[FrightFest 2025] FILM REVIEW: Human

Human - FrightFest World Premiere Review

Director: Matt Stuertz

Starring: Jackie Kelly, Jeffrey Decker, Brock Russell, Cecily Dowd

Written by: Matt Stuertz

Produced by: Matt Stuertz, David Christopher Pitt

Cinematography by: David Christopher Pitt

Original Score by: Joseph Holiday

Synopsis:

Dani has been spending most nights in the solitude of a film studio she is currently working at. But her evening takes a wild ride when she reconnects with an old flame

Thoughts:

One of the craziest films we've seen at FrightFest this year, 'Human' starts off as a tense thriller, then half way through just completely goes full on 'Evil Dead II'. It's insane and took me by surprise.

The first 15 minutes of the film is as simple as it gets. While lying on her bed minding her own business, Dani receives a text from Aaron, an old flame, and the two instantly reconnect. The chat becomes sexual and Dani invites Aaron over for the evening. Both Dani and Aaron work in the film industry and its then revealed that this isn't actually Dani's real bed but a makeshift one set up in an empty film studio she's working at. It's after midnight and Dani is all alone. Aaron is currently flying in on a red eye and Dani continues to text him whilst also texting her best friend in excitement. Clearly Aaron was someone who she spoke about often.

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But then she hears a knock at the studio entrance door. She ignores it at first but the knock becomes consistent, eventually turning into a rather aggressive banging. Alarmed, Dani becomes angry and tells the person to fuck off. But the banging doesn't go away and Dani has to call the studio head who is absolutely useless (we'll talk about him soon). Unfortunately for her, the evening is going to take a very strange and frightening turn, something she could never in her wildest dreams predict would happen.

As mentioned at the beginning of this review, 'Human' is insane and I have to give it up to Writer/Director Matt Stuertz for his creativity and his balls. What starts off as a fairly basic drama about two old flames hooking up again soon gets really dark but instead of going down Alfred Hitchcock avenue Struetz puts his foot on the pedal and smashes onto the Sam Raimi highway, and instead of deadites the villain here is a skin-changing God. The film is held together by the (mostly) solo performance of Jackie Kelly who plays Dani. In that respect the first act almost plays out like a stage play. It's also a lot of physicality needed from Jackie Kelly so big shout out to her for her committed performance.

One thing that stands out about the film is just how sensory it is. It gets very loud and noisy and Stuertz decides to employ a lot of jarring editing and smash cuts which was probably intended to fuck with the viewers head a bit but it was all just so chaotic. There's lots of colour changes to the visuals too, particulary towards the end. And the score by Joseph Holiday is also intense, highlighting the profound situation that Dani is going through at every stage.

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I wasn't fussed on the Jacky Verde scenes. He's the studio head who at first is maybe the most Texan man you've ever seen but then it's revealed that its all an act. The film already has a lot of dark humour and this inclusion, the way it was executed, felt a little out of place and almost fell into parody. I think another small gripe I have with the film is that it was just a little bit too long. The start drags a little bit with all the texting and I feel like we could've got to the end a lot quicker.

The finale, after all that madness with the blood and gore, wasn't the most satisfying but I appreciate that Stuertz was taking us on a journey, one that has some frantically intense highs and harrowing lows. By the end I was questioning if what we had just witnessed was actual reality or a figment of Dani's inner thoughts. There was some drug use so this could all have just been a very bad trip. Real or imaginary, either way it was a trip that I thoroughly enjoyed for the most part.

Verdict: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

-Gavin Logan

'Human' received its World Premiere at FrightFest '25 on August 22nd