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It's time to cut out the cancer.
~ Gabriel May's most famous quote.
You think I asked to be tethered to you, Madison? Think I asked to be some wretch locked in your body? Everyone I killed had it coming, I'm owed this! This body, this life, everything that's yours? I can do it all better. I deserve it!
~ Gabriel May to Madison.
I wanted you to see… what you made me. A monster.
~ Gabriel blaming his mother for his crimes as he "kills" her.

Gabriel May, also known as the Devil, is the main antagonist of James Wan's 2021 supernatural slasher film Malignant.

Gabriel is a vestigial parasitic twin brother of protagonist Madison Mitchell (nee Lake), born Emily May, who was born as an underformed fraternal twin appearing as a teratomatous mass infused behind her head and back. Abandoned by his own biological mother Serena May due to his abominable birth circumstances, Gabriel became extremely disturbed, violent, and misanthropic towards the doctors, staff members, and everybody else around him due to the abuse and torment only he endured from given his wretched existence. Since Gabriel shares a body with Emily, he siphon fluids and nutrients off her to sustain himself, thus endangering her life in the process. Sought to save young Madison, most of Gabriel's underdeveloped body had to be excised except his face only to be sealed inside her skull, a surgical reconstruction procedure that removed Madison's memories and rendered Gabriel dormant. Nearly 3 decades later, after being inadvertently awoken by Madison's abusive husband, Gabriel hijacks her body and embarks on a vengeful rampage on the doctors, his mother, and Sydney Lake.

Gabriel was portrayed physically by Marina Mazepa and voiced by Ray Chase, the latter of whom also played Dr. Genus in One Punch Man, Marlon in The Walking Dead: The Final Season, Rustal Elion in Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, and Rhys in the Borderlands series. While possessing Madison, he was also portrayed by Annabelle Wallis and Mckenna Grace, the latter of whom portrayed Emma Grossman in the 2018 remake of The Bad Seed.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Gabriel May was born along with Emily May in June 5th, 1985 to Serena May and unnamed father as a result of rape. As opposed to Emily being the healthy dominant twin, Gabriel, however, is what Dr. Florence Weaver described him as an "extreme version of a teratoma". Gabriel is a sapient teratomatous parasitic twin that survived utero absorption from the dominant twin in the mother's womb, tethering what remains of his fetal tissues and grow sync with Emily. Serena's pregnancy at age 15 with Emily and Gabriel was described by her religiously devout single mother as a "transgression against God" and teenage Serena did not know how to look out after them, forcing her to abandon the children and give them over to the hands of the Simion Research Hospital. As time progressed, through unknown means, Gabriel developed superhuman strengths and supernatural abilities such as electricity manipulation and radio wave communication. Thriving in the environment of misery, torment, and abuse from doctors, faculty staff members, and other patients at the hospital due to his wretched birth circumstances, Gabriel grew disturbed, violent and antisocial he influenced his sister to do harm. Gabriel's violent behavior and parasitic nature had left Dr. Florence Weaver, Dr. John Gregory, and Dr. Victor Fields no choice but to conduct reconstructive surgery on Emily and excise Gabriel.

Gabriel massacres several faculty members before being reprimanded and the surgical operation was initiated. While they were able to remove most of Gabriel's body, except his face, from Emily, so whatever was left of him was locked away in the back of her head. After getting adopted by Jeanne, Emily was told that Gabriel was her imaginary friend anytime she would speak with him telepathically.

Gabriel's consciousness followed Emily around, still determined to keep control over his host, tries to telepathically force Emily (now renamed Madison) to commit vile acts such as killing her adoptive mother Jeanne and unborn Sydney in her mother's womb, but she is able to restrain herself from performing the deed. From there, Gabriel became dormant and forgotten.

Twenty-Eight Years Later[]

28 years later, in October 2020, after suffering two years of five miscarriages, Madison gets into a fight with her husband Derek leading to him pushing her into the wall inadvertently awakening Gabriel due to the impact. While Madison locks herself in her bedroom and sleeps, Derek is brutally murdered by Gabriel, and she discovers his body the next day after having a vision of someone breaking into her house to murder Derek. She was then attacked by the assailant.

Regaining consciousness in the hospital, Sydney informs her adopted sister that her baby did not survive the attack. Meanwhile, Gabriel abducts a woman when she was hosting the Seattle Underground Tour and imprisons her in what appears to be the attic.

