The Humans

After watching the film I could tell it would not get much love on IMDb, but I personally liked it. The screenplay is very good. What I liked about it were the dynamics of the family relationships. The acting was really superb by all of the actors. It seemed like the most realistic Thanksgiving film I have ever seen. Not the idealized Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving we normally see.

The film did feel a little dark and creepy, but this isn't a horror film. It's as IMDb describes it, a family drama. So I think many people will watch it expecting horror and be turned off by it. I did love the attention to details. The old deteriorating and depressing tenement building. The banging pipes from a largely empty apartment that amplifies the sounds caused by water bubbles in the plumbing were really on point. The loud footsteps. The first couple of days in a new apartment in a large city can be frightening especially when you don't have all of your lighting in place and you are left with large empty spaces with dark shadows with strange sounds.

I am giving this film an 8 because I felt the dialog was very organic and realistic. I felt like someone inside this apartment witnessing this Thanksgiving reunion and listening to these people. It's is bleak and depressing but it was good. Another good job from A24.

"The Humans" is just a creepy movie. It is about three generations of the Blake family coming together for Thanksgiving. The entire story takes place inside a Manhattan duplex and tells the stories of the family members and their fears and secrets, like in every family. I was surprised to see Amy Schumer (Aimee) in the cast. But she delivered. And where would we be without the acting of Richard Jenkins (Erik)? He always delivers! This role is scripted for him. Nobody could play Erik better. Constantly hearing all the weird sounds and the way the movie was filmed, that was outrageously well done. A spooky and borderline musical score adds to the impact. Also the filming of all the small details, like the rusty pipes, the weird bulges in the walls and the stains on the ceiling. This was all very well highlighted. However, to put it simple, I was not blown away by this movie. It still needs to sink in. Honestly I don´t know for sure if I saw a masterpiece. I just did not like the ending at all.

Probably not the most ideal movie to watch on Thanksgiving Day as it focuses on a dysfunctional family unraveling their individual frailties during a desultory Thanksgiving dinner filled with personal confessions. It plays almost like a horror movie, but it's really an acting showcase for a strong cast including Amy Schumer in a non-comic role.

This movie is based upon a book and a stage play. This movie has only got one small setting: a rundown house in New York City, with broken electricity, cockroaches and extremely noisy neigbours.

And exactly this rundown house is the place where a Thanksgiving dinner is taking place with a family, of whom everybody is crumbling under emotional, financial and health problems.

This doesnt sound attractive to watch. And it definitely is not a cheery Christmas movie. But it is still a decent picture. Here is why:

The good: it's so rewarding and refreshing to see actors concentrating on plain acting. And nothing else. Just that. Long scenes, totally uninterrupted by editing. I see a family get together, who are eating and drinking and talking together. Nothing much happens. But because the acting is top notch, it is still fascinating to watch this family chemistry during a Thanksgiving dinner.

The mood of this movie is (purposely) directed in such a way that I as a viewer get the sense that this place and this family is somehow cursed or haunted in some way. There is a really dark undercurrent. It is definitely NOT horror, but there is an intense depressing, gloomy undercurrent present all the time...which makes for an uncomfortable watch.

Any bad? This is NOT the movie you wanna see at the holidays with your family. Because it's quite depressing, sad and bleak. But it is still definitely worth a watch, although it is probably only suited for the die hard arthouse movie fans, who can stumach a depressing family get together in a cockroach infested house...

. . . is that we're ALL annoying. Every one of us and this movie lays bare that fact. It's about family and all of the good, bad and annoying that comes with our loved ones. It's a DRAMA, not horror, not action, not a thriller so I don't know why people are complaining that "nothing happens". If you pay attention, you'll see everything that does happen within a dysfunctional family. And for the people saying that "Amy Shumer ruined this movie" - they just hate Amy Shumer. Her acting was fine, as was the entire casts.