Almost Human

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.

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.

Its an independent film with decent acting that wasn't painful to watch. Each actor lent a very good performance. However, the female lead (in comparison to the other actors) seemed as if she wasn't sure how to act, react or even was familiar with her lines; that was a bit distracting.

The movie kept me in suspense, despite random predictability. The directing/cinematography was immersing me into its world, while some shots I felt were too rushed or unnecessary.

It is worth a watch just to see something familiar done a little differently.

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.

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.