A play-by-play of Agata Trzebuchowska‘s debut feature, Sick, sounds more unpleasant than the actual execution. The eyes may want to look away, but there’s so much in this Polish film that bears witnessing. For Sick does the seemingly impossible of turning low, taboo ideas into something resembling beautiful, if not contentious, art. It would have been far easier to lean into the potential shock value of such a strange premise, but favorably, Trzebuchowska doesn’t concede.
Sick is like a mix of V.C. Andrews’ Flowers in the Attic and the Brothers Grimm’s fairytale Hansel and Gretel, then generously topped off with the summer Euro aesthetic of Call Me by Your Name. It certainly pulls from various sources, as well as pulls the audience in different directions. You never quite know whether to be disgusted or titillated. Through those squinted eyes, though, you may find a sort of loveliness about this otherwise very unsettling film.
Siblings Maks (Konrad Kąkol) and Emmaare (Katarzyna Łubik) don’t get lost in the woods like Hansel and Gretel did; they intended to be alone with their ailing grandmother (Monika Niemczyk). However, the isolation of this most unexpected summer allows them the freedom to explore desires that generally wouldn’t manifest anywhere else. And just when you think Trzebuchowska is teasing something that’s not destined to bloom, she confirms it’s not all just in your head.
Sick is largely a psychosexual horror movie. Perhaps it’s also more sexually negative than positive, but keep in mind, Trzebuchowska strips away the derogatory coloring you would often expect. Emmaare having an affair with a married adult isn’t given a moral thrashing in the story, and the brother pining for his sister is presented in a romantic, albeit pathetic, light. It’s as if the rules of modern society mean nothing out here in the country. It helps that Trzebuchowska isn’t trying to victimize anyone, either. There being implied consent in every dubious decision here makes watching this movie more enjoyable, even if that pleasure is tinged with guilt.
As much as Sick sounds like just a perverse journey into two teens’ most forbidden urges, there’s also some emphasis on the grandmother’s peculiar malady (and sudden rehabilitation). Like Zach Cregger’s Weapons did, and here less clumsily so, this matriarch’s health is improving without rational explanation. Your history with fairytale and horror movie logic should fill in the missing gaps. However, there’s virtually no misunderstanding of what’s being suggested. In the same breath, the wicked old woman plot is not given the same attention as the protagonists’ bizarre love story. In doing so, there is a more grounded quality to this timeless character type.
Trzebuchowska’s eye for natural splendor almost offsets the story’s unnatural acts. That picturesque rural setting nearly convinces us everything seen here is normal. Far from it, of course, but Sick is a tremendous how-to for making aberrant ideas compelling. Overall, this is an unusually mesmerizing slant on material typically found in schlockier films.
Sick had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2026.
Leave a comment