Australian writer/directors Hanna Barlow and Kane Senes bring mean girls, social media savagery, fear of being cancelled, the repercussions of childhood trauma, and gore, gore, gore to their comedy horror mashup Sissy. Aisha Dee is both luminescent and looney tunes as the title character Sissy, or as she has calls herself to her 200,000 IG followers, Cecilia.
Cecilia is a popular self-help guru sending out messages of love, self-acceptance, and inner peace on social media and making bank doing it. When she runs into ex-childhood bestie Emma (Hanna Barlow), Emma begs her to come to her bachelor party weekend. Cecilia says yes, but discovers when she gets to the party house it belongs to Alex, the girl she believes broke up her friendship all those years ago. Things go terribly wrong from there, many deaths ensue, and gallons of blood is splattered in the process.
The film has a very Cabin in the Woods feel, and several portents of what’s to come are offered in a rather heavy-handed way, including a kangaroo carcass with flies buzzing above it . Within 20 minutes, I’m screaming “get outta there, girl!” to poor Sissy. But, really, I don’t care about her. Who is there to root for, when she, and everyone are all so horrible? This being fiction, I don’t feel wrong in saying these characters have no redeeming qualities and I find myself not caring whether any of them live or die. This is ‘Poor Choice Central’. Everyone repeatedly makes the worst choices. Who, if anyone, will be the final girl?
For the whole review, go to AWFJ.org HERE.
