Ida Teeter (Angela Bettis) is an awkward entymologist who likes to take her work home with her, so much so that her apartment is filled with tanks containing a variety of insects. Unfortunately this does her love life no favours, and tonight the girl she was supposed to be going out with leaves a message on her answer machine calling off their date - Ida is reduced to tears. The next day, she turns up at work feeling miserable and her colleague Max (Jesse Hlubik) tells her that if she wants to make any progress with women she has to keep her job, and pets for that matter, secret, so when he suggests she go and speak to the attractive young woman who sits sketching in the lobby of the building they work in, she makes sure not to mention anything about insects. Alas, Ida loses her nerve, but feels that a connection has been made, and soon a date has been set up with Misty (Erin Brown) - but their budding romance will have unexpected consequences...
So after one film and half a video movie Lucky McKee was considered a Master of Horror, was he? Well, on this evidence he was a good choice for the series as Sick Girl was one of the better episodes, if more of a quirky comedy than a horror. McKee rewrote Sean Hood's script to make the Ida character a woman instead of a man, and added his distinctive humour that had been so effective in May, to create this cautionary tale of the perils of the dating scene, particularly if you have a big insect scuttling around your apartment. Ida has taken delivery of a parcel containing the creature, but there's no letter attached to it and it seems to have been sent from Brazil; it's aggressive too, but so rare that Ida has no idea what species it could be.
She keeps the insect in its box along with the others and hides them all in her bedroom when Misty comes over (must have taken them ages to come up with a name for Brown's character). They watch a video together, and Ida is won over immediately by Misty's sweetness so one thing leads to another and they end up in bed together (or on couch together really - Ida is letting her nowhere near the bedroom with all those bugs in there). But oh dear, the Brazilian creature has broken out of its box and hidden in the pillow Ida brings for Misty, and it bites her new friend while remaining hidden. Now Misty is the Sick Girl of the title, as her behaviour changes and after she moves in, not minding the insects, she takes to popping beetles in her mouth when Ida isn't looking. This is all so charmingly played that it's a real shame when Misty's personality changes and you feel sorry for Ida at the downward spiral the once-promising relationship hits, but although the explanation behind the big bug is hard to accept, rest assured there is a happy ending. In a weird kind of way, which is entirely appropriate.
[Part of the Anchor Bay Masters of Horror box set of DVDs, which include a host of extras such as commentaries and documentaries to keep fans occupied.]
