HorrorBuff235
As a rule I tend to judge a film by watching it myself. Taking heed of reviews, I thought this one may be worth a go. The opening titles were correct for the middle ages, especially the bird-like masks which as said in the film were worn by plague doctors & beaks stuffed with herbs and spices to 'prevent' breathing in the disease.The film begins with the typical headstrong protagonist despite warning wanting to investigate a newly discovered vault in an archaeological dig site (old London hospital) that could be potentially a bio-hazard & is advised to stay away. Of course she doesn't, at the same time we see a bunch of London teenagers on a jolly for their friends birthday driving erratically - cue crash. On deciding to peg it from police they hot-foot it into the same (closed down) hospital as the protagonist. They all meet up and chaos ensues.Nothing particularly striking, entertaining for people who gravitate towards horror genre. A different plot from most, same clichés - judge it on your own merit.
Gecko
Why an 8 rating? The film is far from perfect, the story was interesting, not fully realised. Acting was great (in my opinion) overall. Effects were very good. Quick summary, i am interested in the future of the cast and crew, they didn't quite nail it in this film, but they got close, very close! So why a rating of 8? The premise of the story was great, it did get a bit lost as we progress through the film, great potential, very good try overall.Acting was superb, each and every character was well portrayed, thumbs up to the actors and i presume the director, for getting the performances he required.Effects were good, maybe too much of it though, there was a lot of camera movement in a lot of scenes, so i did not see the need for a lot of the special effects.Camera, read above, a wee bit too much movement of the camera for my liking, it was almost like they were trying to portray it as an art film (where visuals give you a meaning(or many meanings), as opposed to straight dialogue with visuals). Still, interesting visuals, but a wee bit over the top for my liking.Editing. Hmmm, tricky one! I liked it, but not in the sense of watching the film, very interesting ideas in the editing, but once again, it seems as if the Editor/Director wanted to convey chaos, way too much? There was way too many cuts/shots jumping around really. Great for a shorter film, i guess, but a feature length, probably not. Apart from dealing with lots of camera movements, then the editing was probably not bad overall, but yet very artistic editing.Direction. Overall a good job, the actors played their roles very well, even in moments where the story seems to have fallen down (it does happen, sadly, near the end). Good work overall! Budget!!! IMDb states it was approx $2 million dollars to make this film! If that is the case, then i would drop the rating to a 5 at best. I honestly do not understand why it can cost that amount of money to make, what i view, as a low budget film, and a very good one at that! So in Summary, good acting, promising story, not really gory, not really scary, but the story and the characters kept me involved to watch the film, even to the extent of writing this review (so it did many things right!). Maybe the story did not warrant a full feature, maybe 1 hour running time or even a 30 min short would of being a wiser choice, it was a brave decision to make this into a feature length, and they nearly nailed it.I look forward to other work from the cast and crew, and maybe, just one day, they will hit the nail on the head, and create the next big summer blockbuster! We all hope...P.S. To the Director, i look forward to your comments on my little Werewolf short i am creating, its gonna be poor, but its a zero budget affair and will be on Youtube! We all start somewhere, right!? :)
bilbo-1635
First of all I think that the entire cast did a damn good job; they were all extremely well scripted and developed and everyone had their little part of the story to them, which you don't find in many movies these days. This movie, to me, is more psychological than anything which I totally love being that I'm all about mind games in my horror movies. The Plague Doctor himself is so creepy he gives you chills just looking at and I think he was nicely developed, and equally creepy and convincing. The story didn't have too many snags and although it kind of had moments where your totally lost it bundles itself in a nice little black bow at the end and sets up an interesting and twisted ending.Another thing I want to note is that this is the first time I can remember that I've seen a naked pregnant girl in a mainstream film, which I thought was daring, considering that there's a lot of people that would go against it, and the boldness of that alone set me in high spirits for this movie. In all I'd have to say that The Sickhouse is a nice little jaunt into the depths of sinister spirituality and never lets up on the suspense and terror. If you're into ghost stories you'll be very happy with this film, I was thoroughly impressed, and that says a lot being that there's not enough good horror being made these days. Check this flick out, you got blood, guts, twists and turns and a pregnant girl giving birth to what looks like a million leaches! You gotta love it! In a time where most horror is cliché this movie sets itself in a different mode and pace than most which is very comforting. I'd definitely suggest you all watch this movie, just be sure to put on the subtitles, the kids have strong English accents... yeah as in London England. This movie is definitely highly recommended! Jayson Champion.
StudioLAX
Despite knowing that the film industry will always sacrifice originality (and therefore risk) to make money it still amazes and annoys me that rubbish like this gets made. Can't a producer realise that making an interesting and vaguely original film will likely make more money through positive word of mouth than a bland, boring, seen it all before piece of cable movie sh!t like Sick House. This film was average, listless, un-engaging, dark and unintelligible, with a pointless and unnecessarily confusing twist ending. I'm desperately trying to think of something positive to say about this film and all I can come up with the cinematography and general look of the film was quite interesting, well that is at the few points in the film where it was possible to actually make out what was happening. Another positive point was Gina Philips who turned in a creditable performance.
