Sick – Film Review

As the pandemic steadily brings the world to a halt, Parker and her best friend Miri decide to quarantine at the family lake house alone–or so they think.

Despite being a decently entertaining horror slasher flick, isn’t it still a bit too soon to be making films based around the COVID-19 pandemic? There are still many places and countries all around the world that are dealing with the deadly virus, and yet here we are making films based on it already.

Regardless, John Hyams‘ Sick is a relatively enjoyable slasher that manages to inject a bit of cleverness into the genre along the way, seamlessly blending together a home-invasion style horror with a masked serial killer horror. Sometimes, the film can be a bit of a drag, but when things pick up in the second act, it’s essentially a ruthless, satisfactory thrill ride.

Right from the opening scene alone, it’s clear that the film was written rather cleverly (for the most part). Kevin Williamson and Katelyn Crabb find interesting ways to set the premise up. We watch as a young man named Tyler gets back home from the grocery store, disinfecting some of his items when he notices that someone is in his house.

Because of the fact that during this scene, COVID-19 has just started to get really bad, Tyler is not only having to fear for his life in one way, but rather, two. It’s a fun and clever setup that promises some fun to be had along the way. By far the most boring parts of the movie happen in the first act.

It’s basically the set-up act in which we are introduced to all of our lead cast of characters. There’s some strange jokes thrown in there as well that are kind of frustrating, but thankfully, seeing as how this movie doesn’t even run for an hour and twenty minutes with credits, the first act isn’t too long.

Once the killer starts to snoop around the main house of the movie is where things start to take a noticeably more fun turn. From that point onward, the film becomes a hide-and-seek game from hell for our protagonists, who have to do everything they can to not be seen by this serial killer while stuck inside of a house.

There aren’t too many rooms to hide inside and yet they must find a way to survive the night. Of course, since this is a slasher film, there’s going to be some kills scattered throughout, and I must say that I was surprised at just how inventive and exciting they were.

Most notably, one scene toward the end involving a trophy mount was quite fun to see. It’s a good thing that they got one of the writers from the Scream franchise on-board with this one in the form of Kevin Williamson because he clearly knows what he’s doing in this genre.

This isn’t one of the best horror movies I’ve seen recently, but it’s certainly not bad at all. If you’re in the mood for some light, airy slasher goodness, this should satisfy your craving.

Aside from a slow start and a strange premise, Sick is a decently enjoyable slasher film with some inventive kills and surprising turns.