’s created one of the best horror villains in years—a freakish little practical delight on par with “opening your miiiind” to Total Recall’s mucosal chest-baby, Kuato.
Wan and story co-writer/cast member Ingrid Bisu spoke to Bloody Disgusting about how Gabriel was created and how his scenes, when he’s both in and out of control of his dear sister Madison, were filmed.
The idea for Gabriel came from Bisu’s interest in documentaries about “medical anomalies, twins, parasitic twins, [and] teratomas.” After discovering the story of a man who “had a smaller head in the back of his head” that “would torture him or give him horrible thoughts and ideas,” Bisu went on to look into the subject of parasitic twins and ended up with Gabriel and the story idea she worked on with Wan and screenwriter/fellow story co-writer Akela Cooper.