Shudder Saturday: They Look Like People (2015)

The first feature film from writer-director Perry Blackshear, and the second feature I have seen from him (having heard about it for a while, but I got to The Siren first), They Look Like People is an impressive, and ambiguous, psychological horror that does great work within some very limiting boundaries.

MacLeod Andrews (who keeps impressing me, but also keeps reminding me of Hugh Jackman, if Jackman had spent many years not eating well enough to get all of his vitamins) plays Wyatt, a man who ends up spending some time with a good friend, Christian (Evan Dumouchel). The two men have something in common, things have recently taken a bit of a downhill turn in contrast to where they wanted their lives to go, but there's one big difference. Wyatt is receiving messages that are warning him against people around him being infected and turned into evil creatures. He has weapons, he has a plan, and he needs to get some corrosive acid to deal with the upcoming "war".

As he has proven with pretty much every movie I have seen him in, MacLeod Andrews is one of the best actors working today. I don't do hyperbole. I really believe that. Whether that's due to him picking roles/projects that he knows he's a great fit for or whether it is his innate talent is another matter. He's a big positive here, portraying a troubled man who is growing increasingly terrified by a world due to change around him, yet also worrying that he cannot trust his own mind. He's complemented by Dumouchel, who has the lesser role, but becomes essential as a friend at a low point willing to put his complete faith in someone who doesn't have complete faith in himself. You also get a wonderful turn from Margaret Ying Drake, playing Mara, someone who works with Dumouchel and may be interested in him on a more personal level.

The other thing about the lead performance from Andrews is that you always feel the threat bubbling away just under the surface. He's a lovely man, but believing what he believes makes it feel like just a matter of time before he seriously hurts someone, working under the impression (real or false) that they are no longer an actual person. Not only does this make for an effective and tense bit of horror, albeit not one for those needing bloodshed and death every ten minutes, but it's also a very honest depiction of someone doing their best to hold things together while their brain tries to convince them to do something that they know will lead them into some big trouble. Many of us have been in that situation, even if it's to a much lesser extent (either through mental health issues or mental health being temporarily altered by various drugs, including alcohol).

Although Blackshear allows himself the luxury of ambiguity and atmospheric creepiness for most of the runtime, They Look Like People isn't a film designed to build and build to an anti-climactic ending, as so many independent horror movies seem to be. You can still interpret things in a different way if you wish, I guess, but the ending works beautifully, and feels almost cathartic after spending time getting to know, and like, the main characters.

I'm glad that some other people kept mentioning this one in conversations about favourite movies from the past decade (special thanks to Mitch Bain of the Strong Language & Violent Scenes podcast), and I'll now be recommending it to others, as well as looking forward to what is next on the cards for Blackshear.

8/10

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Shudder Saturday: The Siren (2019)

The good thing about being connected with so many film fans online nowadays, and especially being connected to so many HORROR film fans, is that you can often find out about more movies you hadn't previously heard of, all thanks to one or two conversations that mention things within varying degrees of separation. The other good thing is meeting those film fans in the actual real world, and these two things came together to encourage me to view The Siren, after I enjoyed A Ghost Waits at a horror film festival, and then hearing from so many people who had already enjoyed MacLeod Andrews in this film, and the previous feature from writer-director Perry Blackshear, They Look Like People (which I will also need to check out).

BUT the first thing to mention about The Siren is that it isn't your standard horror movie. I feel like I say this a lot lately, especially with the selection that Shudder seem to pick for their streaming service, but it's always worth noting, to ensure people don't go into a good film with preconceptions that will spoil the experience for them. You need to go elsewhere if you're looking to fill the gap in between Hatchet movies (and I'm not denigrating those, I am just emphasising the big difference).

Evan Dumouchel is Tom, a man giving himself a break at a fairly isolated lakehouse. Tom is mute, and also doesn't like swimming. This is all explained when he meets a wandering neighbour, Al (Andrews). Al is a nice guy, but he's driven by a lot of pain and anger, convinced that his deceased husband was killed by a creature living in the lake, one that has caused a number of drownings over the years. That creature appears in the form of a lovely humanoid, named Nina (Margaret Ying Drake), and she finds a connection with Tom that seems to keep her more dangerous urges stifled.

Clocking in at about 80 minutes, The Siren is still a film that will test the patience of some viewers who want something with more action (although it delivers a couple of good, fleetingly shown, bits of gore in the 15 minutes). It's a film about people finding themselves inexplicably drawn to one another, leaving their history aside as they just focus on one another for their time together, and also looks at the pain of grieving for someone you lost so suddenly, and without being able to comprehend the circumstances of their death (given a fantastical element here, but applicable to any sudden death that you can't get your head around).

Dumouchel is a nice mix of subtlety and expressiveness in his non-talking role, Drake is often so sweet that it's easy to forget she's a lake-dwelling creature looking to drown victims, and Andrews is at his best during a scene in which he finally puts two and two together and cannot find a way to make it not equal four. I might be forgetting anyone else who makes a very brief appearance, but the film very much belongs to these three performers, and every one of them brings something to their respective roles.

Blackshear may make a number of small mistakes throughout, but they're forgivable when the end result comes together so satisfyingly. It's hard to pinpoint where he should have added some details and where he should have left things even more vague, but the balance feels ever so slightly off with some of the scenes that provide backstory, or don't. He does a good job, overall, and I'll be keeping an eye on his future film releases.

The Siren is definitely worth your time. The material is strong enough to compensate for the lower budget, and viewers are easily drawn in to a scenario that is both sweet and very dangerous. Check it out when you can.

8/10

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