Sick [Fantastic Fest Review]

by Mike McGranaghan

The title of Sick appears in the form of white liquid that slowly drips down the screen. If you don’t know what that’s meant to represent, it won’t take long to figure out. Writer/director Agata Trzebuchowska has made a sexually charged horror movie that is bound to leave viewers shocked yet unable to divert their eyes from the screen. It had its world premiere at the 2026 edition of Fantastic Fest – a perfect home for this cinematic provocation.

Maks (Konrad Kakol) is a 16-year-old boy who heads to the countryside to care for his ailing, bedridden grandmother. His older sister Emma (Katarzyna Lubik) joins him, although she’s far more interested in lounging around in the sun than in tending to the old lady’s needs. The sibling dynamic is troubling. Like most teenage males, Maks is perpetually horny. Emma is kind of hot, which he realizes, and she enjoys doing suggestive things to get him fired up. As this incestuous vibe grows, grandma begins getting out of bed, performing disturbing actions in the process.

Sick is not a traditional horror movie. There is some violence and gore at the end, but mostly it aims to create a psychological impact. Emma’s manipulation of her brother is distressing, to say the least, as is his inability to resist. She gets off on stirring up his hormones; he gets off on the sight of her body. This may sound supremely gross. The film is nevertheless realistic in depicting the almost Pavlovian response adolescent boys have to a girl in revealing clothing or the sight of cleavage. Trzebuchowska takes the issue to uncomfortable places that seem connected to the grandmother’s bizarre behavior in some darkly Freudian way.

That the approach works is due in large part to the performances. Kakol turns Maks’s incessant horniness into a bundle of confusion, curiosity, and boredom from being in the countryside. He’s very good. Lubik is even better. Through her performance, we sense Emma has an inner insecurity that drives her behavior. In the absence of other guys to seek attention from, she turns to her own sibling. What she does is possibly less disturbing than why she does it. The actress’s work here is incredibly nuanced, suggesting she’s got a bright future ahead of her.

I’m dancing around revealing too much about what happens in the movie. Suffice to say, we’re treated to an NC-17 level of explicitness. Trzebuchowska pulls out all the stops for a mind-blowing finale – a nearly 10-minute unbroken shot that follows the characters out a second story window (kudos to that cameraman) and incorporates stunts, fighting, and graphic sex. This wrap-up not only resolves the plot, it also speaks to the long-standing connection between sex and violence as related forms of cinematic thrills. The audacity is as admirable as it is stunning.

Sick is not necessarily what you’d call a “fun” watch. It is, however, an exquisitely made picture that fulfills its goal of leaving you rattled while still stimulating your intellect. I have no idea what kind of life it will have outside the festival circuit. As an example of bold, fearless filmmaking, though, this scandalous Polish thriller is a work that deserves recognition.