User reviews

Twenty years after 9/11, the USA no longer feels like the land of opportunity. Instead, it is the country where the rich get richer, and the rest of the country sinks deeper into debt. Instead of blaming the billionaires who have transferred the wealth of the middle class to themselves, or the fragility of an economy dependent on foreign oil, Americans blame each other. They argue about "wedge issues," small differences blown out of proportion by politicians who know anger will get them votes. It's easier to hate your neighbors than it is to accept than to accept that there is an eventual time for accounting for all superpowers, and that time for America is now.

In this film, three generations of family gets together in a dilapidated NYC apartment to celebrate Thanksgiving. From the first shot of the film, it's clear that the family comes together out of duty, and not because they want to be together. They can't agree on anything, except that every family member feels as if the other family members have failed him. The resentment floats in a thick miasma in an apartment that looks like nothing good has ever happened there.

With the camera as silent witness, what's haunting each family member is revealed. It's exquisitely painful filmmaking, and an incredible lesson from the "show, don't tell" school of playwriting. Every actor delivers a restrained performance so knowing that you want to hug him, but you know he will slap you.

This is what movie making should be.

. . . 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.

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...

"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.

Thought it was an interesting well made movie that was just a little too much like being at my family's own insufferable gatherings to really enjoy.

Confused by everyone else's Schumer fixation. She's not even a huge part of the movie. Richard Jenkins steals the show and everyone else plays their role fine.

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.

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.

I actually like Amy Shumer I want to put that out first she's cute and solid actress especially in this has good moments. I absolutely love the structure of the main apartment some really good cinematography was done and scenery probably my favorite aspect in the film. There's some really good acting and captivating bits it's a shame The Humans got more hate than enjoyment! Kinda odd how there's spooky stuff even though it's purely supposed to be a drama I don't know how to feel about that. Overall solid hangout story that I do think deserves better!

This is a "slice of life" movie about a family Thanksgiving in a slummy apartment with bad lighting and worse light bulbs. The characters are annoying and unlikable. It's not spoiling anything to say that if you expect something interesting or suspenseful or even just curious to happen, you will be sorely disappointed.

I NEVER give a score of 1 to a movie. Most films are at least a 5, the equivalent of "A for effort".

This waste of 2 valuable hours of my life waiting for something interesting to happen isn't worth that generosity.

NY Times review: "...film adaptation...acquires a supernatural sheen..." and mentions a "haunted house."

IMDB: "As darkness falls...mysterious things start to go bump in the night..."

Showtime: "Eerie things things go bump in the night..."

So sue me if I expected a...horror film! I've never seen such misleading reviews.

But...getting past that, this very small film is almost anti-supernatural, so realistic are the themes and performances. Very awkward moments of family dysfunction. Repression on steroids. And often, genuinely affecting.

One of the best films among the many I've seen this year and, sadly, not the kind we see much of anymore. Slow, minimalistic, artsy. Something to be thankful for indeed.

The Humans (2021) follows a family who gather together on thanksgiving for a family meal, but drama and tragedy sneak their way into the night. This movie was a very intimate portrait of a somewhat dysfunctional family and I'm really happy I watched it. I didn't love it but it was a meaningful film with so many deep themes and messages.

The cinematography was very minimalist but this allowed us to focus on the dialogue and characters more. The colour palettes were mainly bleak but I loved the sickly ones! They really stuck out. Also, the framing was very well thought out and made the shots look even better!

The acting was very good from everyone and all the characters had their own distinct and very real characteristics and personality traits. The relationships also felt real and the family were interesting and super in-depth, they often made me emotional. My favourite character would have to be Richard (Steven Yeun), he was a kindhearted and sweet man. Not to mention, the dialogue was compelling and well written too. One of the characters had dementia, and it was a heartbreakingly real portrayal of the illness.

The film had a lack of score but this was most definitely a good thing. This allowed the sound design time to shine, which was amazing at creating a tense atmosphere.

The movie is definitely a slowburn, and although it's not ALWAYS engaging, there was always tension and intrigue throughout. Not much actually happened which made it fairly hard to pay attention to, but the pacing was steady and there was a really good atmosphere.

First of all, sorry, but an average movie viewer is not going to endure such a slow-moving piece. While a drama enjoyer won't find anything special or interesting here.

Secondly, these types of films require perfect timeframes for talking in rooms' scenes. This can be done, The Man From Earth is great, Coherence was also cool, and both of these were mostly people talking in rooms.

This one tries to project the stage scenery through the location, but it doesn't work. The acting, while mostly natural, is still movie acting, and there's a big difference. There is no focus and there is no build-up, so when the supposedly tense breakdown happens it just doesn't feel.

The funny thing is that while watching I was able to imagine these scenes on stage, and they worked with all the elements above, but the adaptation, while made with a vision, failed to create the proper feeling and convey the necessary emotions. That's why most of the film felt like mundane dialogues in an empty house with no meaningful conclusion.

