At face value, They Look Like People was not my kind of horror movie. I am skeptical of horror narratives that rely on mental instability or illness, and casts of characters made of mostly men do not interest me. I went into it with an open mind, and I am glad I did. Funnily, what I appreciated most about the film was its sensitive and thoughtful takes on mental illness, masculinity and friendship between men.
When I finished the movie, I felt like it was more of a drama than a horror movie, but I could not discount that it was scary, so I was still satisfied that it was a horror movie. Its strength was its characters, who, to me, were sympathetic men seeking to live up to personal and social expectations of what a man should be. As a horror movie, its surreal moments of the mental instability of one of the characters contrasted against the sympathy I felt for the other characters made it scary to think that the mentally unstable character would hurt them. A slow burn, but worth it.
Blackshear, Perry. They Look Like People, 2015.
