Film

Malice

Name: Malice
Genre: Thriller
Released: 1993
Cast: Alec Baldwin, Nicole Kidman, Bill Pullman, Bebe Neuwirth, George C. Scott

Other titles called Malice: the 2025 series (Prime Video).

Psychological thriller

A taut psychological thriller about a surgeon, a professor, and the professor's wife whose lives become entangled after a medical crisis. Malice is a twisty 90s nail-biter that delights in yanking the rug out and watching you stumble, anchored by strong performances and a script that trusts its audience to follow the schemes. It's for people who like being played with—cleverly, not contemptuously.

TMDb rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy a slow-burn domestic thriller where a comfortable marriage slowly curdles under suspicion, and you like watching respected professionals behave badly with a smile.

Skip it if you prefer tightly plotted thrillers, since this one leans on melodramatic flourishes and heavy-handed performances that some viewers will find more irritating than gripping.

What it asks of you: Under two hours, at a measured pace that lets domestic details accumulate before the tension tightens, with a patient build rather than early jolts.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Body Double1984

De Palma's erotic thriller about obsession and deception. Like Malice, it wraps betrayal in technical brilliance and surface glamour, with a twist that recontextualizes everything you've watched.

But The sexual content feels dated, and some will find the whole enterprise morally queasy in ways the film doesn't fully interrogate.

Presumed Innocent1990

Harrison Ford as a lawyer accused of his lover's murder. The same DNA as Malice: a marriage under pressure, a crime that unmakes a life, and the slow dawning that nothing is as it seems.

But Methodical to the point of deliberation; if you're not gripped by Ford's descent into nightmare, the pace will feel sluggish.

Basic Instinct1992

Sharon Stone as a woman who may or may not be a murderer. Pure 90s erotic thriller energy: slick, confident, built on the pleasure of not knowing who to trust and what's really happening.

But The sexual politics are genuinely troubling, and the film doesn't know it—or doesn't care. That might bother you, or worse, it might not.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Malice

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Secrets & Lies1996

Both films are about deception and revelation, but Malice serves you the twist like a magician, while Secrets and Lies makes you understand it like a witness. Same engine, opposite approaches.

Mike Leigh's controlled detonation of a family held together by lies. Like Malice, it builds toward a catastrophic unmasking, but instead of plot mechanics it uses character and naturalism—watching people's faces when the truth arrives hits harder than any script trick.

But It's patient, almost prosaic in its method. The emotional devastation creeps up on you; if you're expecting thriller momentum, you'll be waiting for a climax that never comes.

The Grifters1990

Con artists and betrayal; every character is both predator and prey. The precision of the plotting and the cold intelligence of the performances share Malice's appetite for watching people scheme and suffer.

But Bleak and unglamorous. There's no one to root for, and the film gives you no comfort for your investment.

Jagged Edge1985

Jeff Bridges as a man accused of murdering his wife, Glenn Close as the lawyer defending him. A legal thriller that knows exactly how to wind you up, with a final twist that lands hard.

But The setup is fairly familiar by now, and the pacing in the middle sags while lawyers do lawyer things.

Final Analysis1992

Richard Gere and Uma Thurman in a psychotherapy noir. Sexually charged, paranoid, and built entirely on the question of who's manipulating whom—thematically tight with Malice's preoccupations.

But Slick to the point of emptiness. It prioritizes seduction over insight, and by the end you might feel you've been toyed with rather than satisfied.

The Verdict1982

Paul Newman as a drunk lawyer fighting a malpractice case against a hospital. A slow burn about deception and culpability, with a moral complexity that deepens the longer you sit with it.

But It's a courtroom procedural from another era. If you need plot velocity, this will feel like watching paint cure.

Disclosure1994

Michael Douglas and Demi Moore in a sexual-harassment thriller. Slick, contemporary, and genuinely fun in its willingness to reverse expectations and keep you guessing about who's really guilty.

But The premise relies on assumptions that don't hold up well now, and the film's gender politics are awkward even for 1994.

The Bonfire of the Vanities1990

A sprawling satire about a man destroyed by social circumstance and the machinery that grinds him down. The architecture of deception and ruin echoes Malice's architecture, if from a different angle.

But Adaptation of a massive novel; the film is bloated and unfocused, trying to hit too many targets and missing most of them.

Caché2005

Both explore how secrets and hidden truths rewire a marriage and a life. Malice explodes them into melodrama; Cache lets them fester like infection. Same question—'What don't I know?'—opposite temperatures.

Haneke's paranoid masterpiece about surveillance and unexamined guilt. Like Malice, it's about people whose lives are controlled by hidden knowledge, but it's filmed with restraint and ambiguity that makes it far more unsettling than any Big Twist.

But Frustratingly opaque. Haneke withholds answers you feel you're owed, and some viewers experience that as punishment rather than artistry.

The 39 Steps1935

Malice is a Hitchcockian thriller built on the same foundation: ordinary people caught in schemes, unable to trust anything, propelled by plot rather than character. The 39 Steps is the ur-text—the moment Hitchcock discovered this was the shape that worked.

Hitchcock's original—a wrongly accused man on the run, betrayed and trusting the wrong people, racing against time and odds. The DNA of Malice runs directly back here: plot as a series of reversals and realignments, suspense that comes from confusion.

But It's 88 minutes of black and white British cinema. The pacing and style are brisk by modern standards, possibly too remote if you need contemporary psychology or production values.