Sick – An edge of your seat thrill-ride

Directed by: John Hyams

Starring: Gideon Adlon and Bethlehem Million

Synopsis: While quarantining at her family’s lake house during the pandemic, Parker and her best friend are threatened by an unexpected visitor

Coughs and Sneezes, spread diseases

Written by Scream writer Kevin Williamson and directed by the amazing John Hyams, Sick uses the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic to set its scene. 

As the movie opens, the scene harkens back to a time when people wore masks in stores, had one-way systems, and kept distance from each other. We are introduced to Tyler who is out shopping at his local supermarket. He starts to receive random text messages that start out normal but take a sinister turn, which is concluded by a picture message of himself in the queue! From there we get an introduction to our knife-wielding killer who is silent, tactical, cunning and brutal, but it’s only a taste of what’s to come later on. 

You’re not alone..

We are introduced to besties Parker and Miri after the opening slice and dice. During the quarantine period, these two will stay at Parker’s lakeside house. Parker’s on/off boyfriend shows up to try and win her over but she’s not really interested. She lets him stay the night and the trio have a smoke and some drinks, eventually retiring to bed after a fun filled night. Unknown to them, a masked maniac has been watching them, and as their night ends, the maniac begins to terrorize them. 

With a running time of 83 minutes, no minutes are wasted. The final act of the movie is fun when we learn motives and the story comes full circle. Sick opts for the ‘final girl chase’ as the basis for the movie once the terror begins. The cat and mouse game between survivors and killers will keep audiences gripped and shouting at the TV. 

Sick

John Hyams is a master at setting the atmosphere in his movies and bringing scripts to life is something he never fails at. Sick is no different. Kevin Williamson is a very talented writer in the horror department. He wrote Scream 1,2 and 4, I Know What You Did Last Summer and The Faculty to name a handful of movies. With Sick, Williamson gives his audience a new horror movie that they can get excited about as it is a fun slasher movie which uses the pandemic and the isolation to provide suspenseful scares.  

Verdict

Sick doesn’t want to shock you with loads of gory killings and barrels of blood and guts. Instead, it relies on tension and suspense, and the feeling of being trapped. Sick will have the audience engage with the TV and unintentionally enter survival mode.