TIFF 2021: THE HUMANS

A sense of impending doom can be felt throughout Stephen Karam‘s The Humans. An adaptation of the director’s Tony-winning play of the same name, the movie is a family drama that operates like a horror movie, with plenty of jump-scares, dreadful feelings, and terror dominating the story. Though there’s no supernatural force to be seen from start to finish, it feels like there could be. Karam has found an effective way of utilizing cinematic space and language to transform his play into one remarkable film.

Thanksgiving Dinner to Remember

It’s Thanksgiving, and couple Brigid (Beanie Feldstein) and Richard (Steven Yeun) have just moved to a new apartment in Chinatown, New York. Though the place hasn’t been fully furnished, they’ve decided to invite Brigid’s parents — mom Deirdre (Jayne Houdyshell) and dad Erik (Richard Jenkins) — and sister Aimee (Amy Schumer) over to celebrate the holiday at their new home. Tagging along with the parents is Erik’s mom Momo (June Squibb) who is confined to a wheelchair and suffering from dementia.

Right from the beginning, even though you can feel the warmth of seeing a group of people having a Thanksgiving dinner together, you’ll notice that something isn’t quite right with both the family and the apartment. There seems to be unspoken tension and animosity between them. Even when they try their hardest to hide it, you can still see the cracks. Brigid and Aimee like to mock Deirdre’s religious view on life, and while it just seems like a joke at first, it grows increasingly crueler as the night goes. Erik, who seems to always be positive and full of smiles, is clearly worried about his financial condition, while Richard’s attempt to please every member of the family keeps getting side-eye from his own partner.

The family is clearly not okay, and as the movie progresses, the truth about them is getting more and more clear. Karam dissects each of his characters with surgical precision, sometimes from afar as if the camera is a ghost lurking in the corner, and some other times, staying very close to them that it makes both the audience and the characters uncomfortable. Discussion about money, sex positions, and even about a silly nightmare turns into an ongoing debate. It might be Thanksgiving, but their togetherness sure does not feel warm at all.

Yet, it’s when the characters are arguing that the film’s excellent writing shines the brightest. The Humans tries to prove a point about how divisive our society is. Even in a family that’s supposed to love each other, each member has their own opinion about literally everything. And instead of trying to respect and embrace all those differences or see them as a way to make the world more colorful, we let them become the things that break us apart. It’s a very truthful message, and Karam never once tries to sugarcoat it.

Phenomenal Adaptation

Even more remarkable is the way Karam and his cinematographer Lol Crawley treat the apartment. Instead of just using it as a location, they transform Brigid and Richard’s new home into the film’s seventh character. Water stains on the wall, peeled paint, dirty and foggy windows, just to name a few, give the apartment more depth. Then there’s also the thumping sound from upstairs that keeps interrupting the characters’ conversations. No play adaptations, except maybe last year’s Oscar-winning The Father from Florian Zeller, are as inventive as The Humans.

The ensemble also gives more texture to the film. Jenkins, in the kind of performance that he’s mastered throughout his career, brings humor and also sadness at the same time. His grin anytime Eric talks about how expensive living cost is right now, informs so much of the exhaustion he’s feeling. Yeun and Feldstein‘s chemistry gives tenderness to an otherwise very bleak movie, while Houdyshell‘s lived-in performance and Schumer‘s rare dramatic turn heighten the tension to eleven. Some people might be put off by how small the film feels, but the performances from the cast will at least hook them.

Intentionally uncomfortable and eerie throughout, The Humans takes something as simple as a Thanksgiving dinner then turns into an unfiltered reflection of our society right now. In his directorial feature debut, Karam has flexed his filmmaking muscle and make the scariest movie of the year.

What do you think of the ending to The Humans? Let us know in the comments below!

The Humans played at this year’s TIFF and would be released by A24 on 24 November 2021.

Watch The Humans