Anna (Gina Phillips) is a archaeologist doing some research at a children's hospital. It has been a children's hospital dating back to the times of the great plague that went through London. It seems some doctors were known for working with people who had the plague, but the plague had never reached as far as the children's hospitals, so what were they doing there? Anna believes she is close to figuring this out, but the people funding her has shut down her research. The place is considered a bio-hazard and is scheduled to be torn down. Risking everything, Anna decides to sneak in and finish her research the night before. Meanwhile, a group of young adults are out joy riding when they get into an accident right in front of the old hospital. Once inside, time seems to freeze outside, while inside the hospital things start to get weird when someone dressed like an old plague doctor shows up. What could the past want with out group of five?
The Sick House was co-written/directed by Curtis Radclyffe. I came across The Sick House when I watched a trailer for it on some other film. I couldn't find the movie on Netflix for some reason, but it turns out it was in my queue. I don't know if I managed not to spell it correctly that day or what happened, but because I couldn't find it on Netflix, I ended up buying it on the cheep. It wasn't long into this movie that I was already starting to feel lost. It took me a long time to figure out what was going on, or what I felt was going on anyway. Now that I do know what the movie was all about, I'm tempted to watch it again from that perspective to see if it makes more sense to me. I think part of it has to do with the site that Anna is working on is never explained much. There is a passing mention of why she wants to keep working, she believes some doctors were part of a plague cult that was never proven to have been around, but that didn't explain what was happening. Sure there was a doctor dressed in the way they would back in the day during the plague, and anyone he seemed to touch now had the plague, but what did that have to do with any type of cult?
To make matters worse, as many people like to point out, is the way things play out towards the end of the film. They figure out that the deaths the doctor was supposed to have been a part of all those years ago are repeating themselves. With only two deaths left, they make a promise to each other to make sure they don't die in those ways. One way was by fire, so what do they do after making this promise to each other? They make some make-shift torches! Another problem for me was the ending itself. I got what they were doing, but it didn't work for me. It had to do with a baby from a woman who didn't look all that pregnant. I didn't know if when time started again outside the hospital if she was still pregnant or no longer pregnant or what? For each person to decide I guess.
The Sick House isn't a very gory film, but there are some moments that were pretty cool all the same. A ton of bugs coming out of the pregnant woman was pretty cool. More than likely it was a CGI effect, at least it looked that way, but it was a cool effect all the same. The acting was just okay for me. I liked Gina Phillips in the lead role well enough. You can also find Alex Hassel, Kellie Shirley, Andrew Knott and Jack Bailey. By the way, I hope you like British accents if you do give this movie a watch.
Another thing I didn't care for was the way Radclyffe filmed The Sick House. He tends to use the shaky camera for a lot of things. I get that it is a style that a lot of directors like to use, and that sometimes it does help the feel or mood of the movie. Having said that, I also feel that it can be damn annoying. If it hadn't been used as much as it did here, I may not be complaining about it. I did like some parts of The Sick House. While there are many movies where I'm not really sure where the film is going, it bugged me a lot more here because I didn't really even have a general idea for it. It's too bad things didn't work better for this movie. I do feel there was an idea there that could have made a great film.
2 out of 5 I wonder if anyone would know what I was if I dressed up that way for Halloween
1 comment:
Sounds like you've been LIVING in the Sick House for the last week or so. Hope you're feeling better. Also, the invitation for you to interview me is still extended. Just sayin'.
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