Almost Human

Nothing subtle occurs in this movie. It starts in a rush, resets for the opening credits, and then the killing spree begins (with a little pro forma explanation from Seth along the way). Seth and Jen don't remember what happened the night Mark disappeared, but they know it feels really weird, and now two years later they're feeling weird again. While they're feeling weird, Mark is back and killing everyone he runs across.

The story is quite linear, without an ounce of nuance: Mark disappears, he's back, and Seth and Jen are on a collision course with Mark. There's lots of bloody gunshots, stabbings, and other gruesome action. The action is good, more brutal than scary, though the director certainly wanted a bigger special effects budget to show the violence more explicitly. When Mark attacks Jen, there's a jump-the-shark development where the attack gets especially weird. There's not much character development, the acting is pretty wooden, no grander themes or allegory, no subplots or side characters--just a straightforward story with lots of brutal action. (And one rather comical scene: How long does it take to load a rifle?!) The movie is as entertaining as a car crash, just don't expect any deeper meaning.

I guess I gotta echo what Gregburnscds has said here, it's a shame a little more time wasn't put into getting decent actors or at least building a story. That said, I'm a huge gorehound and I can see a lot of passion went into this little flick. I really looked forward to each kill and some were pretty damn good. It's strange, because while watching Almost Human I felt many times too it was a comedy. Many of the scenes are hilarious - but I'm not entirely sure that was the intention of the director. The gore scenes were above average, which included a Necrostorm style head squish with a rock, an evil dead style, up the skirt penetrating tentacle, a shotgun blast to the head, and various other impalements etc. I can't say I didn't enjoy the movie, because I did, and I don't think it deserves the one star rating someone has given it. In conclusion, for a low budget horror that only runs about 80mins I thought it was a reasonable effort, and maybe there's better to come from these guys.

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.

I watched 'Almost human' at IFC, presented by the director and most of the cast.

The movie is set at the end of the Eighties, and tells the (supposedly true story) of the abduction of two people in Maine by the aliens.

When one of them is found two years later in the woods by two hunters, it is immediately clear he is not entirely human anymore.

Despite the low budget the movie manages to accomplish a lot with little, and shows a few gems in the technical, makeup and sound mixing departments, as apparently the abducted man is in real life a professional sound mixer.

I also very much enjoyed the setting, a small Maine town out of a Stephen King book, that suddenly discovers horror and gruesome deaths.

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.