It’s been a little over a year and I guess that’s enough time for the stench of Covid-19 to wear off before producers, writers, and directors in Hollywood have decided to exploit the pandemic for entertainment value. Sick is an exclusive horror film from Peacock that uses the Covid-19 pandemic badly. It’s also a twist on slasher films like the Scream franchise.
At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, set in April 2020. Parker (Gideon Adlon) is a college-age girl who goes to her father’s lake house with her best friend Miri (Bethlehem Million) to quarantine from the Covid-19 pandemic. While there an old flame DJ (Dylan Sprayberry) shows up to hang out with them. Once the girls go to sleep DJ notices that someone else is in the house. They end up in a fight for survival from this visiter who’s out to kill them.
Sick takes the slasher horror genre to a new level with a twist on the Covid-Pandemic and the costs that not putting a mask on or keeping six feet of distance. Some people took this very seriously. And in the case of the film it had major consequences. Using social media and Instagram to post photos all the time can also bite you in the backside because people can use this information to track your whereabouts.
This movie shows things that are wrong or are a detriment to our society even though they could be used as a means to express yourself or even make money as an example of an influencer. Or from add revenue. The film also uses CNN and one of its hosts Anderson Cooper as a way to get its message across. This was a dark time in the world and our country and I took it seriously but others did not. This film serves as a message for that dark time that wasn’t that long ago.
With the serious stuff out of the way what’s left is a pretty decent horror film with some very bloody kill scenes and gory visuals. The director John Hyams and the writers Kevin Williamson, famous for his work in the Scream franchise, and Katelyn Crabb take a real-world event like the Covid-19 pandemic and infuse a lot of horror tropes the fans of this genre can get behind. This is a genuinely good horror movie.
With all horror films, you have to have a suspension of disbelief. Especially regarding time and how it’s used, how people travel within a particular period of time and distance. The movie blurs those lines. And another aspect is survivability. How much stabbing or blood loss is acceptable in one of these films before you start shaking your head in disbelief? One particular character falls from a long distance and only has a broken leg and then crawls and puts a splint on their leg using a table leg. That’s a little far-fetched, but like I said suspension of disbelief.
Sick is an apt title for this movie. The writers and director put enough of the pandemic to use that title properly while also infusing the horror elements into the film. This movie shows the penalty of not doing things the proper way during the pandemic even if they were a bit unorthodox and out of your normal routine. The cast of newcomers and a couple of veterans like Marc Manchaca and Jane Adams round out a decent cast but Gideon Adlon was a pleasant surprise in a rather surprisingly enjoyable horror film set during the pandemic.
Sick is on Peacock Right Now
3 1/2 stars
Dan Skip Allen
From the Fourth Row! 