Another Hole in the Head 2025 Coverage
Adorable Humans review
A Danish anthology that eventually runs out of steam.
Festival movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Adorable Humans
Directed by Anders Jon, Kasper Juhl, Michael Kunov and Michael Panduro
Written by Anders Jon, Kasper Juhl, Michael Kunov and Michael Panduro
Starring Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt, Mille Dalsgaard, Peter Høgsbro, Mie Gren, Michael Worthman and Adan Ild Rohweder
Adorable Humans Review
Among the many foreign language films streaming at this year’s Another Hole in the Head Film Festival was Danish anthology Adorable Humans. Four tales based on the works of Hans Christian Andersen. You may know the author best from his Disney adaptation The Little Mermaid. Needless to say, Adorable Humans takes a different path in adapting Andersen’s works.
Despite the shorts coming from four different creative teams, they look and feel similar enough to fit into one package well. These are dark, gritty and messy horror tales. Each has a strong production on a low budget. Quality acting is found throughout the picture as well. With a solid floor for each short film…Adorable Humans is an enjoyable package overall.
It even manages to put together an elegant framing device. Instead of presenting some hackneyed reason for these stories to take place within a larger narrative…Adorable Humans simply puts them in a book. We see a Hans Christian Andersen book of collected works…and pages turn to the next installment within the film. Anyone who has read one of my horror anthology reviews before will understand how happy this made me. Seriously, I could recommend Adorable Humans based on this simple choice alone. Too many of these types of films feel the need to tack on a framing device of low quality…and sink their overall package. Here, we have one that lets its short films do the talking.
As we do with all anthologies…we will do this review while ranking the segments from worst to first. Worst doesn’t mean bad in this case. That high floor for Adorable Humans eases any fears of a massive down point in the film.
Without any further ado…
4. Aunt Toothache (segment 4)
What’s working against Aunt Toothache more than anything is placement. By the time the final short film of Adorable Humans begins we’ve already sat through a feature length film. It’s tough to start a brand new story after an hour and a half of watching a movie. The story itself involves a struggling musician who ends up with the wrong muse. Like the rest of Adorable Humans it’s a well-made little piece of work…and it has a pretty good musical ending to boot. Like I said, worst doesn’t mean bad in this case. Had Aunt Toothache been positioned earlier in the film it may have fared better in the ranking.
3. The Snow Queen (segment 3)
The Snow Queen is the most “fairy tale” of the group. A (dark) magic mirror upends the life of a woman who is trying to start a new life with her husband. The mirror shows her to be a rotting husk…and that turns her on for some reason. A deformed stranger knocks on the door one day…inquiring about the mirror that makes them look beautiful. There are some nice gooey effects and a strong dark tone in The Snow Queen. It takes a long time to feel like it’s gotten going though. Again, this could be partially due to the length of the preceding shorts. The third slot feels a bit like you’re on your third episode of a binge watch and your attention has started to waiver.
2. The Dead Man (segment 1)
The Dead Man kicked off Adorable Humans with an intriguingly dark tale with a strong atmosphere. A young man takes a job as caregiver to a dying man. He begins a new relationship with an uninhibited woman…and discovers some buried secrets along the way. The Dead Man has the best horror imagery in Adorable Humans. There are a few genuinely creepy moments in the anthology’s opening short. It’s a perfect choice to lead the movie as it quickly sets a dark atmosphere that carries throughout the rest of the stories.
1. The Story of a Mother (segment 2)
The second segment of Adorable Humans takes top prize in this subjective ranking. It’s the most emotional tale of the set. A mother and son deal with the aftermath of the death of the family patriarch. It’s a story of grief and depression. Not for the faint of heart…like the rest of the anthology. The son is becoming increasingly ill. He’s racked with guilt following a bus crash that claimed the lives of his entire class. He missed the bus because his mother’s troubles have made everything difficult to accomplish. There’s more strong imagery here…within visions and in reality. It’s the emotional depth of the piece that sets it apart from the pack. Even if only slightly.
Scare Value
Adorable Humans gets extra points for not tacking on a needless framing device. It connects its stories in small ways within the narratives that don’t distract from each short’s main objective. These are quality productions on a very low budget. Hans Christian Andersen’s stories are a strong fit for horror…even if they make a lot more money as a Disney Princess.
