Sick Girl (2007)

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Nice effects though.

Boring

A Brilliant Conflict

I'm giving this 10 out of 10 because: (1) when I first saw this film I was utterly gob-smacked, in the same way that Hellraiser and Evil Dead gobsmacked me. Utterly unique. (2) Leslie Andrews is simply phenomenal.(3) There are some films I watch again, and some that I watch regularly, every couple of years. Run Lola Run and Sick Girl beat all the others hands down in terms of repeat viewing (Peter Jackson's Braindead is close 3rd). (Note: Run Lola Run is not a gore film, it's just perfect). (4) I'm not going to give any spoilers, but this film does not shy away from showing children that their casual cruelty can occasionally have surprisingly disproportionate consequences (which is surely a healthy message for all our younger generation to absorb?).(5) On the region 1 DVD, the extra features include Leslie Andrews' "Death by.." art project, where she photographs herself as victim of 'death by..' (e.g. death by washing machine, death by garden hose) - subversive and really funny photographs, I wish they were available as a book. Worth buying the DVD for if you can't stream this movie.

Oh, Sick Girl. How sick you are. Ya got your kicks peeing on nuns, lopping off weiners, and kissing your brother. You actually sound like a pretty cool chick, it's such a shame you're monotone and you have a dumpy butt.2007's Sick Girl, created by all around blowhard Eben Whatshisname, focuses on the small-town life of a girl named Izzy, who is forced to become head of her household when her brother ships off to the Marines. Things sour from there on out, and Izzy's already shaky disposition crumbles into a pile of constant premenstrual insanity. No one's safe anymore; not her flamboyant younger brother, nor their bike-riding bear of a neighbor. The blood flows, children die, and rats are fed and returned to the gay guy who did porn after being in Fright Night. You know the guy.I'd like to say Sick Girl is a good time, but then again, I'd like to say I enjoy popping pimples along the under-carriage of my fanny. A little juicy, kinda painful, and totally unnecessary. This movie fails for a few reasons, namely its weak script and dodgy direction. If you enjoy drawn-out scenes of inept dialogue and really pointless scenes of gore, including a controversial moment where a severed member is forced onto a make-shift dildo, the less discriminating horror-hound may actually enjoy this sh!t show.So throw on a wife-beater or two, break out the Christmas lights, and don't say I didn't warn ya. Sick Girl sucks.

Izzy(Leslie Andrews) is VERY protective of her brother. In fact, Izzy doesn't tolerate bullying of any kind. More than a tad unstable, Izzy has taken over for her older brother(stationed in Iraq)as guardian for Kevin(Charlie Trepany), the little brother who is a sweet, gentle-hearted kid with a kind soul. Izzy is the opposite, cold and calculating, remorseless when it comes to hurting anyone who triggers her psychosis. Izzy's love for her older brother, Rusty(Chris W King; who had to become caregiver and father for the three of them after their parents' deaths)borders on incestuous(in actuality, she kisses Rusty and considers him the "father" and her the "mother" of their family which creeps him out enough that once he goes to Iraq he doesn't communicate with them for over a year while away). We do learn towards the very end of the film that there's ultimately a reason for Izzy's psychotic break as it pertains to Rusty. The bottom line is that Izzy lacks empathy for anyone other than Rusty and even that is a delusion she has cooked up in her mind, that he will return to her someday and they will become a happy family. The truth is that Rusty had a love in his life and this woman is subject to Izzy's wrath because she stands in the way of some illusion..hell, Izzy even sleeps with Rusty's picture right next to her! There's a vacuous expression in both her demeanor and voice in regards to her treatment of others, particularly those she has kidnapped, holding them prisoner in a barn near her home. It's a dirty little secret Izzy keeps hidden from Kevin and his substitute father figure and best friend, Barney(John McGarr), a pal of Rusty and their father's. Barney is the sanity Kevin so desperately needs. Izzy is clueless as how to live a normal life without destroying most of those she comes in contact with. Whether its a young man and woman she tortures(the former through a castration, the latter via anal rape with a wooden spike dildo), or the bullies in Kevin's class, Izzy has no qualms causing each and every one of them pain and suffering, without any sense of right or wrong. Izzy is essentially a psychopath without a moral compass to dictate rational behavior. Which is why by the end, Izzy has no one and will forever be alone and without any sort of support. Her cruelty towards the kid bullies is eye-opening in its sadism, having the leader of the group, Tommy, to murder his cohorts(which he does, he thinks, to save his own hide). What Izzy does to Tommy is even worse, using a shovel to knock him unconscious, allowing a starving rat to gnaw on the kid's face! There's no limit as to the lengths Izzy will go which is kind of the point..Barney and Kevin haven't the foggiest notion just how depraved Izzy is until they see it with their own eyes, the result quite tragic. Stephen Geoffreys has a small role as Kevin's teacher, the owner of a rat that Tommy stole to starve.

Let's cut to the chase. The creator-provided synopsis goes, "A girl who wants to protect her little brother, f*ck her older brother and torture everyone else out in the barn." Any questions? Well, while undeniably accurate, the film isn't quite as simplistic as this would suggest. Izzy (Andrews) is left to bring up her young brother (Trepany) after her older sibling heads off to Iraq with the Marines - both parents are absent, and the reasons for this are, interestingly, never made entirely clear, though we have some evidence for Izzy's involvement. The only one who helps out is Barney (McGarr) a biker who plays Santa Claus at the local hospital, but it's soon made clear that Izzy is entirely capable of fending for herself. Especially when a proto-thug at the local school decides to pick on her kid bro.Izzy is an intriguing mix, a character somewhere between Juno and Dexter; to those she loves, she is fiercely loyal, yet anyone else had best not cross her, or the results will be horrific, in ways beyond your imagination - certainly, at least one sequence goes well beyond **our** imagination! I think it's her sheer cold-blooded approach that is the most chilling thing here, and Andrews is simply phenomenal in the role, possessing a calmness which is completely unnerving. Even when engaging in brutality of the most appalling sort, you suspect her heart-beat rarely goes above 85. She even takes time out to lecture small children on the evils of bullying, where her philosophy is, "There's nothing wrong with hurting things smaller than you - providing you also take on things bigger than you. Then size is irrelevant." Cold: very cold. If you want to peer into the abyss which is the very darkest corner of the human psyche, then this is low-budget cinema at its brilliant best. However, you should be aware that you might see things you will not easily forget.