‘The Humans’ is the next great NYC drama | TIFF movie review

The Humans takes place over a single night as a family gathers in a lower Manhattan apartment for Thanksgiving — and that’s a horror.

The Humans is a terrifically acted New York City-set family drama that plays like a horror movie about existential dread and the figurative, and literal, claustrophobia of life… so the most East Coast movie I’ve ever seen. I want to watch it 100 times

The Humans, along with Florian Zeller’s The Father, might be one of the most exciting play-to-movie adaptations for its pure embrace of the cinematic language. Throughout the film, which is set in a two-floor New York City apartment in Chinatown, the bulbs in each of the rooms progressively go out. The space the characters inhabit is literally shrinking and they’re forced to face the darkness — and each other. The tension builds until the final bulb finally burns out and all that they’re left to see is what’s in their heads — existential dread, worry, regret. So, basically, the most New York movie ever made.

If that sounds like horror to you, then you’re right. Though the premise of the film, which Stephen Karam adapted from his play of the same name, isn’t one that lends itself to the genre it very much is. And it oddly inhabits a new subgenre of family drama horror along with films like Krisha or the recent Shiva Baby. It makes sense, though. What is more horrifying than facing the truth in front of people that you’ve known your whole life.

Forgoing family tradition, the Blake family spends Thanksgiving in younger daughter Brigid (Beanie Feldstein) and her boyfriend Richard’s (Steven Yeun fresh off his Oscar nomination for Minari) new apartment in Lower Manhattan. For anyone who grew up outside New York — like yours truly (Jersey!) — and moved into the city, having your parents come to your apartment is a stressful experience.

Yes, this is a family drama and quasi horror, but it’s also a dark comedy that hilariously understands the intricacies of the family dynamic. Mom talks about the latest odd death that she heard about on Facebook (“Mom, you don’t have to tell me every time a lesbian kills herself,” says Amy Schumer as eldest daughter Aimee), Dad walks around the apartment finding things to fix and chastises Brigid for not telling the super. All the while, their grandmother Momo (June Squibb), who suffers from dementia, babbles on.

The camera lingers on the artifacts of New York City apartments that are so familiar — the odd water stains on the wall, clanking radiators, shoddy light fixtures. And of course, Brigid’s parents Deidre and Erik (Jayne Houdyshell and Richard Jenkins) notice every single detail. These artifacts are a part of the horror of the film. Like a hidden totem of the unspoken trauma occurring outside of the walls of the apartment. For people that live in the city, those things fade away. For everyone else, they’re all too apparent.

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There are other horror tropes that Karam uses to make you uneasy about what’s happening in The Humans. The camera creeps from around corners and frames characters with plenty of negative space around them. He tracks characters walking down the narrow halls and sometimes even includes a jump scare.

When stage plays are adapted to film you can often tell. There’s a certain cadence to the dialogue that feels just next to normal. And typically directors focus too closely on the dialogue. The Humans does the exact opposite. Dialogue happens in the background just out of the frame. Conversations are happening around the characters. We’ll focus on one of them and slowly close in. We see their reactions — or lack thereof — to what is going on around them.

But why is The Humans a horror? Why not just make it a family drama? I haven’t said much about the plot yet, but that’s because there really isn’t one. Each of the members of the family is dealing with their own issues — Aimee is dealing with a breakup, Erik is worried about finances — and the relationship dynamics that existed way before the movie began — how many of us could be a little nicer to our moms. But real life can be horrifying in that way. There’s nothing more horrifying than facing your own failures and the existential dread of life.

As the night trudges on, revelations are made, arguments are had, and, of course, there are moments of familial bliss. In particular, Richard’s attempt to assimilate into the family is particularly hilarious, as anyone that has brought a significant other home could attest to. The movie maintains this tone dancing around drama and dark comedy as it explores the intricacies of the family dynamic and of being alive. It’d make a perfect companion piece to fellow New York City-set dramedy The Daytrippers.

This is one of those films that I have difficulty talking about because the reason it works is so personal. You can pick out moments of relatability — both positive and negative — throughout the film and with every character. It’s an incredibly humane film that begs for empathy for its characters. You feel like you get to know them as well as your own family. If I could say one thing to convince you to watch this movie it is this: by the end, you’ll be sad you can’t hang out in that apartment anymore.

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Hey! I’m Karl. You can find me on Twitter here. I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic.

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Karl Delossantos

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Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.

The Humans takes place over a single night as a family gathers in a lower Manhattan apartment for Thanksgiving — and that’s a horror.

More movies, less problems

Karl Delossantos

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