Sick Girl (Special Edition)
by Eben McGarr
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DVD details
Actor: Charlie Trepany, Chris W. King, John McGarr, Leslie Andrews, Stephen GeoffreysDirector: Eben McGarr
Brand: RYKODISC
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 79 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-08-25
Audience Rating: Unrated
Model: 303092
Studio: Synapse Films
Product features:
- SICK GIRL (DVD MOVIE)
DVD Reviews of Sick Girl (Special Edition)
DVD Review: An E for effort.
Summary: 2 Stars
There is a new subtype of film that has emerged within the last half decade or so that exists almost solely within the horror movie genre. These films are based around one, or both of the the two main stays of the exploitation diet, sex and violence. Some examples of this new subtype include Gutterballs, The Hood Has Eyes, Defenceless, Baise Moi, and Blood and Sex Nightmare. Possibly an off shoot of the slightly less recent Torture Porn horror subgenre, this new subtype takes things one step further, and dares to do that which the big studios are afraid to do. Though I do respect the overall gist of their approach, and have absolutely no problem with extreme offensive underground cinema that dares to flip the bird at the Hollywood system, and doesn't mind going straight to DVD, the problem is that the majority of these films are technically not any good. They all suffer in one way or another from bad lighting, inconsistant audio, poor visual quality, horrible acting, shabby directing, and terrible scripts. Sure, most of them contain all the sex and adult oriented debauchery that anyone could ever want within an exploitative sleaze fest, yet, usually there is zero subtlety and nuance to make all this depravity anyway seductive or emotionally compelling. One can argue that subtlety should not be sought after in such low brow mindless entertainment, but I feel that without a decent understanding or use of these subtext, that any film, no matter what the subject matter may be, ultimately becomes boring. All the naked bodies and splatter by themselves does not make up for a film that doesn't know how to use them properly.
Silence is Golden.
What seperates Sick Girl from its contemporaries is that it actually tries to have real characters and deeper meaning by attempting some sibilance of a drama. This means one of two things. First and foremost, the level of gratuitous sex, and scantly clad women, is greatly reduced when compaired to other films in its subgenre. The only sexual scene that does take place is near the end of the picture, and is only there for shock value purposes. It involves Sick Girl cutting the genitals off of one of her captured male victims and making a strap on out of it by attatching it to what appears to be a railroad spike stuck through a piece of wood. She then proceeds to rape one of her tied up captured female victims with this crude home made device. More quirky then horrific in its exicution, the graphic scene is set up like a kind of clumsy music video with a shrilly recorded annoying buble gum pop song as its main soundtrack. Outside of this, most of the film consists of dialogue, lots and lots of dialogue, and sadly, most of it is painfully embarrassing to sit through. The plot, if you want to call it such, is really just a facade to bolster and explain Sick Girls super tough image and awesome killing abilities, while at the same time working as a superficial excuse for further scenes of graphic blood shed. Sick Girl is really just another film about one of those walking human death machines, you know the type that are mostly nomadic in their romantically self induced isolation? Sick Girl is a kind of modern Spaghetti Western- Shaw Brothers action hero, who is so otherworldly skilled and tough, that she might as well be of supernatural origin. This is by no means an original premise for a film, and it has been one that has worked to great effect many times in the past. The problem here is that everyone involved in this film is too amateurish to pull off this idea effectively. There are many one sided conversations throughout Sick Girl, in which she explains her views to one of her many subdued and gagged victims, but these moments go over like a ton of bricks. That is because they where designed to be powerfully moving important speeches, but are instead delivered with inept wooden acting, and self consciously stilted dialogue. It is almost as if writer and director Eban McGarr didn't receive his own memo explaining what kind of movie Sick Girl was suppose to be. If all these attempts proved one thing, it is that this really is a film made by laymen.
Death on Two Legs.
If there is a saving grace to this film, it was likely accidental rather then conceptual. Usually a film like Sick Girl would use that old time tested revenge outline, in which the victim of a horrible crime rights the injustices done to them by going on a killing spree. What makes Sick Girl so different, is that she is not a victim of anything more then mere annoyances. The people she tortures and kills, are not really harming anyone in any serious way, they are just being jerks. It is here that Sick Girl managed to inadvertantly tap into something that could of really made for an outstanding cinema experience. Lets face it, people can really be lame. We have all had those moments in which we where so perturbed, that we secretly wish that the object of or anger would spontaneously combust or get struck by a falling safe or lightning bolt. Each of us also share that same retained mixture of rage and regret from the many bad experiences in our pasts with either bullies or authority figures. Though I don't think that Eban McGarr really hit on the potential of this idea, or even really realized what he was getting into, Sick Girl almost works as a sort of guilty pleasure in which the people that most upset us in our daily lives, get dealt the ultimate karmic justice. Despite all the hope I had when I bought this film, or how badly I wanted to like it, I just couldn't muster anything within myself to make up for Sick Girls many tedious pit falls. The worst of which being a script full of incredably horrible dialogue. It was a nice try, I give him that, but the best I can do is give all those involved in this project an E for effort, not my recommendations.
Description of Sick Girl (Special Edition)
Studio: Wea-des Moines Video Release Date: 08/25/2009Bestsellers in DVD
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