Climate change is getting worse day after day, and every uncomfortable conversation we’ve been putting off for decides is waiting for us just over the horizon. Caitlin Cronenberg’s debut feature Humane dives headfirst into that messy, chaotic crisis we’ve built for ourselves, in a chamber piece that has one affluent family forced to make the ultimate decision. It’s a classic thriller set-up with a premise ripped from the headlines of tomorrow’s newspaper, and a great cast of character actors ready to rip each other apart as soon as shit hits the fan.
The world of Humane is not unlike our own. With dwindling resources and increasingly inhabitable conditions, it’s like looking 5 minutes into the future. A future where fresh vegetable and meats are prohibited, and standing for any length of time in direct sunlight with no protection is practically a death sentence. But in an effort to limit humanity’s global footprint and (fingers crossed!) repair the earth, a new government has offered citizens $250,000, payable to their families, if they choose to *drum roll* sacrifice themselves for the greater good.
“[…] a premise ripped from the headlines of tomorrow’s newspaper.”
When the York children agreed to meet for a family dinner at their father’s home, they could have never imagined that euthanasia would be on the menu. After the main course their father, retired news anchor Charles York (Peter Gallagher), reveals that he has enlisted for government-assisted suicide and that the procedure will be done that night. But Charles’ plan goes horribly wrong and suddenly the surviving members of the family are forced to choose one of their own to “volunteer” for sacrifice. Naturally, every bit of bad blood and sibling rivalry comes bubbling to the surface as the children decide who deserves to live, and who must die.
As a premise, Humane is a brilliantly modern science-fiction thriller that you can’t help but get sucked into immediately. It plays with our fears of the future in a way that feels so close to home you can’t believe it hasn’t happened yet. The The Purge films always feel like they’re 2 election cycles away from becoming reality, and every post-apocalyptic zombie flick these days kinda play like instructional tutorials on how to prepare for retirement BUT! Humane might just be this generation’s Soylent Green.
Despite being purely fictional and largely sensationalized, it’s a premise that you feel in your bones when you’re shoveling 6 feet of snow one week after having a sunny backyard barbecue; A warning sign that you can smell on the breeze when the wildfires have turned the skies a hellish red; And an inconvenient truth we all ignore when we watch the polar ice caps and coral reefs slowly disappear.
The tension of Humane is thanks to the performances from Jay Barachel (This Is The End), who plays an ignorant and selfish shill for the current administration, Emily Hampshire (Schitt’s Creek, Appendage), a publicly despised lawyer, Alanna Bale (The Horror of Dolores Roach), a failed actress, and Sebastian Chacon (Penny Dreadful: City of Angels), the adopted son and recovering addict. Take a wild guess who the biological siblings immediately turn on?? The tickling clock of the entire situation is monitored by a grimly comedic Enrico Colantoni (Galaxy Quest) who adds so many good laughs that the movie teeters on being classified as an out-and-out comedy.
“[…] a delicate balancing act of humor and horrifying realities”
Humane is a tight debut from Caitlin Cronenberg, and a delicate balancing act of humor and horrifying ideas. The tension of the story, and the barbed-wire interactions between the siblings, is a little chaotic but all in service of delivering a story that feels as plausible and as unavoidable as the future we’re all marching toward right now.
Humane is playing in select theatres now courtesy of IFC Films and will stream on Shudder starting July 26th. Let us know what you thought of this pre-apocalyptic thriller in the Nightmare on Film Street Discord!
