The story: Four prison inmates discover a magic journal from a former prisoner. In typical moronic movie fashion, the prisoners begin to read the chants in the diary which causes horrific life threatening events to occur.

One could argue that “Malefique” has a decent amount of characterization for a horror flick and I would partially agree. Screenwriters Alexandre Charlot and Franck Magnier spend a good deal of time developing the four characters that consist of a company man, a transsexual, a mentally challenged cannibal, and a wife killer. Normally, this wouldn’t be an issue with me, but I have to wonder why should we care about these characters to begin with? Granted, the company man (Carrere) seems to be a fairly decent human being, but every other character is a despicable criminal that fully deserve punishment from the hellish forces from the diary that they WILLINGLY brought upon themselves. It’s one thing if the characters were subjected to these forces, it’s another that they actually bring them forth.

Another problem with “Malefique” is that the scares and gruesome gore are ineffective. Had the characters actually been likeable fellows, maybe the audience would have been freaked out by what happens to them. Then again, with a so called ending like this, it’s most likely improbable that anyone would be frightened by the silly and ridiculous series of events that take place.

The only extras are trailers for “Broceliande” and “Malefique.”

“Malefique” is presented in an overly grainy 2.35:1 widescreen picture with multiple audio options such as French Dolby Digital 5.1, English 2.0 Dolby Digital, and DTS 5.1.