More strange murders happen with Madison receiving vivid visions of them, such as Dr. Florence Weaver being bludgeoned with a medical award, Gabriel savagely killing Fields with the sharpened blade of the same award while he was sleeping, and Gregory is found by police detectives Kekoa Shaw and Regina Moss when Madison explains her psychic link to the killer.

It is revealed that the woman Gabriel kidnapped was Serena, and that she was actually trapped in Madison's attic. As such, Madison is incriminated for the string of murders and is taken to the police department. Madison is placed in a women's holding cell and brutally beaten by several of the inmates, which inadvertently triggers Gabriel. Gabriel massacres all the women inside, escapes from the cell, and kills several police officers.

After Sydney returns from confronting Jeanne about Madison's connection to Gabriel, she heads over to the hospital realizing that Gabriel was going to kill Serena next. Reaching the hospital, Gabriel throws a patient's bed at Sydney, trapping her under it. It is also revealed that Gabriel was the reason for the miscarriages Madison suffered: he fed off the fetuses to replenish himself until he was strong enough to break out. As he was preparing to finally kill Sydney, Serena tries to convince him that she truly did love him and that she was wrong to give him away. He seemed to consider it for a brief moment before Kekoa comes in to shoot him. Enraged, Gabriel shoots Sydney in the head and then attempts to smother Serena by pinching her nose.

However, it then turns out that Madison had learned how to dominate the symbiosis, now regaining control of her body entrapping Gabriel in an illusion of her own, making him think he'd killed Sydney and Serena. Confronting her in their shared subconscious, Gabriel spitefully decries Madison for never defending and forgetting about him, declaring that because of his horrible treatment when they were children that he deserves control over her body, only for Madison to rebuff him by pointing out despite his terrible treatment and horrific existence as her vestigial twin, all of his evil and murderous actions were his own, therefore denying him further use of her life and body. Wresting full control over their mindscape from him, she locks Gabriel away in a subconscious jail cell, suppressing him once more. However, a furious Gabriel would scream after her that he would return one day and regain control, while Madison only assured him that she'd be ready to stop him again when that day comes.

Powers and Abilities[]

Powers[]

Shared Physiology: Gabriel is an extreme teratoma growing out of the back of Madison's brain. Since they literally share the same brain, Madison and Gabriel can manipulate each other's vision and hearing. Sharing the same brain also allows Gabriel to hijack Madison's body and use it for himself. Since Gabriel was using Madison's body to commit his crimes, Madison and Gabriel possess all the same powers. However only Gabriel can use them to the fullest.

  • Electrokinesis: Gabriel can control and manipulate electrical energy. He is able to emit an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that is powerful enough to blow light bulbs, destroy electronic locks and even quicken a pacemaker to the point that it overheats and explodes a man's heart and chest and control various machines. Since Gabriel has no vocal cords, he speaks through phones and radios by broadcasting his thoughts as radio waves (which are a type of electromagnetic radiation).
  • Domination: Although undeveloped, Gabriel can forcefully hijack his sister's body by placing her into so-called mental prison - a state where he tricks her mind, making her think that she does live normally while using her body for his purposes. However later Madison, after learning to control her mind, was able to do a similar thing to him, by making him think that he succeeded with his vengeance and locked him into mental jail.
  • Enhanced Strength: Gabriel is incredibly strong despite Madison's petite build. He can kick through brick walls, cause compound fractures with a swipe, and ripped clean though a human´s torso with his bare hands. Even as a child, Gabriel was able to kill several adults through brute strength alone. This strength may be due to the fact that Gabriel is able to turn off the limiters in the human body, so he is able to make full use of the force that the human body is capable of.
  • Enhanced Agility: Gabriel can dislocate every bone and joint in Madison's body, giving him extreme flexibility and agility. Gabriel is easily able to scale walls, dodge a room full of gunfire, and take on several opponents at once. Since Gabriel grows out of the back of Madison's head he often moves backwards and is agile enough to maneuver through a room full of debris and engage in combat while doing so.
  • Accelerated Healing: The most consistent example of Gabriel and Madison's healing factor is the emergence of Gabriel himself, who causes the entire back half of Madison's skull to split open when he takes over her body. Upon Gabriel's withdrawal back into her cranium, the severe wound heals to the point that it is unnoticeable, with residual bleeding and headaches being merely short-lived side effects and leaving Madison completely capable of doing everyday activities unaffected. Madison also took an onslaught of beatings from the female prisoners, yet Gabriel is able to easily kill them and everyone in the precinct moments later.

