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They Look Like People




They Look Like People, 2015

Reeling from a recent breakup with the woman he thought was the one, Christian (Evan Dumouchel) invites his long-time friend Wyatt (MacLeod Andrews) to stay with him. Christian is trying to rebuild his confidence, including pursuing a romance with an intriguing co-worker named Mara (Margaret Ying Drake). What Christian doesn’t know is that Wyatt is convinced that the world is being taken over by possessing demons that inhabit the bodies of every-day people. As Christian grapples with work and romantic dramas, Wyatt is preparing for the end of days. The only question is: when the time comes, will Wyatt see Christian as an ally or an enemy?

Benefiting greatly from a very solid last act, this is a solid directorial debut and entry in the independent horror canon.

I will admit that I grappled a bit with this film for the first half. I think that there comes a point where a film can be almost too successful in its portrayal of something, and for me that was the case with the characters of Christian and Wyatt. Listen: I know anxiety when I see it. I know the way that manic speech and noise can be a way of covering up fear or doubt. Part of my job is keeping a neutral manner when I see kids behaving this way. But darn if I wasn’t ready to put my foot through the screen if I had to hear another single “Hurrah!” from them!

I also had concerns about what felt like predictability when it came to the plot. It’s a pretty common horror trope at this point---especially in independent/lower-budget horror---to spend a whole film with a person slowly losing their mind, always questioning if they actually are mentally ill or if it’s real. And while some beats of this film are somewhat familiar, the performances and the plot itself go in unexpected directions.

I really enjoyed Drake as Christian’s love interest, Mara. While her character flirts with some manic-pixie-dream-girl elements---she has an adorable voice! She does judo! She makes a sock into a little puppet!--she’s also a certain kind of no-nonsense that cuts through both Christian and Wyatt’s self-involvement. In most other films she’d be reduced to the terrorized girlfriend, and I appreciated the way that she appeared (or didn’t appear) in specific parts of the story.

There’s also an interesting balance of the drama and horror elements. Christian and Wyatt are essentially living in different movies---one a romantic drama, the other a sci-fi horror---with those stories set on a collision course. The film doesn’t pick a single character as our main point of view, and so we hop back and forth between them as their destinies are drawn closer and closer together. Christian has one idea about what’s happening when Mara visits after a rough day at work, while Wyatt has a completely different take on it.

And then comes the final act. I won’t spoil it at all. I’ll just say that I thought it resolved both of its plotlines in a way that from a more clinical point of view I found a little silly, but that on an emotional level somehow works. There were a handful of surprises for me in the last 10 minutes, and I always appreciate that in a horror film.

Certainly worth a watch, and an impressive directorial debut.