Sick Review

I love a film that pulls a fast one on me, it is the sign of not only good filmmaking but more specifically good directing, good pacing and good acting, and Peacock's "Sick" is exactly that. It's a taut thriller, part slasher, part home-invasion, with some timely COVID pandemic flair who's climatic twist is equal parts clever and in bad-taste.

As the film opens, we see a young man struggling to find basic necessities at the local store, while getting stalking texts from a stranger. He's quickly killed, sorry if that's a spoiler, but I'm calling this scene out because it shows just how talented director John Hyams is at building suspense in a setting we're not familiar with and a character we know nothing of. It doesn't rely on the old trick of "ominous music" then scare, instead working over silence with close-ups and long-shots. The rest of the picture is no different and you sit there on your couch wishing his and everyone else's talents were involved in something not so tawdry.

Gideon Adlon plays Parker, a college student who heads out to her family's cabin in April 2020 with her friend Miri (Bethlehem Million) for quarantine. Parker's less serious about the whole coronavirus thing than Miri, having to be reminded to wear a mask, etc., but they nevertheless lounge by the lake and talk about boys. Being that I am not in school nor a girl, I can only imagine that this is what young women do, but I digress.

Nightfall hits and someone's at the house, hooded and driving a big pickup. Turns out it's Parker's non-exclusive boyfriend who's unhappy about a social media post where she's kissing another guy. He wants love but she just wants fun, or so I'm guessing, but it provides you with more backstory than your typical 80's slasher: no one here is just the generic "jock" or "nerd." They might not be fully-realized, but they're not caricatures either.

To go on further about the narrative would be a disservice, because all you need in a production like this is the plot to go along for the ride, but there is something slimy here. It's the use of the pandemic that really made me feel icky, as if it's too soon to be making light of a subject that is still killing people in the real world. It's not smart enough to be making a social statement, so it feels cheap and exploitative. 

I kept reminding myself that this is not only "just" a movie, but a horror movie. And not just any horror movie, but a slasher/home-invasion one. I should be able to make peace with its flagrant vulgarity, but my moral compass simply won't let me.