Film

The Humans

Name: The Humans
Genre: Drama
Released: 2021
Cast: Richard Jenkins, Jayne Houdyshell, Amy Schumer, Beanie Feldstein, Steven Yeun

Family drama

A Thanksgiving gathering in a Manhattan apartment becomes a container for family dread. Stephen Karam's film traps you in one room across one night while anxieties—financial, romantic, existential, supernatural—press in from the walls. Beautifully acted and quietly terrifying, it's for people who find family dinners inherently unsettling.

TMDb rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy family dinners where the bickering is sharp and the dread builds quietly in rooms that feel too small, and you don't mind a story that trusts conversation over plot.

Skip it if you need clear forward momentum or a busy plot, since much of the film is talk and atmosphere in one cramped apartment, which can feel static.

What it asks of you: Settle in for just under two hours of slow, mostly indoor unease, where the tension gathers in pauses and overheard arguments rather than in any single jolt.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Moonlight2016

Intimate, formally adventurous cinema about identity and vulnerability. Like *The Humans*, it makes emotional interiority feel physical. The sensory world—light, sound, proximity—does the heavy lifting.

But Extremely slow. Demands patience and rewards it, but not everyone wants to work that hard during a film.

You Can Count on Me2000

A family portrait—brother and sister, adult but still tangled—that finds crushing specificity in ordinary speech. Quiet American cinema about people who love each other and keep failing.

But Nothing happens. If you want a story with momentum, this will frustrate you by design.

Amour2012

Two people in one room. A marriage, age, illness, the texture of daily life together. Haneke's camera never flinches. It's unbearably intimate and somehow also kind.

But Difficult subject matter about decline. Not a comfort watch, and the pacing will test you.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Humans

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Come and See1985

Both films use confinement and sensory detail to make psychological and social horror physical. The room in *The Humans* and the Russian forest are both spaces that compress unbearable truths.

A Soviet film about a boy recruited into WWII—not war cinema, but the annihilation of innocence through sensory overwhelm. Like *The Humans*, it uses sound, space, and bodies to transmit unbearable reality. Formally devastating.

But Historically brutal and deeply traumatic. This is not a metaphorical horror film; it depicts actual wartime atrocity with unflinching precision. Genuinely difficult.

The Farewell2019

A family lies to a dying grandmother. Lulu Wang finds comedy and sorrow in the same moment, in cultural specificity and universal love. The apartment scenes crackle with tension and warmth.

But Tonal shifts might feel uneven. Some viewers want their dramas straight, their comedies separate.

Manchester by the Sea2016

Grief, family obligation, people saying nothing while everything is said. Kenneth Lonergan's script is a masterclass. Casey Affleck carries entire scenes in his face.

But Relentlessly bleak. If you need hope on screen, this isn't your film. Also quite long.

Krisha2016

Ari Aster's debut. A family Thanksgiving in Texas, performed by non-actors, shot with documentary clarity. Sunny at first, then the dread builds until it's unbearable. Raw and genuine.

But Very rough texture. Low budget shows everywhere. The performances are naturalistic to the point of feeling unpolished.

First Reformed2018

Ethan Hawke, a minister, a crisis of faith, one apartment. Paul Schrader's cinematography is stark and suffocating. The interior world mapped onto the material world.

But Ideologically dense and sometimes preachy. If you're here for entertainment, not a thesis, this will feel heavy-handed.

Under the Skin2014

Unsettling, sensory, almost wordless. Scarlett Johansson in a film that treats her as an alien presence. The dread is atmospheric and impossible to locate.

But Deliberately obscure. If you need clarity and narrative, you'll leave angry. Not for everyone, and it knows it.

Hereditary2018

A family house and its secrets. Ari Aster again—family dinner as horror, the uncanny in the domestic. Toni Collette is extraordinary. It earns its terror through relationships.

But Explicitly horror. Some viewers hate jump scares and gore; this has both. Also very long and demanding.

Funny Games2008

Both trap you in a domestic space while the world outside—violence, precarity, failure—presses in. Both are about how little control we actually have.

Haneke's home invasion film—a family in a house with two polite killers. Plays with genre and audience complicity. The horror is the ordinariness of the threat and the failure of middle-class life to protect you.

But Deliberately antagonistic toward the viewer. Some find it pretentious. It breaks the fourth wall, refuses catharsis, and punishes you for wanting entertainment.

Synecdoche, New York2008

Both use a single space as metaphor for the interior life. Both compress time and memory. Both feel like fever dreams about containment, family, and what we cannot escape.

Charlie Kaufman's one film as director. A man builds a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse. Formally wild, almost impossible to follow, but structurally about how we contain and perform family, mortality, and self.

But Famously confusing. If you hate ambiguity and need narrative clarity, this will infuriate you. Also very long and conceptually dense.