I took advantage of Shudder’s 99p-a-month-for-3-months deal on Amazon, mainly so I could watch the awesome DEADSTREAM with my girlfriend. And alas, I have subsequently failed to make anything like full use of it for most of those three months now 🙂
But I did manage to watch one fantastic film on it at the weekend: SISSY (Dir. Hanna Barlow & Kane Senes, 2022) a terrific little Australian psycho-social horror tale. It’s a darkly funny tale of a damaged young influencer who finds herself trying desperately to retain her fragile sanity (and rein in her dark impulses) when she finds herself trapped at a bachelorette party for her childhood friend – alongside her former bully.
The cast sell it brilliantly, with Aisha Dee giving a terrific, convincing performance as the titular character. Even when she starts doing very, very bad things, you can’t help but feel slightly like rooting for her. She projects a great sense of vulnerability, even though she’s equally quite chillingly dangerous.
It’s a vibrant, beautifully crafted film and the cinematography, costumes and production design (especially the central house location) are all gorgeous. There’s great use of creative visual effects to create some absolutely beautiful artistic transitions between shots. And when the blood starts to flow… Geez it’s pretty unrestrained!
This wouldn’t be of much use without a good script, and luckily this one hits the spot. It’s a tightly plotted story with some fun twists and turns. But more than that, it’s an astutely observed character piece about the the insecurities of young girls – the fears of ostracism, losing precious connections and the horrors of social rejection, Especially once social media enters the equation.
Anyway, fun movie. A very pleasant discovery. Wish I’d seen it at Frightfest 🙂 Check it out, if you like dark Gen-Z thrills.
