Entomologist Ida one day discover that someone has left her a mysterious bug in a box outside of her door. There's a note in the box, saying that the bug's from Brazil, but not who sent it. Since she's obsessed with bugs, she lets the new little fellow into her home, and there tries to figure out what kind of creature he could be. She soon meets Misty Falls, a young woman who sits in the lobby of Ida's workplace, drawing pixies, and they seem to be a perfect match for each other. But on their first date, which ends in Ida's apartment, Misty gets bitten by the little creature who somehow got out of the box, and Misty soon starts acting very strange.
Sick Girl is Lucky McKee's contribution to the Masters of Horror series, and it's a pretty good creature feature that is both cute and scary at the same time. We're introduced to Ida, a shy and pretty stiff woman who only has bugs as friends, except for her colleague Max. She's looking for love, female love, and soon hooks up with Misty who she meets in the building where she works. They hit it off, and things seem to go great, except for one little problem. On their first date, Misty got bit by some mysterious spider-like creature that someone sent Ida, and that she kept in her apartment. Unfortunately the nasty creature somehow managed to get out from its plastic cage.
Misty is infected and one thing leads to another. And who sent Ida the bug to begin with, and why? It all comes together in the end, and makes for a pretty interesting story with a good finale as well. Lucky McKee's not a big name in horror, and I had only seen his May before, which I'm not a big fan of. In Sick Girl, Angela Bettis, who also was in May, has one of the lead parts, and the other lead role is played by Erin Brown, formerly known as Misty Mundae. They both do a good job, but I personally I liked Miss Mundae more, and thought her performance was better and definitely more interesting.
The movie switches a lot from being all cute and cuddly to being more of the horror kind. There are a bunch of nice transitions were you have one scene that is all nice and cute, and all of a sudden it changes to being a bit freaky or horrorish. This was a pretty cool thing, and is being used a few times in the movie. One nice moment that suddenly turns into a horrific moment...pretty cool. The character development is pretty good, and the viewer get to know both of the girls enough to care for what happens to them.
Being just under one hour, it's enough time to play out the story and give a pretty good picture of the characters it revolves arounds. If it would've been a full-length feature going for 90 minutes or more, it would probably have dragged a bit, and not come out looking as good as now. So it's enough time, and the pacing is pretty great. A lot of stuff happens, but it still takes its time giving a good image of the characters, and develops the story in a nice way as well.
Sick Girl turned out to be quite much better than I first had expected it to be, and now, I think Lucky McKee might be one to watch out for in the future. It's not really scary, but still has it's fair share of scares, and is a little gross at times as well. Recommended.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Sick Girl
MOVIE YEAR: 2006
DIRECTOR: Lucky McKee
WRITING CREDITS: Sean Hood
GENRE: Horror
CAST: Erin Brown, Angela Bettis, Jesse Hlubik
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 60 min
RATING: 6/10
Masters of Horror (S01E10): Sick Girl Website/IMDB Click here
Masters of Horror (S01E10): Sick Girl Trailer Click here
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