MIFF 2022 Film Review - Sissy
Images courtesy of the Melbourne International Film Festival.
Thanks to films like Wolf Creek, The Loved Ones, The Babadook, Saw, and Lake Mungo, Australia has somewhat of a reputation for churning out some pretty mean horror flicks. It's one of the few genres I've been able to consistently point to when friends have complained (and understandably so) that most Australian films kinda… suck. That's not to say that I go to see homegrown cinema expecting it to be bad, but there's a certain kind of film that tends to get made in the outback that, post-English and Humanities classes in high school, feels especially familiar. It was with a decent amount of enthusiasm, then, that I went into directors Hannah Barlow and Kane Skenes' Sissy. Not only was it a horror movie, but the trailer also promised some not-so-subtle jabs at social media and a hyperactive, exaggerated style. I figured even if it was bad, it should at least be an entertaining kind of mess.
Sissy follows "wellbeing advocate" Cecilia as - thanks to a run-in with her primary school BFFL Emma - she's stuck spending a weekend with her former tormentor and current replacement in Emma’s friend group, Alex. Cecilia's coping mechanisms are put under fire as an old wound opens up, lending itself to commentary on the harmful side effects of toxic positivity and the role self-appointed gurus play in an age where the line between influencer and psychologist is often blurred, and self-help is touted as the new cure-all. However, where Sissy drops the ball is that the satire on offer is largely even more vapid than its targets, and the film fails to address the topic with much in the way of nuance or counterpoints - what if we didn't belittle others for just doing what they need to do to stay on this planet?
Similarly, much of the horror falls flat. Once the first, tame "kill" happens, it becomes extremely obvious where the film's going, and aside from two kills near the end of the runtime (including a particularly gruesome mishap that ends in someone's face getting the cottage cheese treatment), most of the violence is reasonably ho-hum. There's still thankfully a degree of grim humour to the proceedings, but in a world post-Raimi, it just feels like a waste of potential. That pretty much sums up Sissy's quandaries; as a screenplay it fails to make use of, or even consider, the three possible directions it could've gone - social media's effects on mental health may be one thing, and a goofy, gory good time another, but what about the elevated horror route, and making use of the fact that the central traumatic event is caused by a young person of colour being bullied by white girls? It just seems like a case of compromise; a few too many "good enoughs" in the writers' room.
While there's a case to be made for its occasional pops of glitter and gore, Sissy ends up firmly in the realm of meh-core, a film that isn't offensively bad but is somewhat of a chore because of its close proximity to mediocrity - a horror movie that, like the title might suggest, is scared of its own identity.
Follow Eli on Letterboxd, Twitter and Instagram.
Sissy is screening as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival, running in cinemas August 4-21 and online August 11-28. For tickets and more info, click here.