Sick (2022)

If you think back to the peak days of the global pandemic of 2020 then it makes sense that it would inspire a slasher. Everyone was paranoid, many were isolated from others, and the majority of people were wearing masks anyway. This is the fertile ground explored by writers Kevin Williamson and Katelynn Crabb in Sick. 

After an obligatory opening sequence of tension and death, Sick starts properly when we meet two friends, Parker (Gideo Adlon) and Miri (Bethlehem Million, credited as Beth Million), who are about to quarantine together at a remote house by a lake. They are soon joined by DJ (Dylan Sprayberry). And . . . someone else.

The one thing I knew about Sick was that Kevin Williamson was involved. It's always going to get noticed when such a big name in the slasher sub-genre has a hand in another slasher movie. His involvement had me keen to see this, but I also knew to control my expectations. This was, after all, a slasher movie set during a period of time that many of us would probably prefer to forget. Thankfully, Williamson and Crabb set things up nicely, and gain some goodwill by having the first line of dialogue be someone asking about toilet paper in a store, and there's a tone throughout that respects what we all went through in 2020 while also highlighting how crazy it all was. Many people were driven a bit crazy by the whole situation, and I count myself among them.

Having been familiar with the work of director John Hyams in the action genre, it was a pleasant surprise to see his name pop up here. That's on me, considering his previous forays into thriller and horror territory (with at least one feature and some TV work to his credit, including the fun Z Nation and the fantastic Chucky show). Hyams works well enough with the material, although he doesn't get to show off any of his usual style and ability here. Backgrounds are used well, particularly during the many times that characters in the foreground are oblivious to movement behind them, but the main premise makes it a struggle for Hyams to keep things tense and lively enough throughout the 83-minute runtime.

Adlon and Million are decent in their roles, although it would have been nice to have some more established named placed in the middle of the proceedings, and Sprayberry makes the best of what he's given. Marc Menchaca and Jane Adams are both good value, and Joel Courtney gets to play someone who casts as large a shadow over everything as any masked murderer.

Despite dipping slightly in the middle, Sick works well thanks to a strong start and a great third act. The motivation for the murders is actually quite brilliant, and I was smiling at how obvious and well-handled it was as everything started to fall into place. There's nothing new here, but it feels fresh because of the specific time period. Although I would warn people that, obviously, this isn't necessarily something you'll enjoy if you're still recovering from the collective global trauma that saw so much pain, insanity, and death in such a relatively short period of time.

7/10

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Prime Time: Dog (2022)

People always like to go on about their respect for those who have served time with the military. There’s always an element of peer pressure to view everyone in uniform as a hero. But the same peer pressure is rarely applied to ensuring things like decent benefits for veterans, free healthcare, and help with mental health issues (particularly PTSD), readjustment to civilian life, and even housing. Sometimes it feels very much like people are saying “thank you for your service, please let me swerve around your cardboard bed while I vote for someone who has you bottom on their list of self-enriching priorities.” Or maybe I am being a bit too bitter and cynical.

Anyway, Dog is a film that explores PTSD and rehabilitation, but it does so by pairing Channing Tatum up with a dog, Lulu, perhaps because those making the film knew that this would sugar-coat the message better than just having a damaged human character as the focus. Tatum plays Jackson Briggs, an ex-Ranger who really wants to get back into military service. He has somehow managed to convince someone that he is medically fit, despite having some major problems, but a superior officer needs to make a call to finalise everything. That call will be made, but on one condition. Briggs needs to take Lulu on a cross-country trip to attend the funeral of the young man who used to be her handler. That would be easy enough, if not for the fact that Lulu is as traumatised and nervous as many other soldiers who have been in the heat of battle as often as she was.

