Sick

There's a lockdown and it's time to quarantine, so with Miri you locate to a new scene, a plush cabin by a lake, a great place to take a break, put your feet up 'til routine can reconvene. An uninvited guest, knocks on the door, he's a friend you find it tricky to ignore, so he joins the isolation, and then demonstrates frustration, you retire for the night, not wanting more. Alas, a good night's sleep's not on the cards, as the silence is soon broken, the quiet jarred, an aggressive strain makes entry, most resistant and unfriendly, and the antidote will leave you deeply scarred.

Not the worst film from the genre you'll come across.

Set during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, college students and friends Parker Mason (Gideon Adlon) and Miri Woodlow (Bethlehem Million) head out to Miri's parents lakeside house to ride out quarantine. The two have the unexpected visit from Parker's boyfriend DJ Cole (Dylan Sprayberry) who came hoping to get some perspective on their relationship only to find Parker has no interest in being exclusive but allows him to stay until morning. However the three soon discover they're not alone as a masked killer begins terrorizing them with their secluded hideaway now isolating them from help.

Sick is the latest film from Scream writer and creator Kevin Williamson and director John Hyams. Williamson's inspiration for Sick came about during the pandemic where noticing the isolation and effects thereof thought it could be put to good use for a horror film. Alongside Williamson, the movie is also the screenwriting debut of co-writer Katelyn Crabb who had worked as an assistant to Williamson on the 2022 Scream. Now debuting on Peacock, I'm happy to say that Sick is a solidly entertaining time with bloody fun and Williamson's trademark sense of humor.

The movie does a good job of setting itself up with an opening kill sequence featuring Joel Courtney's Tyler that establishes the early days of Covid going through a grocery store and despite plenty of people in the store it's a very isolating experience as Tyler walks through the aisles inundating with vaguely sinister text messages on his phone. While there've been plenty of Covid films only a few have really stuck out as legitimately good such as KIMI or Glass Onion while others such as Songbird or The Bubble were not, I'm happy to say that Sick is closer to the level of the former than the latter. Once the movie gets started it doesn't let up and John Hyams does a good job of putting the script to film with some intensely directed attack scenes using a handheld camera and during the lurking scenes Hyams doesn't use ANY orchestral stings or jump scares and instead opts for creeping dread to build fear and tension. In many ways I was reminded of that Mike Flanagan film Hush from a few years ago that much like Sick was a minimalist slasher film in an isolated countryside. I don't think Sick is quite on par with Hush as I wasn't all that hooked with the characters initially and thought the opening with them partying in the house dragged a little bit, but once the action kicked in I did feel like I got to know them a bit more and I was invested in the outcome.

Sick is fun, humorous, and quick slasher entertainment that will be a welcome viewing for fans of the genre. While some of the character setup drags a little bit, at 77 minutes not including credits Hyams and Williamson create an effective and efficient piece of horror entertainment and I hope to see them collaborate on another project together.

I'm officially at the age where it's really hard to relate to this generation of whiny, social media addicted kids. I truly wanted all of the characters to die.

Also, even though it's very different, it's still too similar to Scream. From the opening scene, to the knife yielding, black clad killer, to the set pieces, it is very derivative of the better slasher.

The fact that it takes place during the pandemic seems very irrelevant. It feels very gimmicky, honestly.

Three people hole up in a lake house to quarantine. A guy dressed like a ninja shows up and it becomes one of those home invasion flicks, where the victims get stalked and hunted in ever more ludicrous scenarios. Something else happens that was enough to keep me intrigued and from turning it off, though.

But the bulk of the movie is that. People being attacked by masked intruder.

Sure, in the end they try to tie it all back to Covid, but ultimately, this flimsyly plotted trifle will not stand the test of time. Destined for the trash heap of horror history. 86 min is the runtime of this movie and roughly how long it will take me to forget it.

Kitty cat pig. Oink oink.

There are some movies you know 5 minutes going into it that it's going to be worth the while. This was such a movie. The beginning was suspenseful out of the gate and had me looking away. Great action, scary, decent acting and the kind of slasher that I would gladly see a sequel of. It had me jump several times and was just generally creepy. It actually had a similar feel to Scream which I love. It had also a sense of realism that this could actually happen that I appreciated. The characters actually did semi-intelligent things as opposed to just plain stupid decisions. It didn't insult the viewers intelligence. Finally I really liked the homage to the whole period of lock down COVID. There were a few parts that actually had me laughing because of how ridiculous and paranoid the first days of lockdown were for people. They need to make more slashers like this that are truly scary from beginning to end. Keep them coming!

Movies like this live or die based on the decisions of the protagonists and while the ones in this film make some decent decisions, as the movie progresses they become increasingly dumb. It's a shame because there are some effective thrills and a solid premise here.

It balances the tone of satirizing Covid while also not completely disregarding the pandemic. The Covid stuff does lead to some pretty funny jokes though. It's a bit predictable as you can guess the killer's motives and it loses some momentum near the finale. For a Peacock Original, Sick is a decent jaunt into the world of pandemics and home invasions.