BrowseAI · unconfirmed

Maléfique(2003)

Name: Maléfique
Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Mystery
Released: 2003
Duration: 90 min

2003 · Eric Valette · 90 min

Four prisoners discover a handwritten book of black magic in their cell, and decide to use it to escape.

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Fantasy · Horror · Mystery

5.9126 votes

TMDB score

4/5

Intensity

3/5

Gore

4/5

Stays with you

How scary is Maléfique?

There's a heavy, trapped feeling that never lets up, like the walls themselves are closing in on you. Most of the runtime is quiet dread and paranoia between four men stuck in a filthy cell, but it builds toward some genuinely nasty, body-based horror once the magic starts working. The scares aren't cheap jumps; they come from watching desperate people make worse and worse choices with something they don't understand. This one sticks with you after, more grim and upsetting than fun.

On The Horror Database's 0–5 scare profile, Maléfique rates psychological 4/5, visceral 3/5, gore 3/5, lingering effect 4/5, and overall intensity 4/5.

Psychological: 4 of 5
Visceral: 3 of 5
Gore: 3 of 5
Lingering: 4 of 5
Intensity: 4 of 5

Slow burn vs Jump scares: 15 of 100 — leans Slow burn

Slow burnJump scares

Supernatural vs Real-world: 10 of 100 — leans Supernatural

SupernaturalReal-world

Fun-scary vs Disturbing: 75 of 100 — leans Disturbing

Fun-scaryDisturbing

Intensity over runtime

Shape only — no events

Reveal pacing shapeHide pacing shapeHidden by default — shows where the tension peaks and lets up.

A slow-building, claustrophobic burn that stays tense throughout and turns genuinely brutal in its final stretch.

Intensity across the runtime, 0 to 100: 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5.

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Subgenres

occult psychological horror body horror isolation cult horror slow burn

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Slow-burn horror

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