The First Covid Slasher Movie

In Sick, a young woman and her best friend journey to a remote cabin in order to quarantine at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. They think they’ll be safe in the woods, but they are not alone. A creepy stalker is prowling the area. He’s trespassing, stealing phones, and making a general nuisance of himself.

The ladies receive unsettling text messages and realize that the creep is watching their every move. They joke that Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13^th series is after them. Sadly, Jason is nowhere to be found. Instead, the girls are menaced by a shadowy figure wearing a black mask.

The main character of Sick is Parker, a self-absorbed college student who is having particular trouble adjusting to the new realities of the pandemic era. She is played by Gideon Adlon, whom you might remember from the short-lived Netflix drama series The Society. She is accompanied by Miri (Bethlehem Million), her more Covid-conscious bestie.

Sick is set during an era that we would all rather forget. It effectively takes us back to the earliest days of the pandemic, when phrases like “social distancing” and “uncontrolled spread” were entering the popular lexicon. The girls watch Covid news broadcasts in the cabin. The film wisely uses genuine footage from that time period, with grim-faced journalists taking about lockdowns and super-spreader events.

A script concocted By the Creator Of Scream

Kevin Williamson, who earned fame and fortune in the ‘90s for writing Scream and Scream 2, wrote the screenplay. Sick has many similarities to those movies, including a masked killer who sends taunting messages to potential victims, references to famous horror franchises, and a self-aware sense of humor. The villain in Sick is not as memorable as Ghostface from Scream, but he is handy with a knife. And a fireplace poker.

Sick is, in many ways, a generic and conventional backwoods slasher movie. The characters are fine but not particularly memorable. But the Covid angle was a brilliant idea. It distinguishes Sick from countless other “cabin in the woods” horror movies.

Rating:

The twists and turns in Sick will feel familiar to viewers who have seen Kevin Williamson’s prior works, but the 2020 setting sets it apart from average slasher flicks.