'Humane' review: Which sibling will die? It's up to them in clever psychological thriller
Jay Baruchel (from left), Emily Hampshire and Alanna Bale play siblings forced to decide which family member will be euthanized in “Humane.”
IFC Films
Just last week we had the release of “Abigail,” which had a group of shady characters trapped in a secluded mansion with their hostage, who turns out to be the daughter of Dracula, whoops. Now comes “Humane,” with a group of shady characters trapped in a secluded mansion and facing off against an equally dangerous and at times even more terrifying force:
Their fellow siblings.
Given that the director of “Humane” is Caitlin Cronenberg, sister of Brandon Cronenberg (“Infinity Pool”) and daughter of David Cronenberg (“Scanners,” “The Fly,” et al.), one might expect this to be a blood-soaked body horror film, and there are some delightfully squeamish scenes — but this is primarily a psychological thriller, an update/variation on “The Fall of the House of Usher.”
“Humane” is set in a near future in which a terrible global ecological event has resulted in an emergency food shortage and has prompted governments to enact emergency measures designed to reduce the world’s population by 20%, and by “reduce,” we mean one in five adults has to go. If you enlist in the government’s euthanasia program, you’ll be hailed as a hero, and your surviving family members will be awarded a life-changing pile of cash. (As you can imagine, the wealthy and the privileged are far less likely to enlist than oppressed and poor minorities.)
With a clever script by Michael Sparaga paving the way over a running time of just over an hour and a half, “Humane” is set on the grounds of the cavernous and remote estate of the York family patriarch, Charles (Peter Gallagher), a famed and powerful news anchor who has recently retired. Charles shares the home with his most recent wife, Dawn (Uni Park), who doesn’t say much and has an almost menacing way of preparing a lavish dinner. (Turns out Dawn had to close her restaurant because of the food shortage, so that partially explains her mood. Full explanation coming in a moment).
Charles has invited his four grown children, who all resent Charles and who barely keep in touch with one another, for dinner. The quartet includes Jay Baruchel’s Jared, who has become a paid shill for the government and is a ubiquitous presence on TV, touting the benefits of enlisting; Emily Hampshire’s Rachel, a cold and blunt-speaking pharma executive, who has brought along her young daughter, Mia (Sirena Gulamgaus), even though Charles specified the dinner should be for the adult family members only; youngest sister Ashley (Alanna Bale), an aspiring actress whose career is going nowhere fast, and the adopted Noah (Sebastian Chacon), a recovering addict who bears a facial scar and perhaps even more troubling emotional scars. Fine performances by all.
After the family trades a few opening barbs and insults, Charles makes the big announcement: He and Dawn have enlisted, and in fact this will be their last night together, as the Department of Citizen Strategy (DCS) is about to arrive to euthanize Charles and Dawn. (It’s not as if the family needs the money, but Charles has his reasons.) The siblings are still processing this insane news when Dawn has a change of heart and runs off, and that’s very bad news for the rest of the group, because the law mandates that once two family members have signed off on an enlistment, the DCS ain’t leaving until they’ve got two bodies.
Enter Enrico Colantoni’s Bob as a DCS agent who truly relishes his work, and it’s no hyperbole to say Colantoni takes over the movie every time he’s onscreen with his entertaining portrayal of the disarmingly cheerful and quite scary Bob, who uses terms such as “cadaver procurement” as he casually explains to the siblings that they have two hours to decide which of them is going to take Dawn’s place. In the meantime, Bob will be just outside in his trailer, keeping watch over young Mia as a kind of collateral. If the family doesn’t produce a body when those 120 minutes are up, Bob and his heavily armed henchmen will make the decision for them. (The conversations between Bob and Mia in that trailer are something else. Great dialogue, and Colantoni and young Sirena Gulamgaus are terrific together.)
How’s that for your warped and weird predicament? We learn more about the darkness inside each of the four siblings as they play the ultimate game of "Survivor" — forming alliances, betraying those alliances, physically attacking one another. The knives are out, in more ways than one. We don’t completely buy every late twist and turn, but “Humane” keeps us in its throes to the end.