Stephen Karam

(On Cable TV, May 2022) Ugh, what an ordeal. But that’s probably the reaction expected of The Humans’ filmmakers. Taking the notion of a secrets-filled Thanksgiving family get-together to its creepiest manifestation, the film begins as a middle-class family from Pennsylvania gathers at their youngest daughter’s newest apartment, in a semi-dilapidated Manhattan apartment building. While there’s little in the subject matter of the film to evoke horror, the setting does most of the work in making the film repugnant: dimly lit hallways with flickering lights, creaking dripping pipes, power outages and disquieting noises from the urban jungle all combine to make the film feel far darker than warrants its subject matter. Writer-director Stephen Karam positively delights in shooting it all like a film where the first brutal murder is only thirty seconds away, with distant long-shots meant to deemphasize the humanity of characters stuck in an alien environment that doesn’t care about them. Absent the setting, the film plays like a far more traditional Thanksgiving family demolition derby: Everyone’s got a secret or two, and we get to hear it all by the end of the film. A few familiar names pop up on the cast list: most notably Amy Schumer in a decidedly serious role and Richard Jenkins maintaining a façade of civility on a character with much to atone for. So, does it work? I expect it may on audiences who fear the intrusion of genre upon drama – The Humans is all build-up and no payoff (especially for those hoping for a psycho killer to put this entire irritating family out of their misery) and there’s an audience for that kind of material even if I can’t understand why. For genre fans, however, The Humans is all that’s wrong with pretentious arthouse drama movies convinced they don’t have to be conventional. I mean – they’re not wrong: there’s nothing forcing filmmakers to stick to a solid three-act structure with a satisfying denouement. But then again, nothing forces the audience to like the result either. But if your idea of a fun time is a dysfunctional Thanksgiving dinner with unlikable characters in a run-down apartment, well, The Humans is for you.