The Sickhouse (2008)

Crappy film

Admirable film.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Seeing the business of this film, i am amazed how this film could not grab more money and audience?? I Really liked the plot of this movie right from the beginning. The lead cast had done splendid work with superb body language. All the time, it made us thinking for the next twist here and there. We could not help but watch this movie more than one time and of course with the same enthusiasm. I want to ask few things which i could not get clarity of as the end began approaching. For example, i am confused to know the time phenomenon when the clock stopped at 11.59. Were they all five actually had died at 12??. Was anna actually unconscious the moment she fell from the top floor and then she ran towards the main gate where she hit with the car of those teenagers?? Do those four teenagers really entered the orphanage or it was just all dream of anna??? What was the issue of that baby?

Horror fans can be finicky; I know this, I am one of them. But The Sick House deserves a higher review, in my humble opinion. Yes, there are "similar" films in this genre of Horror (the abandoned building/hospital/asylum), yet I was pleasantly surprised and it is not exactly as it appears to be in the "spoilers" or description. Yes, it is low-budget but the plot was interesting and the acting was BY FAR better than some other low-budget films of this particular branch of Horror. It is not an overly complex plot so you can enjoy it without having to figure everything out or "where IS this film going?". Enjoyable, mindless so you can enjoy it without trying to figure it out and definitely creepy at times. And it's not too long so if you DON'T enjoy it, at least you haven't wasted 2-3 hours!All in all, an interesting film with good actors and a good ending!

Plague doctors, the physicians who treated the sick during the Great Plague of London, wore wide-brimmed black hats, long black overcoats and primitive gas masks in the shape of a bird's beak; in short, they looked bloody freaky.Horror newcomer Curtis Radclyffe attempts to capitalise on the unsettling nature of these bizarre historical figures by making them the antagonists in his film The Sick House, but fails to realise that having a cool looking killer just isn't enough on its own: a coherent plot, decent acting, competent editing and considered direction doesn't go amiss either.After a thoroughly confusing pre-credits sequence featuring a whispering child, Radclyffe's film begins proper with the discovery of a sealed chamber beneath a 17th century hospital. Archaeologist Anna (Gina Philips) is keen to find out what is on the inside, but when the site is declared to be a bio-hazard, she is prevented from continuing her dig. So what does this supposedly intelligent scientist do next? Why, break in, of course—a stroke of genius which not only results in an outbreak of the plague, but also the resurrection of a murderous plague doctor. Meanwhile, a car full of joy-riders seek refuge in the hospital after their fun results in a fatal accident. Guess who's going to wish they'd not broken their ASBOs...Having introduced his raft of thoroughly selfish characters, and established them within a fairly creepy locale, Radclyffe then proceeds to belie his novice status as both a writer and director by boring the pants off his audience with a solid hour and a half of people wandering aimlessly through dark corridors, whilst the shadowy plague doctor randomly appears and disappears in the shadows.Fluorescent lights flicker on and off to add a little extra ambiance (or in my case, to irritate me even further), none of the supernatural events that occur are ever adequately explained, gimmicky editing and post production trickery makes everything extremely hard to follow, and the whole thing finishes as confusingly as it began, with a child once again whispering some nonsense that might possibly have made some sense had I not given up caring long before.

Don't get the pun in my summary? Then this cheap British horror flick might be for you. If you do not want spoilers, you may read some of the positive comments a few stoners already have posted here. Otherwise:*** ******** ************ SPOILERS ************* *********Want something you can barely see, even when you use the undark special feature on your DVD remote? How about something that starts and finishes with unintelligible chanting by kids' ghosts? Want to see an archaeologist who's been poking around in an abandoned building "for months," but still has no idea of its floor plan? Wanna see this same chick hear her boss say the site has been quarantined and slated for immediate demolition due to an infestation of rats and plague germs (not all that unusual in many world cities), prompting her to cut through miles of police tape in the dead of night for a few more minutes of snooping? How about a security guard who gets knocked out early on, but pops up running like Jack Bauer at the last minute? Or four random hoods jabbering incomprehensible Brit slang implausibly locking themselves into this same abandoned building with "Lara Croft." And how often can you see a caper featuring three studs tooling around in a stolen car in the city center with a chick NINE MONTHS PREGNANT? Or getting into constant deadly fist fights with each other to claim credit for her pregnancy? With the expectant gal suddenly responding to her heebie-jeebies by tearing off ALL her clothes and hopping into a cement vat of cold water in front of these guys, where she soon "delivers" about five gallons of slugs? Or everyone ignoring a collage of eight-foot ghosts and decaying child ghosties (and if the characters cannot see these apparitions, why bother to show them to us?)? And most telling of all, if you appreciate a filmmaker who shows you a clock stuck on 11:59 (p.m.) every ten minutes to remind you that nothing you're watching is REALLY happening, and has the audacity to think he can throw in 30 seconds of quick-cuts action just before closing credits to explain what ACTUALLY went on according to a script which must have had more scribbled afterthoughts than typed original entries, then SICK HOUSE probably is up your dark alley.