MALIGNO: Visit a Haunted Hospital in First Trailer

Production company AV Films has quickly become a specialist in genre films being made in Peru. They were responsible for ushering in a new wave of local horror films with the found footage fright flick Cementerio General, also the first article I ever wrote for this website, over three years ago... how time flies.

Back on topic: while the movie was tepidly received by critics, it was a box office smash. This led to ghost flick Secreto Matusita (based on a local urban legend about a haunted building which recently got demolished), the jungle-set thriller Desaparecer, and sequel Cementerio General 2, a demonic possession story that ditched the handheld camera format of its predecessor and was all the better for it. All of them were directed by Dorian Fernández-Moris, who after years of working nonstop, decided to take a much needed break.

AV is back to their jump-scaring, loud noisemaking best this year with Maligno  (which means "Evil" in Spanish, so you know they're not messing around), which moves the action from ominous cemeteries to an equally ominous hospital.

Said medical establishment is the place where a powerful spirit is banished after an occult ritual. Thirty years later, one unlucky girl gets possessed, leaving it up to her mother to face down the evil presence before it regains its power.

The movie is the directing debut of Martín Casapía and Paco Bardales; the latter has been a producer and/or writer on all of AV's past projects.

Watch the recently released trailer below. Maligno opens in Peruvian theatres on 14 July.