FilmSnobReviews

Title: Sissy
MPAA Rating: Not Yet Rated
Director: Hanna Barlow, Kane Senes
Starring: Aisha Dee, Hannah Barlow, Emily De Margheriti
Runtime: 1 hr 42 mins

What It Is: A young up-and-coming influencer named Cecilia (Dee) who has rebranded her own identity for the sake of survival finds herself running into her former childhood best friend Emma (Barlow). Though Emma is connected to a traumatic time in Cecilia’s past, Cecilia is interested in rekindling the friendship. Emma drunkenly invites Cecilia to her pre-wedding cabin retreat weekend, only for Cecilia to arrive and find Ashley (Margheriti), who hasn’t quite forgetten or forgiven events in the past.

What We Think: It’s not often that we get this polished of a film that includes elements of social media and the effect the new age of the Internet can have on us, but thankfully here we have those elements come together organically in a psychological, smart, and energetic new slasher film. The first scene starts with our Instagram guru intensely staring into the camera, repeating her successful mantra of being loved and worthy of love. In the meantime, the reality is the past still holds her back from fully excepting the idea that she deserves to be loved, a victim in her own right as we see in the film, and become sympathetic over. The balance between being this deeply hurt person who is easy to root for and an accidental murderer is brilliant and makes the kills all the more satisfying on top of brutal. We see just how online support can sway our characters’ choices and emotions, from being manipulated through the promise of clout and adoration, to relying on views to self-sustain. Finally, in this modern-era techno-giallo, we’re allowed to feel fully the weight of importance attention has to our character without it feeling corny or misrepresented.

That was our more technical take but precise thematic execution aside, everything about this movie was juicy and exciting. The tight script is delivered by its cast with savvy and nuance, in spite of how one-note their characters could easily have come off. Our lead, played by Aisha Dee, provides a mix of anxious terror, humor, and relatable descent into madness–an incredibly magnetic, iconic, and lovable performance. Margheriti unabashedly plays longtime enemy Alex as an amazingly manipulative, begrudging bitch with uncomfortable vigor.

Certainly, the best slasher I’ve seen in a while, the camera work, cinematography, keying, and lighting are all phenomenal. Its score serves as sardonically saccharine in many parts, which I felt wasn’t too over-the-top and only accentuated the humor and irony. What was over-the-top were the kills, becoming more and more ridiculous with each head on the chopping block–for such gratuitous creativity, I am very thankful. The special effects are deliciously gory. The pacing is perfect, always maintaining the air of unpredictability as the story unfolds, our character dragged along naively in the hopes of closure and some sort of redemption.

Our Grade: A-, Funny, insane, and wrought with tension. Sissy expands on Cecilia’s violent odyssey with heart and intelligence as we and our anti-heroine find ourselves in a social nightmare and gives good reason as to why we shouldn’t put the pressure on ourselves or each other to be perfect to no end. I highly recommend this flick, available on Shudder.