Sick, Sick, Sick is a hypnotic, visceral look at loss and acceptance, expressed through a story about voodoo zombies that doesn’t fully come alive.
Loss, obsession, and second chances are all ideas that fuel countless horror stories. It’s natural to think about ways for something as final as death to seem less ultimate. It’s comforting to think that we can strip it of its power and feel a little in control. There have been modern stories about reanimating the dead and then there are tales that go back as far as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. This is a concept that remains fascinating to audiences because there is no avoiding death. It’s not going anywhere. Sick, Sick, Sick examines the pain of that realization, but also the inability to accept it, especially when an unlikely alternative may be possible. The result is a stylized, emotional look at a girl’s grief and the dangerous places it can go that highlights the unique approach of an upcoming voice in horror.
Alice Furtado delivers what feels like a loving ode to Pet Sematary, only steeped in her Brazilian culture and draped in hypnotic visual flair. Silvia’s life gets turned upside down when the love of her life meets an untimely end. Silvia is destroyed over this loss, but it’s a pain that’s manifesting itself in vicious ways wherein she’s not just depressed, but physically ill over her sadness. Desperate for any sort of reprieve, Silvia apprehensively turns to voodoo for help and is willing to settle with a resurrected version of her beloved Artur than no version of him at all. Of course, this tense situation only becomes more complicated and it’s not long until Silvia wishes that she had just left well enough alone here.
Furtado’s film is at its best when it explores the beauty in imperfections, like how Silvia (Luiza Kosovski) and Artur (Juan Paiva) are able to discover solace in each other. The movie finds a way to give something as debilitating as hemophilia a certain poetic grace. In a similar way, Sick, Sick, Sick is also deeply interested in obsession and how it can consume individuals. The representation of Silvia before and after Artur’s accident is completely different and it’s because obsession has totally worn her down. It’s this dangerous desire that pushes her down the dark path that leads to Artur’s revival.
Furtado’s Sick, Sick, Sick is a sweaty, sexual film and it properly cultivates that atmosphere. It accurately represents that hormonal phase of adolescence where emotions are at an all-time high. Silvia is already prey to those natural emotions, but they make her even more susceptible to her unhealthy obsession that forms. As electric as this is, it’s not enough to act as characterization on its own right. Beyond Silviasti intense love for Artur, there’s not much there to her. Kosovski’s performance does a lot of the heavy lifting here, but it’s still ultimately difficult to fully understand Silvia.
With the threadbare nature of the story, Sick, Sick, Sick makes more of an impression with its gripping ambience. Music and color are used in intoxicating anachronistic ways. At times it often feels like a horror film has been blended together with a passionate piece of French New Wave cinema. The frenetic editing also mirrors Silvia’s hunger to have it all. It often feels like the overwhelming atmosphere and oversaturated color palette is a reflection of how Silvia is in less control of her obsession. Even the film’s repetitious title is meant to be a reflection of the various stages of Silvia’s “sickness.”
The direction that Sick, Sick, Sick goes down may be predictable, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not effective at times. Furtado turns this classic cautionary tale into something that’s distinctly her own and finds rich, disturbing angles to take this material. In many ways, Sick, Sick, Sick even surpasses Pet Sematary in some areas because Furtado is able to take what works from that story and reject what doesn’t fit her narrative. She tries to build something stronger here, but unfortunately, the foundation isn’t secure enough to support it.
Furtado introduces a lot of strong ideas here, but many of them ultimately don’t have anywhere to go. Furtado comes from a history of short films and Sick, Sick, Sick is the kind of story that feels better suited for that territory. There’s not enough to keep this premise going and it’s this thinness of story that inevitably holds Sick, Sick, Sick back. A powerful performance and haunting visuals help elevate this material, but there’s still a feeling of emptiness. This story needs to be pushed to do more and go to increasingly challenging places instead of wallowing in the initial mess. There’s a reason that the big turn in Pet Sematary happens in the later half of the story; it’s simply hard to maintain that premise for an extended period of time. Sick, Sick, Sick is still an enjoyable film that has a lot to offer, but it suffers from these concessions.
Sick, Sick, Sick is a film with endless potential that unfortunately just fails to realize most of it. Alice Furtado is clearly a talented filmmaker and she chooses a story here that obviously means something to her and feels very unique to her voice. That being said, in spite of emotional performances, disturbing ideas, and frightening visuals, Sick, Sick, Sick struggles to reach its hour and forty-minute runtime. There’s a tighter, simpler movie hidden somewhere within Sick, Sick, Sick, but this version doesn’t do it justice. Just like how Silvia thinks she wants to spend more time with Artur, it’s not always a good idea. Less can most definitely be more.
