My Review of Sick (2022)

 

Written by Kevin Williamson And Katelyn Crabb

Directed by John Hyams

Miri (to Parker) : "This isn't a vacation, it's a quarantine."

The last type of movie I want to watch would be a COVID themed. Aside from the fact that feels too soon to be doing these sort of movies, we've already too many things tackle this pandemic in a short space of time. However saying that, this was surprisingly decent.

The opening felt like it could've been lifted out of a Scream movie (considering the co-writer of this movie, you won't be shocked). We start off with a college guy named Tyler (Joel Courtney) who masked up and went to a store to get stuff while also receiving some creepy text messages.

Then Tyler went back to his dorm and within minutes he was killed by a mystery assailant. He put up a decent fight before dying but it set up a precedent as the killer(s) had bigger fish to fry than just Tyler. This would be where our actual protagonists would factor into things.

The protagonists being two young women named Parker (Gideon Adlon) and Miri (Beth Milion). They decided to take a vacation in a cabin and it wasn't long before Parker's boyfriend DJ (Dylan Sprayberry) also joined them. We get an insight into the no strings dynamic that Parker was trying to set with DJ with the more health conscious Miri also psychoanalysing her best friend.

As protagonists, the three are fine enough. Truth be told, they do feel like they could be in the Scream franchise (and I wouldn't be shocked if one of these actors winds up in that franchise) and it wasn't long before the mystery killers was doing their best to kill them one by one. As for the killers, the motive won't shock in the slightest.

Yes, it's a COVID related motive where parents Jason (Marc Menchaca) and Pamela (Jane Adams) wanted revenge on Parker for inadvertently killing their son, Benji (Logan Murphy). You'd almost feel bad for them but they're basically hypocrites and wind up getting their own just desserts with both Parker and Miri making it out of this movie intact.

- The main villains are literally named after a mother and son duo from a classic horror franchise.

- This was a streaming release, debuting on Peacock in January 2023. 

- Standout music: Erasure's A Little Respect.

- Chronology: It's specifically revealed to be April 2020, so around the time where lockdown was taking effect.

I had not low but not too high expectations for Sick. While I definitely don't think it's the best horror in recent times, I liked it far more than expected. You can see Kevin Williamson's influences here while John Hyams did a solid job with the direction. Some decent kills too helped.

Rating: 7 out of 10