User reviews

We hear about it far too much in the horror genre: a poorly made film with an interesting premise.

Had this shied away from the punk-teen angle (like that of Bava's 'Demons') and headed for straight horror (maybe on the level of 'El Orfanato'), it could've had the chance to be a rather good film. Instead, poor writing, bad direction, seemingly bored actors, and silly camera tricks in exchange for real scares, we're left with yet another forgettable haunted-house picture.

I'd say pass it up and wait for 'The Orphanage' on DVD. Or, if you can't wait, check out 'The Devil's Backbone.'

-AP3-

In London, the archaeologist Anna Ash (Gina Philips) is informed by her Professor Joan Holland (Romla Walker) that the excavation site at the Sixteenth Century Ludgate Orphanage, where she is researching the Cult of the Black Priest during the Great Plague, will be demolished on the next morning to contain the contamination since it has been found the Y.pestis in the digging. The stubborn Anna breaks in the building at midnight expecting to find any substantial evidence that could stop the demolition.

Meanwhile, four drugged punks hit and run with a stolen car and they hide inside the building. They are haunted and attacked by a ghost and one of them, Clive (Jack Bailey), is wounded. When Anna stumbles with the hoodlums, she realizes that Clive is contaminated and needs help. But soon they find that they are trapped in the building.

"The Sick House" is a movie with terrible story, screenplay and camera work. The plot is stupid and unoriginal, and it is hard to believe that an intelligent woman would prioritize her research and break in a contaminated place without weaning protective clothing and mask.

The camera is awful and to compensate the low-budget, there are many closes and the camera is shaken expecting to give the sensation of chaos, but it never works. The messy and senseless conclusion is also awful, trying to give a dreadful twist to the plot. The only things that seems to work is the false promotion of this movie through many fake reviews. Last but not the least, the Brazilian title is perfect for this film ("The Great Plague"). My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "A Grande Praga" {"The Great Plague")

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.

The film is a complete mess. The premise might be sort of interesting, but the already everything but clever script that has written "novices at work!" on every single page additionally gets messed up by a directing that gives a new quality to the word "confusing". And if that wasn't enough, it seems the material was edited by someone on LSD, otherwise there's no explanation for this... hmmm... montage. Putting the footage into a shredder would have shown better results. My regards to the actors who tried hard to put some life into this.

Producers listen up: little money is no excuse for bad craftsmanship!!!!

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.

I bought this movie because I love some kinds of horror (not teen/slasher/SAW garbage) and this kind of appealed because of the image of that freaky weird Plague Doctor. The style and colors and the way it was shot was amazing, kinda down and dirty and quick, but beware unless you keep your eyes open you'll miss the details. I don't know what some of the others are complaining about because I could see everything great on my TV but I do agree that maybe on cheaper TV's the details may not show.

The acting all round was superb and I liked the way I was switching between hating these guys and loving them - it kinda seemed that the actors at time were parodying actors from other bad horror flicks but because of the way the story ran I felt the writers and the director were deliberately doing this, like messing with our minds. I nearly missed some clues to do with mysterious fox but as i thought on it they all came together with the amazing pay-off which I ain't going to spoil for you. Wow, creepy! It really does make sense with the story but emotionally too.

Some of the other comments here are just plain dumb. I think these critics have just watched so much s*** that they can't tell good from bad anyhow and just because this movie uses and re-invents all the clichés that loser horror fans dig doesn't mean the film blows. It's smart cos it re-uses and recycles everything and I haven't seen a movie like it. I think movie people who aren't horror fans actually would see this as a really scary fresh movie.

SO I SAY GOOD LUCK TO IT and congrats to all those involved. BRILLIANT! 10/10

Well, this was not horrible to say the least. I have seen many movies that are even worse. For a low budget movie it was actually pretty thrilling. It gave you some spooks and jumps. Overall the storyline was a good idea, yet somewhat got lost along the way. The acting was OK. Some of the graphics and stunts were pretty gruesome and cool in a way. The dialog was quick and understandable and kept you enthralled throughout the film. Although, the ending was quite a disappointment and rather abrupt, the movie was overall good. Nothing compared to the old time horror flicks, but still good. Is it worth your money? Maybe... if you're looking for a slightly cheesy horror flick. Otherwise, just watch it online.

This movie reminded me a lot of Jacob's Ladder. It was a little slow at times. The acting was pretty decent. The special effects were good. There was a nice use of glitched effects. The costumes could have been better. I assume this was a low-budget movie. They did good with what they had to work with. The bathtub scene was probably my favorite. I would say this is worth watching. The movie was a nice surprise in that it was a lot better than I expected it to be from the previous ratings it had received on this site. I had not heard of the director prior to this movie. I think he did a good job. A lot of low budget horror films lack in good acting and special effects, but this guy really pulled it off in my opinion.

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!? :)

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?

I won't say this is the best horror film I have ever watched but it is certainly not the worst either. Interesting story line about the plague doctors (who by the way wore masks shaped like bird beaks to keep plague at bay) and an unknown cult. In this day of conspiracies it is reasonable to think it could have happened. It had some really decent gore in it and is an OK way to spend a couple of hours. I must say Gina Phillips is making a career out of making horror films and most of them have been good enough to watch. Like this one. You have to keep an open mind with most horror films now days and this is definitely worth a quick look when you've got nothing else to watch. I bought in the 2 for $10 bin @ the local big name super store so at least I got my money's worth. And the ending was very interesting

I loved this movie. And I'm not a idiot, gee, if a 16th century orphanage is being torn down, of course the archologist wants to see what she can find before it is. That was very clear, she's a fanatic on gee.. history... so yeah, she'd sneak in before its gone! Who would worry about a 400 year old sickness in bones? As for the end, this is twisty one, and watching it may have actually helped those that seemed to have missed out on what the ending even was. I've watched this already twice, and have the dvd to watch again, its twisty, its spooky, and its more than just a 'sickness'. Its not perfect, but its in my favorites list! This is an awesome popcorn movie!

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!

Sometimes, it's good to sit back and let a horror movie unfold before you. It needn't be the slickest written, it needn't contain hidden messages or agendas, and it needn't be bursting with CGI or a massive budget. 'The Sichouse' is stylish in its direction and increasingly manic in its storyline. The characters are put well and truly through the mill and the overall feeling is one of chaos and, as you would imagine, sickness.

Co-writer and director Curtis Radclyffe has meticulously (over?) edited the scenes here, drenching them in cold colours and bleeding out any warmth, the camera angles are frequently eccentric, ensuring viewers are never feeling reassured. The sense of chaos makes it virtually impossible to keep up with what is going on, but that is, I think, deliberate. Just as the characters are losing their minds, so we are invited to lose ours for the duration. Some won't enjoy that, but I found it an enjoyable stark experience. It's a bit of a dark trip. My score is 7 out of 10.