Sick Girl 2007

Izzy, Leslie Andrews is a troubled teenage girl who, drawn by a dangerous mix of anger and fixation, sets out to punish the bullies who torment her younger brother. She leans on lessons taught by her older brother Rusty, Chris W. King, who is away serving in the Marines, and she grips this dangerous path with a troubling certainty. She both lusts after and idolizes Rusty, to the point where she overlooks signs that he might not be the flawless figure she imagines, such as his failure to call or reconnect with the family.

The plan escalates to violence on a mass scale when a school bus becomes the scene of a brutal act. Izzy traps and imprisons a couple of the bullies in the trunk of her car, showing no remorse when one begs to be set free. She also abducts three additional bullies and goads Tommy, Ian Villalobos, into killing the other two. He succeeds in taking out one of them but falters with the second. Izzy finishes the second bully off and confines Tommy with the two still alive in the trunk, moving the trio to a barn near her home for further torment. The tension tightens as she uses the moment to bring her little brother Kevin into the fold, and even the family’s gaze shifts toward the disturbing turn of events.

Inside the barn, the cruelty deepens. Izzy tortures her captives and then, without hesitation, goes inside to open Christmas presents with her little brother Kevin and Barney. The cruelties ripple out from the barn into the household as she gifts Kevin a gun taken from one of the bullies, a decision that deeply concerns Barney, John McGarr. The brutal acts are soon picked up by the news, which reports the fatalities as the work of the missing bullies, spreading fear and confusion beyond Izzy’s private world.

A haunting flashback reveals a moment from the past: two Marines arrive at her home, their presence silent and tense, signaling the moment they must tell Izzy that Rusty has died in the war. The silence speaks volumes, and the memory fuels a volatile outburst that culminates in Izzy murdering Rusty’s former girlfriend, a blow that intensifies the spiral she cannot escape. Fueled by rage and desperation, Izzy brutalizes what remains of the bullies, but Barney catches her in the act, and she kills him as well. The revelation that Kevin had quietly entered the barn and witnessed the crimes adds another layer of horror to the scene, and he too is drawn into a tragedy of his own, choosing to shoot himself rather than face what has happened.

The film closes on a bleak, unresolved note. In a final flashback, two Marines return to tell her again that Rusty has fallen, a moment that underscores the price of her vengeance. As the present returns, Izzy walks away from the burning barn, the flames consuming a life she could not repair and a path she cannot escape.