Co-directed by Reid Carolin and Tatum, both making their feature debuts in that role, Dog is a very easygoing, very pleasing, mix of drama and comedy that aims more for the former than the latter. Even the potentially funniest sequence (in which Tatum pulls off a scam to get a nice hotel room for one night) ends with a moment that brings everything back down to a sombre reality. It’s not depressing though, although it is emotionally manipulative and moving (I had something in my eye on a couple of occasions), and anyone thinking they know how it will all play out is probably going to be 100% correct with their predictions.

The script, by Carolin (from a story developed with Brett Rodriguez), is best when it maintains focus on that strong through line of the central character developments. There are a number of episodic side-steps, played out with varying degrees of success, and one or two moments could have easily been excised to craft a tighter, arguably better, film. Not that it overstays its welcome, thanks to the third act being better than all the rest, but the first half of the film suffers as it shows Tatum trying to enjoy some time away from his new traveling companion.

I will say that Tatum is good in his role, very believable as the damaged and desperate veteran wanting to get back to the only life he really knows, and there are enjoyable small turns from Kevin Nash, Jane Adams, Bill Burr, and Ethan Suplee, but the real star of the show is Lulu (played by a number of different canine stars, named Zaza, Britta, and Lana 5). If you are watching a movie named Dog then you should feel something for the dog. Although starting off perceived as a vicious and uncontrollable “monster”, Lulu is always just the same as Tarik’s character, a soldier deemed unfit for service who hasn’t known any other way of life. The parallels running between the two, and how they end up complementing one another, are as obvious as they are emotionally affecting.

There are things that could be improved, including that pacing in the first half. Thomas Newman’s score isn’t great, the music choices are bland, and it’s not a visually interesting piece of work. But the central pairing of Tatum and the dog, the battle between them, is easily good enough to recommend this to fans of either kind of movie star, be it hunk or hound.

7/10

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She Dies Tomorrow (2020)

A film that would make up a perfect companion piece to the excellent Pontypool, She Dies Tomorrow is a film all about an infectious idea that renders people quite unable to go about their day to day business as they used to.

Kate Lyn Sheil plays Amy, a woman who becomes convinced that she is going to die tomorrow. She doesn't seem alarmed by that knowledge. It won't necessarily be a terrible thing, especially if she can put her plan in place to have her remains turned into a leather jacket. As Amy passes her foresight along to Jane (Jane Adams), Jane becomes equally convinced that she will also die tomorrow. As does everyone who becomes a part of this chain of communication.

Written and directed by Amy Seimetz, this is a small and effective drama that constantly darts in and out of the horror genre, and it's a film that explores a few various aspects of humanity in surprisingly effective ways, be it depression that can plunge anyone into a dark abyss, leaving them falling/floating like Alice heading into Wonderland, or the general aversion that most of us have when it comes to discussing our own mortality. It also features moments in which people are having a very real existential crisis, at the very least, while others try to criticise them for it or ask them to stop bringing down the mood of the room.

Sheil and Adams are both very good, spending a lot of the film in a bit of a daze, while everyone else appearing alongside them does work on a par with them, many quickly transforming during scenes that show them talking to a character until they themselves are afflicted with the same knowledge about their own time left on the planet. The supporting cast members worth highlighting are Katie Aselton, Chris Messina, Tunde Adebimpe, Jennifer Kim, and Josh Lucas, although you also have screentime for Adam Wingard, Michelle Rodriguez, and a number of others who are all poised to have their frame of mind radically altered.

This may not maintain any sense of creeping dread that appears in a few main scenes, and it may lack some real chills and scares, but it's an interesting film, thanks mainly to the main idea showing the reactions from various people seemingly forced to face their own mortality. If you go into it knowing what to expect, it's something aiming more for an atmosphere of helplessness and confusion rather than pure horror, then you should be able to appreciate everything that it does well, as opposed to watching it with any preconceptions that lead to you criticising it for what it's not trying to do.

Seimetz is best known for her acting work over the past couple of decades, but she's been doing some solid work behind the camera, in TV and film, for almost as long as she's been in front of the camera. And I hope she continues to make interesting choices like this.

7/10

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