Nearly every scene is filmed through a doorway or an entryway as if the viewer were someone eavesdropping on the family.
Karam is able to mostly avoid this with interesting, and unnerving, shot compositions. Often, when plays make the jump to the screen they can seem, well, stagey. Crumbling and old, the floors creak, strange liquid drips down the walls, paint bubbles up, radiators click, and the upstairs neighbor is prone to pounding on the floor, creating loud, echoing sounds that reign down into the building. The setting is a duplex in Chinatown that Brigid and Richard just moved into, a place that somehow seems both cramped and cavernous.
Also coming along: Brigid and Aimee's grandmother (June Squib), who suffers from Alzheimer's to the point where she's barely coherent. It's Thanksgiving, and Brigid Blake (Beanie Feldstein) and her boyfriend Richard (Steven Yeun) have invited Brigid's parents Erik (Richard Jenkins) and Deirdre (Jayne Houdyshell), and sister Aimee (Amy Schumer), over to feast.
As if there are ghosts lurking just off-camera, waiting to come out when the end credits roll. While there's nothing supernatural at work in "The Humans," it feels like there could be. There's a good chance this movie is going to give you the creeps, simply due to how unnatural and haunting everything appears here. Writer-director Stephen Karam adapts his own Tony-winning play here, and he shoots the film as if it were a horror film, full of ominous shadows and even effective jump-scares. That's certainly the case with "The Humans," a genuinely unsettling movie that's scarier than most recent scary movies. You gather together with loved ones and stuff your face with high-calorie food – what's not to love? But if your family dynamic is strained, a plaster veneer loaded with ever-widening cracks, it can often be a nightmare. Thanksgiving is theoretically a good holiday.
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