Sick

Film: Sick

Year: 2022

Director: John Hyams

Writers: Kevin Williamson and Katelyn Crabb

Starring: Gideon Aldon, Bethlehem Million and Dylan Sprayberry

Review:

This is a movie that I heard about through podcasts. It is technically from 2022 due to festivals but was released wide in 2023. I decided to check this out since I still had a Peacock subscription. This is also one that I heard a bit about, the premise was intriguing even though I’m not the biggest slasher fan.

Synopsis: due to the pandemic, Parker (Gideon Adlon) and her best friend decide to quarantine at the family lake house alone – or so they think.

We start this off with Tyler (Joel Courtney) in a store at the height of pandemic. People need to socially distance, everyone is wearing masks and there is no toilet paper. While he is in the store, he gets a text message asking if he wants to party. He doesn’t have the number saved and he tries to figure out who it is. They are stalking him, sending a picture from the back of the line. These texts agitate our character, but we see there’s something more sinister awaiting them when they get back to their apartment.

This then jumps to our two leads. There is Parker who is packing up her vehicle and she is joined by her best friend Miri Woodlow (Bethlehem Million). This duo is going to Parker’s families’ lake house to quarantine. Classes have been suspended. Miri is concerned though and taking the pandemic seriously. It sounds like she is going to be visiting family soon and someone there is immune compromised.

They head out and have fun. It involves sitting by the lake, taking in the sun and drinking. Their night takes a turn though when someone shows up. It turns out to be DJ Cole (Dylan Sprayberry) who was seeing Parker. He is madly in love with her, but she isn’t interested. Miri calls her out on this and Parker even seems to know that she’s right. It doesn’t change things though.

It gets even darker when another vehicle shows up. Someone breaks into the house and steals everyone’s cellphones while they sleep. It becomes a nightmare as they attack DJ. The two young women need to find a way out before it is too late. This makes you wonder if this was a random act of violence or is there something more to why they’re targeted. I’ll also include that Tyler also knows this group of friends.

That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start then is that it wasn’t shocking to see at the end of this that one of our writers was Kevin Williamson. You will know him from things like the Scream movies, I Know What You Did Last Summer and other teen movies like that. He even created the TV show Dawson’s Creek. It is wild that even after all this time he still is writing teen slashers like this. What I’ll credit here is that this is a solid update with the backdrop of the pandemic.

Now I know that is going to turn people off. Having lived through it, I know people don’t want to go back to remembering those days. Personally, I think this becomes a solid time capsule. Seeing the set up here where Tyler is annoyed about how you must follow the arrows in the store, needing to keep your mask on and what not was spot on for that period. I even like that Miri is pre-med or something along those lines. She is taking this seriously. Parker is to a lesser degree. I’d bet though that if Miri wasn’t there, she wouldn’t. The title of the movie also plays back into the reveal. It is an interesting backdrop as I said for this slasher film.

I’m not going to reveal things here, but I thought this was a solid enough slasher film. I’ll bring up my criteria on how I rate these. We need to have either good characters or kills to work. If you have both, that tends to be the stronger installments to this subgenre. I’ll start then with the former. Our leads are all Gen-Z. I’m technically a millennial with some Gen-X sensibilities. I didn’t care for Parker, but she works in the framework of the story. Miri was right in how strict she was, but now being mostly out of the pandemic, she is annoying. They both get a reaction of out of me so credit there to Adlon and Million for their performances. Sprayberry was solid and I also saw a bit of younger me trying to persuade Parker. Even Courtney was solid in his role to kick this movie off.

There is also the killer. They have a good look. Their size works and the reveal as to who they are was solid for me. This is something that I won’t reveal. I did like that they’re using a big hunting knife. Once we get to the cabin, get that usual cat and mouse as our characters try to get away. I thought there were good things about that. A big thing here that I enjoyed was that once we see who the villain is, it makes sense why mistakes are made. There is a human element that gets introduced there. I’ll credit the actors here, unfortunately not by name.

To then just end out crediting the acting for those I haven’t said yet. I liked seeing Marc Menchaca here. I don’t see him a lot, but he has a good screen presence. I always appreciate that. Jane Adams was solid along with Chris Reid, Duane Stephens and the rest of the cast. They’re all solid as to how they fit into things here.

All that is left then is filmmaking. Let me go back to the other thing I judge these movies on and that’s the kills. These are brutal enough. I thought what they did here was fine. I also thought the cinematography was good. From what I remember, they were able to hide things with angles and how it was framed. That’s always a positive there. Other than that, I thought the soundtrack fit. There is a song that is heard and gets incorporated back later. That was a cool thing to do there. I’d say that overall, this was well-made.

In conclusion, you may know that I’m not the biggest slasher fan. I do think they tend to be a bit slow. This was solid that it starts off with a kill. From there, I like the story that gets introduced and why this group of friends is targeted. I don’t necessarily like the characters, but I thought the acting was good to get a reaction. This is well made. I thought that the cinematography and the effects were solid. The use of the soundtrack also worked. Not the best movie out there, but if you want a slasher film with the backdrop of the pandemic, give this a go.

My Rating: 6.5 out of 10