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Unhuman (2022), An Unrefreshing and Unconvincing Zombie Comedy

Unhuman 2022 movie

&NewLine;<p>In the past&comma; I’ve had a lot to say about the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2014&sol;04&sol;04&sol;reversing-traditional-gender-representations-in-the-contemporary-zom-com&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener">zombie comedy genre<&sol;a>&period; I’m not the only one&comma; either&period; Zombie films make great targets for political and social readings&comma; and zombie comedies have&comma; by and large&comma; been made in a postmodern and perhaps post-postmodern world&comma; where anything and everything is meta-fiction and aware of its own inspirations&period; These films poke fun at zombies while simultaneously using the cinematic and narrative elements that define them&period; <em>Shaun of the Dead<&sol;em> is among the best of these films&comma; and since it came out nearly two decades ago&comma; many lesser films have tried and failed to recreate its cynical take on consumerism and deadpan humor&period; Marcus Dunstan’s <em>Unhuman<&sol;em> &lpar;2022&rpar;&comma; the most recent endeavor in the zombie comedy subgenre&comma; falls short in many respects&comma; most notably for its weird moralism and inconsistent tone&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The story begins on the day of a class field trip with an ensemble of popular teens&comma; unpopular teens&comma; and those like Ever &lpar;Brianne Tju&rpar;&comma; who fall somewhere in between&period; We quickly see that Ever doesn’t have much self-esteem&comma; and struggles with the fact that her best friend&comma; Tamra &lpar;Ali Gallo&rpar;&comma; seems to forget their friendship anytime the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;cool” kids come around&period; Various other subplots crop up early on to establish the relationships among the ensemble cast&comma; but chief among them is the seemingly hopeless Randall &lpar;Benjamin Wadsworth&rpar;&comma; whose inability to fit in makes him the target of 80s-style high school bullies like Danny &lpar;Uriah Shelton&rpar;&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>As the students board the bus to leave&comma; they are greeted by the strangely intense P&period;E&period; teacher and chaperone&comma; Mr&period; Lorenzo &lpar;Peter Giles&rpar;&comma; and the sloven bus driver&comma; Wayne &lpar;Tonny Donno&rpar;&period; After an impassioned speech on the importance of experiencing nature first-hand&comma; the group sets out on their journey&period; Along the way&comma; a radio broadcast informs listeners that a chemical attack is taking place and that everyone should stay indoors&period; Seconds later&comma; a red substance splatters all over the windshield&comma; causing the bus to careen over the edge of the bridge and crash in the middle of the woods&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>As the teens and adults recover from the impact&comma; they hear strange noises&comma; and a zombie fashioned after Alice Cooper attacks the bus&comma; apparently killing Mr&period; Lorenzon and forcing the teens to flee in every direction&period; While some of the group don’t make it out&comma; Ever and all of the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;main” characters retreat to an abandoned building nearby&period; Despite their best efforts to hunker down and wait out the zombie apocalypse&comma; the Alice Cooper zombie finds the building and begins hunting them down&comma; with the help of the now zombified bus driver&period; The teens argue over what to do&comma; all while their numbers dwindle&comma; but Ever soon discovers that all is not as it seems&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The cracks begin to show pretty early on in <em>Unhuman<&sol;em>&period; You can see that a point is trying to be made about how the real inhuman &lpar;<em>unhuman&quest;<&sol;em>&rpar; characters are the bullies&comma; not the zombies&comma; but even that stance gets flipped around before the final act&period; The film really hit its stride around the time the teens reach the abandoned building&comma; but things quickly take a turn for the worse&period; There’s a brief attempt to copy Edgar Wright’s frenzied&comma; over-the-top editing&comma; but it gets abandoned after about two minutes&period; And the more we know and understand the characters&comma; the more two-dimensional they become&period; Part of it could be chalked up to an intentional effort to mimic classic teen tropes&comma; but it also tries to work in more modern Gen Z &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;jokes” about fat shaming and so on&semi; you never really know how you&&num;8217&semi;re supposed to feel about any of it&comma; especially since the tonal shifts happen at random and without much justification&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2023&sol;05&sol;unhumanks202106150332-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Unhuman zombie film" class&equals;"wp-image-2694"&sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-element-caption"><em>Unhuman<&sol;em> &lpar;2022&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>I will admit that I did not see the film’s plot twist coming at all&comma; but I won’t give any spoilers here&period; Unfortunately&comma; the way in which the filmmakers reveal the twist feels half-hearted and rushed&period; We sort of understand what’s going on and can look back at the story in a new light&comma; but ultimately&comma; the revelated raises more questions than it answers&period; <em>Unhuman<&sol;em> does deserve some credit for going in a slightly different direction than most zombie comedies&comma; but beyond a unique plot twist&comma; it doesn’t do much worth remembering&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>One of the strangest aspects of the film is the very strong moral posturing on the part of the writers&period; The characterization makes it very clear that bullies are bad from the start&period; Whether you’re an adult or a teen&comma; you shouldn’t bully people&period; Later on&comma; we&&num;8217&semi;re supposed to sympathize with the bullies and hate the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;losers&comma;” who are painted as incels who deserve everything terrible that comes their way&period; It doesn’t really work well&comma; as the filmmakers never tell us why the bullies deserve our sympathy or why &lpar;some&rpar; of the unpopular kids deserve our wrath&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The protagonist&comma; Ever&comma; also goes through a strange transformation that feels as unnatural to write about as it was to watch&period; She begins as the shy&comma; sympathetic girl with the dorky haircut&period; She progresses to being the depressed girl who feels like &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;nothing” because nobody listens to her&comma; and finally&comma; she graduates to the badass girl boss with the cool hairstyle&period; Her journey really is as shallow and nonsensical as that&period; For the terrible cherry on top&comma; she gives us a happy-go-lucky voiceover about the beauty of just being yourself to wrap things up nicely&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>I’ve also failed to mention the severe lack of funny moments in this horror comedy&period; There were one or two chuckle-worthy lines&comma; but they were nothing to write home about&period; The film doesn’t really set the characters up for comedic moments&comma; and the story is more focused on the horrific and dramatic elements&period; So we’re left with an unconvincing teen drama that can’t really decide what it wants to be&period; Is bullying good or bad&quest; Should comedy be funny&quest; Can a zombie apocalypse be convincing to anyone if there are only a handful of zombies&quest; These are the important questions that the makers of <em>Unhuman<&sol;em> should have asked before putting pen to paper&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h3 class&equals;"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size">Unhuman Movie Rating&colon; &starf;&half; out of 5<&sol;h3>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you’d like to watch <em>Unhuman<&sol;em> &lpar;2022&rpar;&comma; it is currently available to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;amzn&period;to&sol;44lE7AE" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener sponsored nofollow">stream&comma; rent&comma; or purchase on Amazon Prime<&sol;a>&period; For more film reviews like this one&comma; be sure to check out the rest of <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;">Philosophy in Film<&sol;a>&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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