Review of Masters of Horror 10: Lucky McKee's "Sick Girl"

Top:Lucky Mckee on the set of "Sick Girl". Bottom: Angela Bettis(May) and the lovely Misty Mundae(Listed as Erin Brown)

















WOW! This movie has it all and McKee sure knows how to capture it. While some of us hard-core fans of McKee's debut film "May" , were waiting for his next feature that is always getting pushed back. His next feature is a film with Bruce Campbell, Agnes Bruckner(Blue Car) and the wonderful Patricia Clarkson. Its still finding it hold on a release date, but its been finished for quite awhile. McKee doesn't fret, but while that is still in limbo we can watch is latest from the "Masters Of Horror". Its called "Sick Girl", for a reason, back working with "May's " star the awesome Angela Bettis. She plays a lesbian(what more do I have to say) who is an entomologist at a lab for an important institute. The movie first starts out with an eye level camera view of a little insect getting shipped off to her apartment. All that is just subplot, because McKee intentionally lets a relationship unfold in front of the camera between Angela Bettis and Misty Mundae, listed as Erin Brown on the credits but I know her and respect her as Misty Mundae. I think the main reason she was listed as Erin Brown, because her character is also named Misty. Either way, I always found Misty Mundae to actually be a great talent from her Seduction cinema soft-core porn spoofs. She is much known for that, but I always watched her films knowing that any given day she could give a compelling performance(whose to say that 'Play-Mate of the Apes" isn't compelling, that movie rules). Misty Mundae jump started Seduction cinema and productions, not saying it would be anywhere without her but she surely has opened a market for it. I don't think the role she plays here is any different the stuff she does in Seduction Cinema(she does soft-core porns, horror, Nick Phillip remakes...you name it) but it feels like she was meant to play this role.
Of course as I stated its Angela Bettis playing a lesbian who feels like a timid, shy and insecure girl version of me. Her name is Ida Teeter who has a love for insects that are complications in her love life and also a problem for the landlady. After several funny conversations with her lab partner whose a guy that enjoys talking to Ida about and getting chicks which is pretty funny dialogue. Ida notices a girl every time she goes to work in the lobby whose face is covered by her hair. After mustering up the courage to talk to her played by the lovely lesbian Misty Mundae(AKA Erin Brown), they realize that they a lot in common and sparks funny dialogue and a weird relationship. Throughtout the movie Ida discovers that Misty(Erin Brown's character name) is a true oddball and she finds out that she has an interest in insects too. The love is in the air, but back o the bug that was delivered to her doorstep from a professor in Brazil. Through the course of that conversation sharing their love of insects, Ida also finds out that the professor is actually Misty's father. Not plot point that turns to horrifying, but involves the mystery of the bug that was sent to her and supposedly eats mammals. The movie doesn't go into the sub-plot of the bug on the loose, but focuses more on the relationship of Ida and Misty. And I gotta say that's way more interesting, nah I'm jut playing but it opens the door for psychological horror and old fashioned animatronics. I think Godard said that all you have to do to make cinema is "a girl" and another girl. I don't think he said nothing about a gun, nah I'm just playing, but the movie has that tone.
Its not typical soft-core lesbian sex that Misty Mundae is usually in, but focuses on these characters lesbian relationship. The movie feels like an unconscious social commentary on lesbianism. It's like Lucky wasn't aware, but just had a love for these characters to put them in horrifying situations. The movie feels like it had undermining social commentary on lesbians and discrimination and them having the right to bear children and take of them. Well, at least in the ending. Now the intention of focusing on the characters over the insect that is on the loose, which is not waste, was marked by Mckee himself. He read the script by Sean Hood and rewrote to reflect more on the lesbian misadventures of Ida and Misty. I could see why he did it, because we all seen the typical "prey on the loose" movie. It wasn't a critique on that sub-genre but rather a love for it. That turned its ear to supply great character development.
As for Angela Bettis, she's great in this playing a manic woman looking for love with precise detail. The way she deepens her voice when she talks to her insects is just brilliant. Their is a relationship between the landlady's grand daughter and Ida that Angela Bettis a lot to work with to show humanistic value to Ida. Other being a somewhat repressed lesbian nerd, she felt like a girl version of me. Misty Mundae(or Erin Brown) is also great and I was hoping for her to be and she beat my expectation through the roof. When you watch her films for Seduction, she seems like a girl that has fun on the set and supply wry sense of humor to the soft-core porn spoofs that Seductions venues. "Sick Girl" is no exception. She really hams it up with care as she goes crazy scene after scene that exceeds most people perception of her just being "eye candy". Misty Mundae is cute girl, but she sure can hold a performance.
The whole ends with a sweet, happy ending...in a horrifying way but actually turns out pretty nice between Ida and Misty. I loved this piece and can't wait for McKee's "The Woods". I just read an interview with him and he says that 'The Woods" may by in a release date hold but I'm still doing another project. It's like nothing will stop him and he always looks forward to doing anything just to keep moving. "Sick Girl" feels like a short with momentum that showcases McKee's future and me looking forward to the next thing he does!
This is Aliye Nyoka saying "I'll See You on the Flip Side!"