They Look Like People

It's like if Andrew Bujalski got together with Joe Swanberg to produce a Duplass brothers script and got Alex Perry Ross to advise Ti West how to direct it in homage to Lynn Shelton. No, that's not mumblecore enough yet.

It wasn't until I tried to fall asleep that I realized how compelling this film was. I was successfully swept into the disturbing atmosphere architected in just 80 minutes. There are only a few quick moments of visual horror that almost feel like a break compared to the intense psychological horror. They Look Like People reminded me of the movie Bug, and it reinstated the greatness of independent horror.

perhaps horror is a useful tool for illuminating mumblecore, rooted as they are in similar pangs of social anxiety, alienation and emasculation, but the integration of subtext here is eyeroll-worthy and the lesson is a different one: if you're unable to write characters who resemble human beings enough for it to matter if they actually aren't, this movement's faux-naturalism will only emphasise that void.

Why we like horror films is a deep rabbit hole to go down, but, most of us, like it when a film makes us uncomfortable. On top of that, extra points are given to a film that does it as effortlessly and creatively as They Look Like People does. The friendship that is teetering on the edge of absolute catastrophe brings all the suspense and panic that I could hope for. The love between the two main characters is one of the most genuine relationships I've seen in a long time.

Generally not bad, some tension and somewhat better character development than usual in such things. Spoiler: If the final moment is supposed to represent transcendence of illusion, well, I'm not sure that is how mental illness actually works.

I watch a lot of horror movies and a lot of indie dramas, but some of these lackadaisical patchworks of cliches from both areas don't grab me ("Felt" was another example of this). "They Look Like People" rehashes the "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" trope, perhaps Carpenter's "They Live" specifically, on a bed of montagey mumblecore.

Dehumanization parable that looks like paranormal thriller. The story is very reminiscent of 2006's Bug and a certain Twilight Zone episode but it's told well enough to keep the familiarity from detracting too much. Does suspense well but it's the type of thing that could only ever work the first time you watch it.

The mumblecore generation's Pi.

At first I thought it was going to be a black comedy, then it got weird. I would not have predicted the story to go the way it did. With a tiny budget and a few actors Perry Blackshear has produced something really unexpected, I look forward to his next feature length film

This is a taut, low budget, minimalist, psychological drama. I hesitate to call it horror, but I guess it sits somewhere on that spectrum. They Look Like People could easily show its hand too soon, but instead is very restrained all the way through. It's tense and atmospheric but also manages to throw in some light humour without upsetting the tone. The ending could be interpreted in a couple of ways but is far from unsatisfying. A real gem.

I hate shaky camerawork. It really makes low budget feel even lower. Was most of this recorded by someone just holding a phone?

-1 for Very awkward, although accurate, dialogue of young men and women. Great Hunter Movie

Because they are

Very nicely done with a surprisingly heartwarming ending.

Almost no Horror, more like a Psychological Drama.

good movie

Não entendi nada

Very well done is-it-or-isn't-it-real film that just lacks that final layer to really make the viewer lose footing. And there are, what, five actors in this? Why do we even bother with more? Give Blackshear a bunch more dollars and see what he does with it, I'm waiting.

Not really a horror and kind of vague, but in a way it's disturbing. My opinion here : http://opinion-as-a-moviefreak.blogspot.be/2016/11/they-look-like-people-2015.html [Full review]

An interesting movie. On one hand it's pretty intense and enveloping, but on the other, it doesn't pay off in the way it makes you think it should. Maybe subverting our expectations is kind of the point? I don't really know, but it's the kind of movie that, when looking back on it, feels like absolutely nothing happened. Because, really, that's mostly true.

Minimalistic paranoia movies are not particularly my thing, but this one was sort of sweet....

A surprisingly tense thriller that explores the mumblecore sensibilities, particularly how they relate to feelings of loneliness and modern anxieties, in a horror context; managing to commit till the end by somehow not going for a cop out ending.