Sick
PeacockIn response to the COVID-19 pandemic that continues to shape and change the world, cinema has been left as a medium to wrestle with and analyze the changes and emotions the pandemic has left on society. While some films like Roshan Sethi's 7 Days have tackled this relationship through more comedic perspectives, others like Rob Savage's Dashcam have, instead, taken a darker approach with the horror genre playing well into the panic and fears of the pandemic. This mindset is the one that led to the birth of John Hyams' Sick. With a screenplay co-written by Kevin Williamson, a writer who has proven his talents through his work on the Scream franchise and horror pieces such as I Know What You Did Last Summer, there seemed to be hope for the Peacock original to be a modern gem of the slasher genre. The results, sadly, are far more lackluster.
The plot behind Sick is remarkably simple. In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and the early portion of the lockdown, college friends Parker (Gideon Adlon) and Miri (Bethlehem Million) travel to Parker's family lake house in order to enjoy their quarantine as much as possible. With the huge house to themselves and private access to a stunning lake, things seem like it will be rather ok for the pair, even as the world outside this haven is in struggle. Being a slasher, of course, things begin to go wrong as dead bodies start to pile up and an unknown killer puts the girls at risk.
From the title on, there is no denying that Sick has chosen to make the COVID-19 pandemic a central theme and gimmick for the feature. Using iconographies such as masks and the news telling the newest COVID-19 updates, on the outside, it appears as if Sick is prepared to elevate itself by embracing the deeper experiences of the pandemic to find a more meaningful thesis and existence beyond just being a standard slasher outing. These expectations are quickly hurt, however, as it is clear that the pandemic is nothing more than a cheap ploy by the film to make it stand out against the genre. Much of the film betrays any interest in the pandemic as the film rapidly jumps to a standard and forgettable slasher layout and formula that has very little to do with the pandemic. Even the basic visual identity of the setting fails this supposed connection. While the large house that Parker and Miri stay in is successful when it comes to the requirements of a slasher setting, the grand scale and space immediately separate the film from the isolation and cramped reality that many actually experienced during the pandemic.
Once the pandemic is reintroduced towards the end, the results are messy at best. The motivations of the eventually revealed killers might make sense when it comes to weight, but the power dynamics presented are questionable at best. The film never feels mature enough to find complexity within its worldviews and judgment with the protagonists never feeling truly questioned or condemned even as their faults are displayed. The conclusion is also rather poorly set up, with much of the film's drama and thrills ultimately proving worthless. While it is a needed component of murder mysteries to have false leads and misdirections, Sick feels impossible to predict or follow in a way that is more frustrating than anything else.
The actual viewing experience of Sick is also notably bland. For much of the film, nothing of real purpose or value plays out with these girls moving around their house with nothing more than shadows running in the background. While director John Hyams successfully manages to build scenes of brooding tension, the film continually drops the ball in having any of them lead to something of note with even the bloodier scenes feeling lifeless. The film struggles to find an attitude or personality with the results instead feels like a film going through the motions of the slasher genre with the hope that the COVID-19 setting will be enough to interest audiences. Failing to help are the two lead performances by Gideon Adlon and Bethlehem Million who are also tragically forgettable.
Outside of some competent filmmaking and at least attempting to find some grander connection between the slasher genre and COVID-19 pandemic, Sick is a film that deserves to be put into quarantine. The slasher is a sluggish and boring effort that infects with questionable morals and inherent resistance to actually taking that next step when it comes to its social identity. John Hyams proves he can direct a slasher, but nothing in the film's screenplay ends up being something of value for him to work with. If Peacock is wanting to truly define itself in the horror genre, it is going to take far more than this to accomplish its goals.
