The Human Race

I surprised that this movie turned out so divisive, while certainly not everyones cup of tea it is certainly very memorable and interesting. I like simple set-ups like this, classic battle royal setup, clearly communicated rules for the audience and participants to understand and a diverse range of characters from all ranges of life.

The Human Race cleverly avoids offering a clear protagonist to root for allowing you to pick your own champion or play the "what would I do" game in your head. All of that achieves one thing: it makes the movie more engaging, if you are willing to engage with it. It helps that the pacing, editing and cinematography move things along quickly without much downtime.

The performances are a bit hit and miss, some are terrible (cyclist guy) some are okay (one legged guy) and some are really good (especially the deaf girl). The effects are serviceable, some digital blood effects look better than others, but overall a good production for its budget level. So even without going into the aspect of potentially pretentious commentary on the human condition, the movie works fine just on a surface level, if you want to interpret it deeper, that's okay, there are some interesting observations sprinkled in.

Without spoiling it, the ending did not work for me, the movie should have ended 3 minutes earlier and it would have been better. Despite that, I recommend it, it's better than Circle or The Belko Experiment which had a similar setup...

A group of people are taken from their known existence and taken to a remote location they are unaware of. The lot are from all walks of life; young, old, disabled, athletic, rich and poor, of all nationalities. Confused and afraid, these 80 people will be unwilling participants will strive for the one goal evolution teaches us: survival of the fittest.

This movie is on an epic scale and worthy of a comparison to the movie Battle Royal. Not for the faint of heart, you get a realization of what a human being will do when reduced from its modern conveniences and put in a state where primal urges rule. Paul Hough did not spare any expense and reveals to the audience the difference between survival and salvation. The well rounded cast played their roles well from the injured and compassionate vet to the bloodthirsty hot chick who cares only for herself. The story is unconventional and told in a brilliant way which separates it from most independent horror stories into a class all on its own.

It s slasher that's a thriller and leaves plenty of room for the psychological betrayal of the audience. It all makes for a great story; seeing both ends of the spectrum of the human condition. The intense plot twists will keep the audience craving for more. The performance and chemistry between Eddie McGee and Paul McCarthy-Boyington were top notch, drawing me in for what's to come for these two brothers against the hordes.

i'm honestly just writing this because of the high score and 2 rave reviews obviously written by people involved with the project. i feel like i was duped into watching it. so here's an honest review: this is a terrible movie. it's poorly written, and badly acted. only exception is the deaf girl. she wasn't bad, given the material she had to work with.

it's just lazy filmmaking, seems like. says nothing about the human condition (as purported from the existing reviews), only the sophomoric insight of a film-school reject who saw one too many eli roth movies.

seriously, avoid at all costs.

I'm just writing this review to counter some of the other obviously faked reviews written here. I was tricked to watch this movie too, because it had a rating of 7.3 with over a 1000 ratings. So I thought this could be a solid piece of horror/splatter. But it's not. I assure you, it's not. You will be disappointed after watching it, because it's painfully bad. And I don't mean bad as in "The Tourist" bad, it's just cheap filmmaking by people who don't know what they're doing. This can't be the work of professionals. Bad acting, bad dialog, bad lightning, bad camera, bad cinematography, bad special effects... complete senseless directing, conclusion, story(telling).... It's just a piece of trash. Yes it's that bad. And I'm writing this only to save you from losing over 1hour of your life. And to restore justice to the rating/review system of IMDb. You're welcome.

DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THE INTERESTING SOUNDING STORYLINE AND THE OKAY COVER.

This movie is the worst excuse for a movie I have ever seen. I don't know how it was released (let alone in movie stores) and I'm not even sure how it has gotten a rating of above 2 on IMDb.

The acting is horrendous, most elements of the movie are completely unrealistic and the final scene just makes the entire thing ever more confusing and far-fetched. There is no background, no attempt to help you build a connection to the characters and quite simply boasts awful acting, terrible filming and confusion. By the time the credits come, you're just left thinking "what did I even just watch?"

Don't even bother, this movie isn't worth your time.

1/10