Almost Human

Mark Fisher disappeared from his home in a brilliant flash of blue light almost two years ago. His friend Seth Hampton was the last to see him alive. Now a string of grisly, violent murders leads Seth to believe that Mark is back, and something evil is inside of him.

The film has some shortcomings, and these can largely be attributed to the independent, low budget status of the film. The filming does not look quite as professional as it could, and the acting is good but not necessarily great. But these things should be expected and not judged too harshly.

Overall, the film is effective and gets across what it is trying to present. Others have called it a cross between "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "The Thing", which is true. But it is not a ripoff of either of these and a new vision in its own right.

This movie was decent and like all movies that have a low budget they try to make up for that with blood. In this case it kinda worked. The story is basically about a guy named mark who gets abducted and comes back a couple years later as a alien.

It's one of the movies that include many type of thing like a combination of the body snatchers and splinter. I admit that the story line wasn't that bad and even though I expected more gore ( even though it's pretty gory) it was an okay movie. Some people would rate it lower them only reason why I didn't rate it lower was because I expected a stupid movie. It's one of those movies that tries every way to be as gory as possible to entertain the viewer. The affects were okay the blood was good the alien tongue that mark has looks really fake but it's okay. And of course many people die and the movie ends like most movie ends with something else that might happen. All and all its an okay movie to watch if you like those type of things that I listed above but it one of those movies that you could laugh while you watch with your friends.

Almost Human comes across as a patchwork quilt of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Terminator, Alien and most notably the works of the legend John Carpenter. Unfortunately, the movie is not good enough to rise above these influences and become an entity of it's own. It has some amazing sequences of gore and violence with practical effects being used in place of horrible CGI. There is also some genuine suspense and dread which shows the director has some skill and could come up with some gems in the future.

However, the movie is badly hampered by some terrible acting and writing. Maybe if Begos had a better writer on board, he could have made a much better film. The actors swear for no reason and it comes across as stilted. They are okay when they are acting scared but when it comes to the dramatic stuff, they are found wanting. Begos has quite a lot of dramatic stuff for a slasher sci-fi flick and so this flaw is magnified that much.

Another thing this movie lacks is a sense of humour which Carpenter's films had. The movie plays it's premise too straight without a hint of satire. Sometimes, it comes off but in this case ,the bad writing and acting sticks out like a sore thumb.

All in all, Almost Human is a halfway-decent stab(*he he*) at a Slasher flick. Begos evidences some directorial talent and with his next film, he will hopefully improve his writing skills and come up with a very good film.

First of all, the beginning off the movie captured my attention but sadly the interest started to dwindle and found myself wanting the film to finish.

Flaws, quite a few of them and the continuity? looked as though the crew couldn't care much about it!

As for the acting; I do say it wasn't bad at all but there were times when I thought "how stupid can people be". You can tell they did this to either get the audience a little angry or tensed. I personally kept shaking my head and repeated the word "stupid"

Finally, it reminded me more of slasher movies. Lots of blood and murders. There didn't seem to be a real story behind it all. The why's and how's were missing and what's going to happen next, most of you may figure it out half way through the film.

Nothing exciting here to watch.

Yeah, it's true: the acting in 'Almost Human' isn't on a par with your standard Hollywood fare. Then again, it's better than most of the 'Star Wars' prequels' performances and you sat through those too, didn't you?

However, this should not deter you from watching the movie. If, like me, your attention was peaked by the 80's throwback poster, you know what you like in this type of movie.

The story, derivative as it is (think Body Snatchers), serves as a vehicle for a slasher-like succession of grisly, well-shot murders. In a sparse visual style, maybe even a little bleak due to the setting, we see the events unfold methodically and with increasing intensity to the suspenseful finale.

In a mere 80 minutes, 'Almost Human' shows what a gifted director can do: very much with very little. You will not be surprised, but you will be entertained.

P.S.: To the guy who kept hearing crickets during the second half of the movie: you might wanna get your ears checked. My copy was entirely cricket-free.