Movie Review: Sissy
At the heart of social media is a curious contradiction. For an idea that values the importance of associations, networking can be a very lonely affair. As such, the image we create online is often a carefully constructed, sanitized version of ourselves that erases the less attractive aspects of our personality. The satirical horror film Sissy , from writer/director duo Hannah Barlow and Kane Senesen , places this contradiction at the center of our relationship with social media and what happens when our online profiles come under scrutiny in the real world. A lot of blood can flow around the problem.
Sissy follows Cecilia (brilliantly played by Aisha Dee ), a successful mental health activist who creates content around mindfulness. One day he meets his childhood friend Emma (played by Hannah Barlow) and reluctantly encourages her to visit him and her new group of friends in person. Tensions rise when we learn that there was a deep-seated traumatic event when the two friends were children, involving another girl who bullied Cecilia but is now Emma's best friend.
Things get complicated when Cecilia is invited by Emma to go to a cabin in the woods with her fiancé and some friends to celebrate her bachelorette party. There, Cecilia learns that the girl who bullied her as a child is hers and is now an adult. What was originally seen as an opportunity to reconnect with a lost friend turns into a darkly comic descent into trauma, social media identities, and accidental and premeditated death.
The film is essentially a clever unraveling by Cecilia, a slow unraveling of her true self and her agent. We realize very early on that each version of Cecilia contradicts the others. While influencer Cecilia is a calm and collected person who is emotionally mature and stable, offline Cecilia is a quiet and somewhat awkward person who keeps to herself and only socializes over the phone. Creating content isn't just his job, it's his life. Emma's presence disrupts this, forcing the real Cecilia to drive and reveal all her trauma and fears.
Sissy shows how today's generations live in a constant exchange of identities, both online and offline, which are then also questioned. The message hits hard through Aisha Dee's performance, a showcase of emotional nuance that introduces viewers to the darkly funny consequences of injecting digital behavior into the real world.
When Cecilia's trauma exposes her childhood bullies, the psychiatrist begins to uncover cracks in her psyche. It is an idea that online content creators as spiritual followers of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Cecilia makes it clear that she values her digital presence more than her physical presence. Harlow and Senes use this to build the breadcrumb trail that leads the story to its funny and clever ending.
Sister teases and laughs with whoever she wants. Each character Cecilia interacts with goes beyond caricature and embodies the funnest parts of social media interactions. It's like walking around with the like/dislike buttons and voicing their thoughts on Cecilia's character in the comments with the disdain of an anonymous troll. The things that are wrong with the internet are partially done, Cecilia's central victim is unsettling but also disturbing.
In short, I was glad the film didn't succumb to 80s horror nostalgia. In places I expected a neon homage to the slashers of yesteryear, but the story has a bigger vision that doesn't just focus on gender references like Easter eggs. The same goes for the score (by Kenneth Lampl ) and the music selection. Everything is set to capture the present and not a modernized version of the past.
Barlow and Senes have one of the best sissy horror movies of the year on their hands , thanks to a stunning performance from Aisha Dee. It shows social networks, raises stereotypes and digital fears to make it persuasive what is discussable. On the one hand, I keep coming back to it and thinking about Cecilia and all the chaos that results from an online presence that hides her traumas and portrays a completely different personality than the one she goes through in real life. It shows how much fear there is in the things that keep us off our social media profiles.
Sissy pours on Shudder.
