{SXSW} Sissy Review- Deliciously Demented And Diabolically Disgusting

Sissy is a gnarly take on online life with a bloody and brutal back half bite.

Our narcissistic social media-obsessed society is ripe ground for horror. Films like Shook and Tragedy Girls showed how twisted internet fame and online culture could be. There is something insidious about a system that rewards based on facades and lies. Every like or share is proof that you can literally manifest something from nothing. Sissy premiering out of SXSW is a viciously playful little gem with blood and commentary to spare.

Cecelia is a social media influencer who has made a living as one of the Pollyanna life coaches that constantly posts platitudes and smiles while hiding a well of pain and insecurities. She posts daily affirmations designed to amass an army of devoted acolytes. Everything is curated to project the image of peace, confidence, and sisterhood. She wraps ropes around herself to protect her energy and advises on owning your truth. In one particularly telling scene early on, the false honesty of these types of personalities is highlighted when Cecelia posts on the importance of gardening for mental health while hiding something very dark just below the camera frame. It’s a brilliant satirist moment that showcases everything wrong with finding self-worth in the online lives of others.

Sissy is about the lasting trauma of bullying by following ex BFF’s Emma(Hannah Barlow, who also co-wrote and directed the film) and Cecelia(Aisha Dee). Co-writers and directors Barlow and Kane Senes steer into the skid of drama that only skin-deep friendships can have. Personal relationships are often bargaining chips for popularity and measuring sticks for success. It is in this place that Sissy finds itself when childhood friends Emma and Cecelia meet again after twelve years.

We see the pair were tight through flashbacks before something violent happened that caused them to part ways. Cecelia reluctantly agrees when their chance encounter results in an invitation to a Bachelorette weekend because she once cared deeply for this young woman. Unfortunately, Cecelia finds that some stains never come out, and her childhood bully is her friend’s Maid of Honor. Worse yet, she isn’t done torturing her.

Masterfully Barlow and Senes draw you into Cecelia’s point of view where things aren’t nearly as perfect as she would like others to believe. She is barely holding onto her emotions, and Aisha Dee(Cecelia) is a standout bouncing between too bright and chipper, traumatized, and manic. Her childhood bully Alex is responsible for Emma and Sissy’s split years ago. Part of the fun is not knowing exactly what happened to cause the riff. We think we have a good idea, but the truth is far uglier than we imagine. By being stingy with the details until the back half of the film, the viewer stays engaged and empathetic towards Cecelia long after we shouldn’t.

There’s is something tragic about Cecelia’s too-bright smile and later homicidal violence that allows us never entirely to turn on her. Sissy could easily be an annoying film full of terrible people we despise if not for her nuanced character. She is a tortured soul who was bullied to the point of snapping. Sure, she shouldn’t have gone on a murder spree, but bygones. Dee plays her just right, letting us see her trauma through the mask of flawless namaste.

Cecelia may be a killer, but Emily De Margheriti’s Alex is not innocent. In fact, this vile woman is so cruel even when it is obvious Cecilia is struggling to fit in, she keeps needling, poking for the soft underbelly that she knows is vulnerable. Margheriti plays up the casual cruelty that women are unfortunately capable of. She’s mean, but in her mind, not mean enough to warrant retaliation of any kind. It’s another kind of delusion that the self-absorbed struggle with.

The Australian import is not what you expect it to be. It is clearly driving at a specific place, but it takes wild detours that subvert the expected narrative. Of course, there is plenty to be said about bullying and the ethics of life coaches with no credentials beyond a healthy number of subscribers. Still, the real message highlights the danger of losing ourselves in a world where thumbs up are all that matters. When your only interaction with the world is hollow, you forget who you really are. Forget about coping with grief, navigating the shark-infested waters of unknown friend groups, or developing support systems.

Humans need support and love, and Cecelia forgot that years ago. Unfortunately, anonymous supporters reaching out from the web aren’t the same as a warm embrace. There is also an interesting little nugget about the parasitic nature of these relationships. Cecelia finds comfort not just in the “you go girls” but in reading others’ pain. Your own life doesn’t look so bad if someone else is struggling. The problem is these superficial connections never provide what we really need to.

The third act delivers on the slasher promise, but in between the gristle, bone, and skull juice(you heard that right) is a directive to do better. Past trauma is no excuse for present behavior. Neither Cecelia nor Alex have taken any tangible steps to grow from their pasts. Instead, they fall back on old dynamics with deadly consequences. The ending is satisfying and ugly, making you wonder just how together any of us are.

Practical effects are stellar. Sissy delights in gross-out gore, and there is plenty of that, especially in the last act. Although I would hesitate to call this movie a horror-comedy, there is an obvious delight in developing some seriously bonkers kills that prevent it from being horror only. The kills are as cringeworthy as the constant online videos Cecelia produces.

There’s a modern moral to Sissy that warns against investing too heavily in false friends that elevates this horror movie from a wince-worthy(and there are a few seriously icky moments) exploiter to something smarter than it first appears. When your detachment warps your reality, anything is possible. I think, therefore, I am, becomes something very scary.

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