Humane review.
Shudder brings us the story of a terrible family who has to make a terrible decision in a terrible world. The good news is that Humane itself is not terrible at all.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Humane
Directed by Caitlin Cronenberg
Written by Michael Sparaga
Starring Jay Baruchel, Emily Hampshire, Peter Gallagher, Enrico Colantoni, Sebastian Chacon, Alanna Bale and Uni Park
Humane Review
We recently discussed how Shudder has strongly rebounded from a brief downward trajectory. The success continued this week with the announcement of an imminent sequel to recent hit In a Violent Nature. Combined with upcoming installments of the V/H/S and Hell House LLC franchises…the future continues to look bright for the horror streamer. The present doesn’t look bad either. Humane marks the latest Shudder exclusive release to deliver quality time with an original story.
Humane is listed as a “Shudder exclusive”. This is a different label than the “Shudder original” monicker that adorns most of the movies who see their streaming debut on the service. Arcadian, Exhuma, Baghead, Skeletons in the Closet, It’s a Wonderful Knife and Huesera: The Bone Woman are recent examples of “exclusives”. Late Night with the Devil, Infested, Stopmotion, You’ll Never Find Me, History of Evil, The Sacrifice Game, Birth/Rebirth, Destroy All Neighbors, Panico, When Evil Lurks, Influencer, Night of the Hunted, Puppetman, Nightmare, Elevator Game, Perpetrator, Bad Things, The Communion Girl, Sharksploitation, Quicksand, Brooklyn 45, From Black and The Unheard are equally recent examples of “originals”.
So, what’s the difference between exclusive and original? Both see Shudder as the only streaming service they are available on. They may or may not be available on Video on Demand or Blu-Ray/DVD regardless of designation. The truth is…there isn’t much difference between them at the time of their release. That can change, however. Shudder Originals aren’t likely to leave the platform in the future…the content has been produced, owned and/or distributed by Shudder itself. Exclusives are more likely to either leave the service…or find its way to another service concurrent to streaming on Shudder. Consider them films that the service invests in to have fresh, unique content available for subscribers.
What goes into the decision to pick up and designate these exclusives is a mystery. Most of the titles listed above are a level of quality that explain themselves. Skeletons in the Closet is a notable example of the opposite. It’s a bad movie underserving the Shudder brand. Not every movie the service puts out is a winner…but the failures usually do so by coming up short on big swings. Skeletons in the Closet is just a bore. A bore led by a problematic star.
Humane likely got the nod due to a less problematic name attached to it. It is the feature film directorial debut of Caitlin Cronenberg. We all know her famous filmmaking father David Cronenberg. Her brother Brandon has made a name for himself in the format as well. He directed last year’s great Infinity Pool. The youngest Cronenberg director (so far) fills the chair nicely with a confident debut. Her photography background ensures a quality looking picture. Inspired casting choices fill the frames with interesting performances. Only a script that oscillates between too on the nose and unsure of what it wants to say keeps Humane from being a full triumph.
At its core, Humane is a ticking clock movie. It takes its time setting up the true premise of the story…allowing us time to get to know its characters before the clock starts. The central premise involves a world-wide catastrophe brought on by climate change. Overpopulation has overrun the livable areas of the world. The solution is appropriately dark. The government is paying people to sign up for euthanasia. The program clearly targets the poor. Your death can leave your family with a better life, after all. This makes Humane’s choice to focus on a wealthy family an interesting one. Initially.
Charles York (Peter Gallagher) was a famous news anchor. He’s invited his whole family to dinner to share some difficult news. Charles, and his wife Dawn (Uni Park), have decided to enlist in the euthanasia program. Things escalate quickly when Bob (Enrico Colantoni) and his crew arrive to carry out the procedure immediately. Dawn takes off…unwilling to go through with it. Losing your father is bad enough…but now Bob is demanding a second body.
The main issue with Humane lies in its characters. Though cast with fine actors like Jay Baruchel and Emily Hampshire…there aren’t a lot of people worth rooting for. Adopted brother Noah (Sebastian Chacon) is the only decent person among the four children. Humane is so desperate for you to side with him that it triples down on it. Not only is he the one adopted child…he’s also a recovering addict. And an immigrant. The last bit allows brother Jared (Baruchel) to play with some funny “I’m not racist, but” material and lets the movie hammer its messaging a little harder. These are awful people put into an awful situation by an awful person in an awful world.
It doesn’t take the siblings long to identify Noah as the should-be body they offer up to Bob and his crew. The meat of Humane involves this family squabble turned fight to survive. This is when Humane is at its best. A turn in the climax complicates the rooting interests. With only one character worth saving and a story that goes out of its way to beat you over the head with it…any turn on the formula was destined to lead the narrative into troubling territory.
Still, the cast is game to the awfulness. These are easy people to root against…which is why Humane peaks while allowing us to do just that. Colantoni’s Bob is a proper villain. He withholds information and pits the family against each other for his own amusement. Humane banks on him being bad enough that you’ll inevitably side with the people it deems less awful. The degree to which that works is up to you. So to is the messaging of the movie which seeks to extrapolate modern conflicts out into a dire future. The movie takes a swing and mostly commits to it. A muddled finish may leave you feeling cold despite the promised global warming.
Scare Value
A lack of main characters worth rooting for places a limit on how invested you can be in Humane‘s dark scenario. It doesn’t seem completely confident in what it’s trying to say about things…and expresses the things that it does say with very on the nose commentary. Still, the situation is interesting, and the cast is all in on the tone that Cronenberg sets. It’s a well thought out ending away from elevating beyond a fun watch and delivering a great movie.
3/5
Humane Link
Streaming on Shudder
