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Not scary but full of surprises, Sick Nurses isn’t your typical Thai horror film.

I didn’t expect much from Sick Nurses.  It looks like another in a long line of disappointing Asian horror imports.  Asian horror has been mined pretty heavily over the past decade and the thought of seeing another long haired female ghost painted black doesn’t usually merit attention.  After the success of Ju-On, Ringu and about a hundred other similar films, Asian ghost movies are pretty much dead.  Fortunately, Sick Nurses only uses the long haired ghost convention as a means to an end and not the only trick in their bag.

In a hospital in Thailand, a hospital filled with hot nurses and one doctor has been selling organs of dead patients.  Since we never see any patients, we have to assume that there are patients.  One of the nurses falls for the doctor and manipulates the situation so she can have the doctor to herself.  When that doesn’t work, she threatens to go the cops and tell them all about their organ scam.  The blackmail attempt fails and she’s killed by her fellow co-workers.  Before she dies, she curses her killers and returns from the dead seven days later to seek revenge. 

While the story sounds fairly mundane, the movie is anything but.  First, Sick Nurses doesn’t play out in chronological order.  The film jumps around in time and you’ll probably be lost at some point but don’t worry; it all comes together in the end.  The film plays up the sexy nature of the nurses and most of the girls get their chance to prance around semi-clothed.  There is lots of fan service (girls in their underwear, quick but provocative glimpses of the girls’ underwear) here including a girl taking a sexy fully clothed shower but no outright nudity.  What makes the movie stand out is the creative kills.  It’s not that often I see an on screen murder that I haven’t seen before.  There are at least two or three that really surprised me (the one where the girl pulls off her jaw was very surprising). 

Directors Piraphan Laoyont and Thodsapol Siriwiwat create lots of great visuals with strong use of color throughout the film.  It’s pure eye candy.  The directors don’t skimp on the gore.  It’s a little slow at first as they have to get the sexy nurses in various states of undress but once it gets past that, the kills are creative and unusual.  It’s a great party movie where you can just put it on with a bunch friends and let the good times ensue.  Nothing is scary and the directors don’t go for cheap jumps either.  It’s a straight-forward horror film with lots of gore and some really dark humor. 

Magnolia has included a few trailers for their other titles and a short making of featurette.  It’s pretty bad and I wouldn’t waste any time on it.  The main attraction here is the movie.

Sick Nurses is a breath of bloody fresh air in a stale genre.  It’s not what I was expecting and that’s a good thing.  It’s a solid rental that more than a few people will want to own.  Don’t let the long haired female ghost scare you off. 

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