Abilities[]

  • Expert Combatant: Gabriel is a skilled combatant, able to take on a precinct full of armed police officers with nothing but a blade. He is however far from fully trained combatants as both Shaw and Moss were able to hold against him for some time in their respective fights with him, while with the confrontation with the former, Gabriel ultimately rather fled than risking fighting with him more.

Weaknesses[]

Undeveloping/Parasitic Nature: Because of being an underdeveloped parasitic twin, Gabriel is powerless in his state of being as he exists only as what remains from his face and brain connected to his sister, forcing him to use her body for his own purposes. He also depends heavily on his sister because her death means his own.

Weak Dominance: Despite Gabriel being able to hijack Madison´s body many times before, once Medison learned to control her mind, she was able to overwhelm Gabriel's influence since she was the dominant twin out of them, even making him believe he succeeded with his revenge. However, Gabriel claimed that he would be able to break out again sooner or later.

Victims[]

  • 3 Staff members of the Simion Research Hospital | Killed off-screen. Bodies discovered by Dr. Weaver.
  • Derek | Neck brutally snapped off-screen. Body found by Detective Shaw and Moss.
  • Dr. Florence Weaver | Stabbed in the head with sharp trophy.
  • Dr. Victor Fields | Stabbed in the throat and head with modified sharp trophy.
  • Dr. John Gregory | Stabbed to death with modified sharp trophy off-screen. Body discovered in bathtub by Detective Shaw.
  • 15 Female inmates | neck Teared apart Impaled by Gabriel arm arms snapped a head-stomp 7 killed off screen Matrix headsnap and Holes in eyes
  • Prison cell guard | Beaten to death with cell bars.
  • 24 Seattle Police Department officers and staff members | Fatally stabbed/mutilated with modified sharp trophy in various ways.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • Madison and Gabriel's condition and relationship shares many similarities with the urban legend of Edward Mordake. Edward Mordake was supposedly a man who was born with two faces, who secluded himself due to his deformity.
    • Both Madison and Edward had a second face growing from the back of their head that would try and compel them to do evil acts.
    • Both Madison and Edward refer to their second faces as the opposite gender of themselves. Madison calls Gabriel a "he" while Edward called his other face a "she".
    • Edward begged doctors to remove his second face, but they refused because the operation would most likely prove fatal. This mirrors how Madison's doctors didn't completely remove Gabriel due to the likelihood of it resulting in Madison's death or severe brain damage.
  • When asked about Gabriel's electro-kinesis and Madison's enhanced strength, co-writer and actress Ingrid Bisu revealed that she views Gabriel as an "awful anomaly" who is "almost like a supernatural being", and that Madison was "capable of all things; she had the strength, she just never realized it. She's a special being who was born in a special way. She's not just a regular person like everybody else."[1]
  • The title of the movie is a double meaning. Malignant means "malevolent", but when a tumor becomes malignant that means the cancerous cells can spread throughout the body and be fatal. Both definitions refer to Gabriel, who is evil and often called a cancer by doctors.
  • The creation of Gabriel was inspired by the real-world medical phenomena of teratoma tumors and parasitic twins, and he is called both in the film. While the film accurately describes both conditions, teratoma's and parasitic twins are largely recognized as being two separate medical diagnoses with different causes pertaining to their creation and development.
    • There is an overlap however, in the incredibly rare condition dubbed fetus-in-fetus, Latin for "fetus in a fetus" and is recognized as a type of parasitic twin when the underdeveloped twin is completely enclosed in the body of the developed twin. Some researchers' hypothesis fetus-in-fetus to be a mature type of teratoma, and the two conditions are so similar in appearance that fetus-in-fetus is often misdiagnosed as a teratoma tumor, since teratoma's are far more likely to occur.
    • However, Gabriel is not a fetus-in-fetus, being an external mass with developed limbs and facial features growing on Maddie, rendering him with more similarities to a craniopagus parasiticus (another type of parasitic twin). Although post-surgery, he does possess fetus-in-fetus characteristics, spending most of his time enclosed in Maddie's cranium, rendering him unable to be seen externally.
    • Both teratoma's and fetus-in-fetus can be malignant growths.
  • Gabriel's main weapon, his golden dagger, has an ironic twist to it. Forged from a trophy belonging to Dr. Weaver, the trophy was originally adorned with and upside-down Caduceus. In Greek mythology, the Caduceus is the staff of Hermes and a symbol of healing in modern medical fields. Gabriel, in turn, takes the medical symbol for healing and turns it into a weapon, perverting the symbol and giving his weapon a sense of irony.

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