As per the MIFF guide: “As children, Cecilia and Emma swore they’d be friends forever – until third wheel Alex entered the picture to full frenemy effect, provoking a falling-out that has tainted the intervening years. Now a popular Instagram wellness influencer, Cecilia reconnects with Emma, who has invited her to a hen’s weekend at a secluded country house … which happens to belong to Alex. As passive-aggressiveness morphs into outright aggression, the weekend spirals into algorithm-breaking Insta-carnage.”
It is always great when I get to champion a brand new and excellent Australian horror film, and “Sissy” is exactly that. Although to simply brand the film as “just” a horror flick, would be doing it a great disservice as it touches the fringes of many genres and goes through many moods throughout the entirety of its running time. “Sissy” at various times could be classified as a drama, comedy, or even (a disturbing) love story, and it also goes about throwing in a little bit of important and very now social commentary. Amazingly, the whole film flows beautifully and this constant change in tones never feels jarring, but the best thing about “Sissy” is that it is so damn entertaining! This film is a blast from start to finish and I dare anyone to not have a good time with it. It is fun, fun, FUN!!
The film begins in light drama / comedy mode, as we are witness to our titular character recording a video in celebration of reaching her 200,000th follower. Yes, Sissy (sorry, Cecilia) is an influencer “specialising” in providing positive mental health vibes. She is adored by her followers, but her own mental health seems predicated on the “likes”and comments she receives from these total strangers. Sissy presents herself online as someone who is very happy and content with their life, who is at peace with who she is and as someone who has positive mental health. However her carefully manicured facade slowly starts to crack after a chance run in with her childhood best friend Emma (played by co-director Hannah Barlow). Further cracks appear when Sissy accepts an invitation to attend Emma's hen's weekend, which she soon finds out is also being attended by Alex, the girl who bullied Sissy as a child relentlessly. After feeling isolated and alone during the weekend, coupled with a few unfortunate incidents (like being cancelled by the rest of the group), Sissy's mental state totally shatters and she goes full psycho. Yes, Sissy is an influencer who is also a mentally unstable psychotic! It goes without saying that by this stage of the film, the fun and comedy is gone, and we are in full-on horror territory, as Sissy goes about offing her tormentors one by one.
The social commentary aspect of the film may be obvious now, but it is highlighting the potential dangers of influencers and those who worship them. The simple reason is that you never really know (despite you thinking you know them intimately) who the person is behind the face, or whether or not they are even qualified to be talking about the subject they are preaching about. There is also a real possibility that an influencer could abuse their platform and followers for their own personal gain, and not worrying about who they hurt along the way even though they are doing it under the guise of caring and understanding. At the end of the day, the only reason these people have this platform is because of “us” and something so arbitrary as giving them “likes”. Anyway, I love a horror film when it adds a layer of social commentary to go along with the blood and guts, and don't worry, none of it is in your face or heavy handed, so if you do not notice it, you can still enjoy the gore!
Speaking of gore, I was not prepared for just how bloody and gory “Sissy”ended up being. Particularly after the candy coloured fun of the first half, I was pleasantly shocked at the bloody mayhem that was to follow. This film is seriously gory, and thankfully, all of the inventive and blood splattered deaths have been done via practical effects. These are 1980's quality gore effects and they are glorious! There is so much head and face trauma on show, not to mention scalpings, broken bones, injuries via garden tools, and so much more. It's a gorehound's delight and yep, I loved every bit of it.
As I have mentioned in multiple reviews, horror only truly works well when you care about the characters onscreen and directors Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes have done an excellent job of putting together a great and memorable ensemble cast. I also do not think they have to worry about any complaints over inclusion as the cast and characters are a diverse lot being of all types of race, sexuality and even disability, which is a nice touch. Hannah Barlow who plays Emma is the heart and humanity within the film and she is excellent. She genuinely cares about Sissy (sorry, Cecilia) and never speaks bad to her or about her behind her back, and she even puts Alex in her place, reminding her that she is hardly a victim being that she bullied Sissy constantly when they were kids. It is a fun performance from Barlow, full of life and love, but at the same time it is also a thoughtful performance too, as we regularly see that Emma thinks how her actions could affect someone else. Barlow also does a great job of conveying genuine worry for Sissy when she can sense all is not right for her. The rest of the characters are less developed but importantly all of the actors chosen to play these roles do a great job of making each one memorable in limited screen time. They also have fantastic chemistry together as a group making it very believable that they have been friends for a very long time. Pissy little comments and the reactions to these comments are very real and ring true of people who have known each other for so long. I must make special mention though of Shaun Martindale, who in his only two scenes becomes the film's scene-stealer, playing the local cop. His reactions are just priceless.
While she has a fantastic ensemble around her, lets face it, the movie belongs to Sissy (sorry, Cecilia) herself. Aisha Dee just owns this role and is totally adorable, plus the camera just loves her! In making “Sissy”, writer / directors Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes had the difficult job of getting the audience to love and care for Sissy but then also stay invested with her when she becomes the villain of the film. For the film to work, they still need the audience rooting for Sissy even when she is brutally killing people; we must want her to succeed. And speak of success, they hit gold in the casting of Aisha Dee, as she delivers all of this in spades; there is no way you can not love this girl! As I said, she is so cute and adorable in the opening scenes, so bubbly and full of life, and yet Dee does an fantastic job of giving the feeling that maybe Sissy doesn't believe she is truly worthy of any of this. Dee is then excellent at exposing her character's vulnerability and anxieties when things start to go bad, and then she gets the tone spot on when she becomes the murderous psychotic of the film. I love how she is so apologetic when she kills someone, almost like each death is an “oopsie” moment for her. I just love the character of Sissy so much. She's cute, adorable, funny, sweet, scary, manipulative and downright chilling – she's the whole package. From a very shallow point of view, I also love her frizzy hair, and that smile! Oh my god, she has the cutest smile ever!!! How can you NOT love this character???
Like the film itself, Kenneth Lampl's score regularly changes tones and musical styles ranging from over the top Disney-like happy tunes, to suspenseful Hitchcockian cues, to flat out horror music. The genius of the score though is that you do not always hear the type of music you may be expecting to hear for a given moment. There are times when the music actually plays against the images onscreen. The reason for this is for a lot of the time (not always though), the music represents Sissy's state of mind, so while she may be committing the most brutal murder, to her this is a happy moment as she is offing one of her tormentors, so the music is much lighter than you would expect. This was a brave stylistic choice, but it is yet another thing that works so well in this extremely fun movie.
Overall, I just had a ball with “Sissy”; it is entertainment to the max! Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes have done a wonderful job of balancing the tone and pace of the film, whilst also infusing it with some subtle social commentary. I appreciated them looking at the damage bullying can inflict even decades on, while highlighting the dangers of this recent influencer fad. They clearly have had a fun time sending up this recent phenomenon too. Thankfully none of this is in your face or hammered home, its more like an added extra; the whole point of “Sissy” is to sit back and have fun with it! It starts out light and fluffy before it builds to a dark, bloody and satisfying (if a little predictable) conclusion. I had such a good time with “Sissy” and I doubt that I will see another film as fun as it as this year's MIFF. I hope it is a big hit when it releases to the general public here in Australia later in the year, as it is a film that works so well with a massive crowd, and because it certainly deserves it. I will be doing my bit in getting the word out about how great and entertaining “Sissy” is.
3.5 Stars.
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