Sick is one of those movies that begs the question, “Is it too soon yet?”
Set at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, it tells the story of Parker (Gideon Adlon) and Miri (Bethlehem Million). They are two young women who decide to get away to a lakeside cabin just as the virus is spreading. Which, is understandable. In the beginning, we were all wary of what was to come. And just like Miri, we were wiping down our food and spraying the hell out of everything. Their friend DJ (Dylan Sprayberry) even joins them and it seems like they’re having the time of their lives. Until the killer appears. Now, they have even more deadly things to worry about.
Honestly, we’re on the fence when it comes to Sick.
In many respects, it feels too soon for Sick. Yes, it’s 2023 and it’s been 4 years since COVID-19 was reported in Wuhan, China. But there have been an estimated 663 million cases reported and 6.7 million people reportedly died. And it was too early in 2020 when Songbird came out with Riverdale‘s KJ Apa as a man immune to COVID-23 and on a mission to save the woman he loves. Now it feels the same. A part of us feels like it’s too early to shift the narrative to horror and a demented killer when people still carry the memory of not being able to hold their loved ones’ hands as they died in the hospital because of quarantine measures.
A part of us also understands that time heals wounds and that movies have always been used as a medium for exploring difficult topics that no one wants to talk about. Also, if humor holds power over people, even in the darkest of times, who’s to say that horror won’t do the same for others? For all we know, this masked killer coming after Parker, Miri, and DJ is (in a way) the twisted personification of an evil that we can finally touch and fight back with our own wits and destroy with our very own hands. Because of that, we can see where Sick is coming from. And that there will be plenty of people to watch.
As people who love horror movies ourselves, we just hope that Peacock and Sick have taken the time to make this more than a random horror slasher and that they kept their cast and crew safe. We’ll judge the rest when it premieres on January 13, 2023.
Watch the official trailer for Sick on Peacock here:
Sick premieres January 13, 2023 on Peacock.
