Do you remember 2020? Most people do, and for some it remains a wound that will not heal for quite some time. An unprecedented disruption to society on a global scale, the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and its fallout continues to affect just about everyone on the planet. At least, for a while, there was fleeting comfort in letting everyone stay home, forced to seek distraction from what felt like the world was collapsing at their feet. While that time has come and gone, along with what seemed like the most inescapable topic at the time, Joe Exotic, we’ve been in the mud long enough for someone to acknowledge it in a horror movie.
That’s where Peacock is Sick comes in. At first glance it looks like just another home-invasion slasher, but it has a unique feature: it takes place during the coronavirus pandemic, meaning masks, sanitizers and most importantly isolation are all in play. Let’s hope it can be more than just a gimmick.
Here’s everything we know about Peacock’s upcoming exclusive, Sick.
Sick: the plot
Peacock’s plot synopsis is as follows.
“As the pandemic steadily brings the world to a halt, Parker and her best friend Miri decide to self-quarantine at the family’s lakeside home — or so they think.”
Normally this would be a standard home invasion setup, and in some ways it is. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, and is even close to the setup used for the hilarious slasher adaptation of Winnie-the-Pooh. However, Sick has a trick up its sleeve: it takes place during the early months of the pandemic, specifically April 2020.
There’s a genuine justification for why these characters should be there alone. It’s a legitimate way to get away from their problems, both figuratively and physically. The lack of others would make sense given social distancing requirements. In addition, there is a genuine motivation for help to be hesitant: what if the duo is infected? It all harkens back to that terrible period when the virus was really unknown. All that was concrete and tangible were the bodies piling up in morgues and cold stores. For the most psychopathic killers, it would be an opportune time to strike.
There’s no gross hockey mask or colossal monster here. From the glimpses we get in the trailer, the killer looks like a real home invader: black clothes over black clothes, armed only with a glittering kitchen knife and whatever rough implements he can get his hands on. He is also shown to be particularly crafty, shoving one of the film’s protagonists out of a window instead of going for something more stylish.
It also looks like we’re going to get some dark humor as well. The ending of the trailer features a sequence where Parker frantically asks an approaching car for help, with the killer in tow. However, instead of immediately rushing to Parker’s aid, the driver clumsily dons a medical mask and asks if Parker can do the same, seemingly oblivious to the imminent danger ahead.
Sick: the cast and crew
The lead roles of Parker and Miri are played by Gideon Adlon and Bethlehem Million respectively. The two actors both have a handful of unique roles together, with appearances in video games (The Walking Dead: The Final Season), shorts (The Oh Gees), animation (Solar Opposites), and comedy movies (Blockers). Sick marks Million’s first feature film role. DJ, who visits the duo unannounced, is played by Dylan Sprayberry, who was featured prominently in MTV’s teenage wolf.
Other cast members include Marc Menchaca (Ozark), Jane Adams (Luck, Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind), and Charla Bocchicchio (The chosen one).
Sick is directed by John Hyams, whose previous work has included making Netflix’s Black summerdirecting Universal Soldier: Regeneration and Universal Soldier: Judgment Dayand both directing and producing multiple episodes of each of the Chicago franchises.
Katelyn Crabb will co-write the film with Kevin Williamsonwho wrote for scream, Scream 2and l Know what you did last summeras well as making the TV show Dawson’s Creek.
Date of publication
Sick will be streaming exclusively on Peacock starting January 13.
Everything else we know
Kevin Williamson’s involvement as a writer is particularly exciting given his previous track record. It is possible that, like scream was a dark satire on the state of the horror genre at the time of its release, Sick could do something similar regarding the heightened fears and paranoia surrounding the Coronavirus pandemic. The scene with Parker and the worried, mask-wearing driver was a little too tongue-in-cheek to be anything but intentionally funny. Whether the film will lean more towards that kind of grim, observational humor or play more like a traditional slasher remains to be seen.