Stephen Karam's screen adaptation of his own Tony award-winning play, 'The Humans,' is a horror movie for those who are afraid of family gatherings. While the performances keep the picture interesting - Jane Houdyshell is particularly impressive - the film never quite manages to transcend the clichés of a theatrical family dinner drama. Mildly satisfying, but not quite as good as it could have been.

I just today saw this film at a film festival. I give three stars for the effort, not the final product. I don't get why the sound and lighting was so bad, maybe they wanted to be subtle about something I missed. The story line was...well, it was bad. I could find no redeeming part to take away with me. I will never get the time back I spent in the theater watching that movie.

I'm one of those people that really likes talky type dramas with a haunting atmosphere. This is one of those movies. Think of "The Nest" or "The Assistant". This movie is equally as talky and unnerving as those movies.

This is a story about an American family spending Thanksgiving together in a New York flat. While we only see from the inside out, you can feel the liveliness of the city outside. This family is at a breaking point even if most family members are unaware of this. The father, played by Richard Jenkins in an amazing performance, is at the core here and everything seems to be caused, yet held upon the shoulders of this man. A man with a wife of 30 to 40 years and two daughters, now grown. Seeing them maturing and becoming the women they will forever be, he seems scared about the rest of his own life and theirs as he seemingly slowly crumbles before our very eyes.. he is the only male in the family and he consistantly is there as a pillar for his family. Strong and tender.. wavered and weathered. He feverishly is fixated on the sounds within and surrounding the dingy yet spacious apartment. The crumbling apartment symbolizes the emotional crumbling within this family even if not at face value. This is a movie unlike anything that has ever been seen before. There is something lurking deep within. A mysterious sense of strangeness. The human condition at its most frightening.

The people this film really resonates with will call it a horror movie. People with no sense of artistic approach will call it a drama. People that are easily amused will call it a comedy. Non thinkers will call it all of the above and people with no patience will call it a waste of time. I call it a masterpiece for the ages.

This father has something to tell his beloved daughters. It's a doozy.

This is my type of cinema as thus was easily one of the best movies of 2022 yet.

...are the monsters. What we say to one another..,what we do to one another...is worse than what any alien can do, because we know every button to push, to cause one another the deepest pain. This very naturalistic story of a dysfunctional family at holiday time pulls the masks away.

The shadows, the sounds, the reflections that hint at a horror movie are letting us know metaphorically what will happen if we create a horror show of our lives.

This film won't be for everyone. It reminds me of a Cassavettes film of the 70's. Houdyshell recreates her Tony Award winning performance beautifully. It provides a lot to think about.

Stephen Karam has not only adapted his Tony award-winning play for the screen but has also directed it and an exceptional job he's made of it, too. Set almost entirely inside a virtually empty New York apartment that Beanie Feldstein's Brigid and her partner Richard, (Steven Yeun), appear to be moving into it's definitely theatrical as her father, mother, sister and grandmother join them for a Thansgiving that will turn out to be memorable for all the wrong reasons. It's the kind of apartment that Rosemary's baby might feel happy being born in, in a building that has clearly seen better days and is the kind of place that enjoys working its old black magic on anyone who visits.

In some respects it's thoroughly banal but in a deeply disconcerting way. Karam definitely has an ear for the kind of everyday, inconsequential dialogue that we call 'small talk' yet which tells us all we need to know about the people we are interacting with and his cast of six are all superb; this is a great ensemble piece with Jayne Houdyshell, repeating her Tony award-winning performance , the stand-out. Of course, it won't do any business. This is too like real life and not enough like the movies to appeal to anything like a mass audience but in its very niche way it's utterly brilliant, a horror movie in all but name and one of the best films you will see this year.

At the heart of The Humans is a story about the complexity and difficulties that families face, being that all families are made of imperfect beings called humans. If the viewer sticks with the film and engages with these characters, they will be rewarded with a deep and intriguing story. However, I can't help but feel like that this story was more suited for the theater (it was adapted from a play) or a novel, as despite amazing performances from our actors, what we really get is a series of conversations and monologues. If what the medium of film can really do well is to "show", this story which takes place all in the same location and insists only on "telling" doesn't make much use of what a movie can do.

This movie is so dreadfully boring and uninteresting - there are no words. It proves once agian that Broadway plays do not translate well to film. The Director's choices, constant long shots down hallways, panning shots of pipes, floors, etc, make no sense whatsoever. Yes, the couple lives in a dump, that is established within the first 5 minutes of the movie - no need to consantly bombard the viewer with visuals rpeating it over and over again. But by far the worsrt part of the movie is the fact that nothing happens - there is no story. None. I was waiting and waiting for something to happen and nothing ever does.

It's a family movie with an eerie awkwardness, a dreadful silence with wood creaking at times. 'Humans' introuduces us to lovely family and how they cope with life's tests. This movie has the wisdom of an old man and the grit of a youngster.