Say hello to Izzy. Then say goodbye.
"There's nothing wrong with hurting things smaller than you, providing you also take on things bigger than you. Cowards, lying in wait for weak prey. Bullies. You make me sick."
— Izzy
Sick Girl is a 2007 indie horror film written and directed by Eben McGarr, which offers a sample of a great many Horror Tropes. Plus some terrible acting. And plenty of Nightmare Fuel.
Izzy, the heroine, is a young woman of indeterminate age raising her 9-year-old brother, while her older brother has been away at war for the past four years, without one visit home, nor any confirmed contact with anyone but Izzy. The movie opens with Izzy boarding a public school bus (which is inexplicably driven and monitored by nuns) briefly before Christmas, though the entirety of the film takes place in rural desert. Two girls in the back giggle and laugh at Izzy, who is dirty and not wearing the uniform, while one takes off her panties and tosses them out the window for her boyfriend, who is driving along behind the bus, to find. Izzy knocks a nun down and pees on her, and is ejected from the bus. The boyfriend and his friend come across Izzy and stop a minute later. The obese friend exits the car, hoping to score with Izzy. Shit gets real. This is followed by an incomprehensible plot with lots of explicit gore and violence of every type.
Not in any way related to Masters of Horror episode.
This film provides examples of the following tropes:
- Alliterative Name: Corey Chapman.
- A Love to Dismember: Michael does get to screw Stephanie. A shame his penis wasn't attached at the time.
- Alpha Bitch: Stephanie and Trish. You can tell because they are the only blondes on the bus.
- Bait-and-Switch: The man who gives Izzy a ride asks if she's single, and then says he knows what she needs while seemingly unfastening his pants. Turns out he's just getting out a picture of his family.
- Big Brother Attraction: Izzy harbors romantic feelings for Rusty.
- Bloodbath Villain Origin: Killing Jugs, then massacring a school bus full of people.
- Chekhov's Gift: Kevin kills himself with the gun Izzy gave him for Christmas.
- Chewing the Scenery: Mr. Putski, when his pet rat is returned.
- Children Forced to Kill: Izzy forces Tommy to kill his friends.
- Christmas Elves: It's a tradition to have the youngest member of the family dress as an elf to give out donations at the hospital's children's ward.
- Cool Bike: Owned by Barney.
- Credits Gag: "No nuns were actually urinated on during the production of this film."
- Dead All Along: A flashback at the end shows two Marines informing Izzy of Rusty's death, revealing she had been faking the letters and calls from him all this time.
- Disgusting Public Toilet: Well, it becomes disgusting after Izzy washes all the blood off.
- Double Standard: Rape, Female on Female: Averted. Izzy rapes a girl to death with a makeshift strap-on consisting of a severed penis attached to a spike, and it's pure
Nightmare Fuel. - Dramatic Drop: Barney, when he enters the barn and discovers Izzy with her victims.
- Driven to Suicide: After discovering what Izzy has been doing, Kevin commits suicide by shooting himself in the head.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Izzy asks Tommy if he's hungry while holding a bucket that Stephanie had just urinated in, then realizes the unintentional insinuation ("... Ew!")
- Facial Horror: Tommy has his face partially eaten by a rat.
- Flashback: Izzy shooting up the bus and killing Trish, Rusty training Izzy, Rusty telling Izzy he is joining the Marines and her kissing him, Rusty's goodbye, and Izzy being notified of his death.
- Force Feeding: Trish is forced to swallow gasoline, then is set on fire.
- Forceful Kiss: Izzy, to Rusty.
- Freak Out: Izzy, the first one being when Kevin asks why Rusty never visits, like the relatives of other kids stationed overseas."Daryll's dad's a faggot, so there's nothing else for him to do! Rusty is the greatest Marine that has ever lived, so fuck Daryll and his dad!"
- Gratuitous Rape: Izzy rapes another girl to death with a spike that she has attached to the severed penis of the girl's boyfriend.
- Groin Attack: Mike gets his penis sliced off with a straight razor.
- High-Pressure Blood: Jugs getting his throat slit, and Mike getting his dick sliced off.
- Hysterical Woman: "She's a girl, that's what they do. They freak out over weird things."
- Inner Monologue: Used when Izzy is writing a letter to Rusty.
- In-Series Nickname: Little Boots for Kevin; the origin of it is never revealed.
- In the Back: Izzy orders Tommy to slit Corey's throat, but he instead stabs him in the back while he's begging for mercy. Izzy is annoyed.
- Karma Houdini: Izzy ends the film by killing off all her targets and leaving to an unclear fate.
- Martial Pacifist: Barney teaches Kevin how to fight, but also tells him to never throw the first punch, and that while violence is sometimes neccessary, it should be used only when there are no other options.
- My Little Panzer: Izzy gives the gun she took from Mike to Kevin as a Christmas present.
- No Name Given: Rusty's girlfriend.
- Not That There's Anything Wrong with That: The motorist who gives Izzy a ride rather bluntly asks if she's Jewish, then realizes how negative that came across as, and awkwardly backtracks.
- Shovel Strike: Izzy bashes Tommy in the face with one.
- Sound-Only Death: The school bus massacre.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Christmas tunes play as Izzy mangles Tommy, and sets him up like a Christmas tree, while a country song plays as she mutilates Mike, and rapes Stephanie.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Jugs.
- Outlaw Couple: Mike and Stephanie are named as suspects in the "school bus slaughter" and the disappearances of Tommy, Rudy and Corey, bringing this trope to mind.
- Outside Ride: Unwilling example, in the form of Izzy closing the car window on Rudy neck, and driving along with him like that.
- Out with a Bang: Izzy rapes Stephanie to near-death with a makeshift strap-on made out of a stake with Mike's severed penis impaled on it.
- Urine Trouble: Izzy knocks down a nun, then pisses on her.
- Villain Protagonist: Izzy tortures, rapes, and murders throughout the film.
- Waif-Fu: Izzy was trained to fight by Rusty, though we never really see her in action.
- Would Hurt a Child: Izzy kills a kid by putting his head in a cage with a rat, which eats his face after it gets hungry.
