Humains

HUMAINS seems to be gathering a lot of bad reviews here on the IMDb, but I have to confess and say it wasn't all that bad. Certainly it's no classic and indeed it feels slightly below average for the genre, but it's a lot more entertaining than your usual braindead American slasher or the like.

The French setting immediately gives it a level of quality that's atypical for the genre. The format of the main characters going on a hike to the Alps to search for the missing link is an interesting one, and although the set-up turns out to be more effective than the denouement, at least HUMAINS has plenty of action and incident to keep the viewer watching.

On the bad side: it's rather cheesy and the prosthetic make-up effects look silly and like something you'd expect to see from the 1960s rather than now. On the plus side, HUMAINS has something of the foreboding of a film like THE DESCENT, with which it shares more than a few similarities, and the character actor Dominique Pinon is always a pleasure to see up on screen. You could do worse, in other words...

A team of researches travel to the Swiss Alps to investigate a scientific discovery on human evolution. However the trip soon turns into a deadly fight for survival when the team crash into a gully and find themselves falling prey to someone, something or somekind!

Now I am not prepared to bash this film as much as a lot of people out there will. Yes, as far as production is concerned, this film is lacking. Some tidying up of loose editing and some brushing up on the acting, would have made the film a lot better, but considering the budget, I was prepared to overlook that. Considering that some of the crew worked on the brilliant "Inside" I expected this one to be a nasty little piece. However it was extremely tame in comparison. Having said that, looking past the obvious faults, I actually thought it had some purpose, as there were one or two scenes with genuine suspense and the ending, which I wont give away, was quite a pleasant surprise as well. Once again, Phillipe Nahon was not utilised to full capacity in this one and I thought it was a waste of talent, however he lit up the screen, like he always does, for the run time that he appeared in. Some of the costume designs for the cavemen, were quite good and some were quite shoddy. It is in no way a great film, but you could do a lot worse. Go into it with limited expectation and you never know ... you could find yourself enjoying it.

I saw this film at the BIFFF. A film festival in Brussel, the movie felt like a ripoff of the hills have eyes and the descent. The only thing that interested me was the science behind it all. That there special species evolved before the homo sapiens came. The acting is not terrible but nothing special either. The directors were make-up artists on the film A la interieur. It showed it was there first movie, because of the feeling you get you are watching a shameless copy of the above mentioned Hollywood films. The gore in the film is also not so great, after seeing the film Matyrs i know for a fact, the french film community can make something really frightening. If i can give you an advise watch it on DVD.

With France undoubtedly being THE best horror-producing country at the moment (points of reference include: "Inside", "Frontier(s)", "Them" and "High Tension"), this brand new movie was high on my must-see priority list as soon as I noticed it was programmed at the annual Fantastic Film Festival in my home country. I was even more confident upon learning that the directors of "Humains" are the same guys responsible for the genuinely masterful make-up art in the aforementioned "Inside". This is the debut feature of the duo Jacques-Olivier Molon and Pierre-Olivier Thevenin, and they opted for a gritty survival horror concept with solemn anthropological undertones and a consecutively bitter ambiance. The plot is too absurd to label the film as an instant classic and it takes slightly too long before the pace properly picks up, but "Humains" is nevertheless a professionally made and highly compelling shock-adventure with truly stupendous filming locations and a fantastic, unremittingly barbaric last half hour that will cause you to leave the theater speechless and in a moderate state of shock! Professor Schneider and his two closest assistants travel to a remote Alps valley region in Switzerland for an essential anthropology expedition, as they found strong evidence about the origin of the human race that could actually alter all existing evolution theories as we know them. Shortly after their arrival, and after picking up a stranded and constantly bickering family of three, their minivan dramatically crashes down a mountain. The survivors are first subjected to a devastating showdown with nature itself before facing a rough and deadly confrontation with the greatest anthropological discovery in history. The cinematography is stunning the suspense gradually builds up towards a few very intense climaxes, but the major plot twist halfway the film is just too implausible. Also, I'm afraid we've seen a bit too many variants on survival & backwoods horror lately and the large variety of inbred freaks, hillbillies and mutant families simply aren't that menacing anymore. Not even in this case, where we're dealing with bona fide and unhinged cavemen. Still, the acting performances are stellar (Dominique Pinon is brilliant again) and the make-up effects are obviously grandiose, with a handful of stomach-churning death sequences that are jaw-dropping cruel. "Humains" is definitely recommended to experienced fans of grim survival horror and even to admirers of National Geographic Channel; as long as they fast-forward the sickening parts.

I saw this at the Chungmuro International Film Festival in Seoul in August 2009. I must say this movie deserves not a thumbs down, but the middle finger.

The way the plot just speeds up is so ridiculous and so many questions are left unanswered. It basically degenerates into a killing fest toward the end and the ending itself is great in that the movie is finally over.

What the hell were they thinking of when they made this movie? What message about Neandrathals did the makers want to send? What a waste of my life watching this stupid film.