They Look Like People Review (2016) Worth Watching?

As Christian's old friend appears in town, all is not well as he sees terrifying visions of shapeshifting demons.

They Look Like People was directed by Perry Blackshear and stars Macleod Andrews, Evan Dumouchel, and Margaret Ying Drake.

Love

Christian (Evan Dumouchel) is a fairly depressed city worker who listens to life-affirming podcasts every day and is trying to work out how to date his boss, his mundane existence is turned upside down when an old friend appears from his past, and he invites him to stay. All is not well as his friend Wyatt ( MacLeod Andrews) is having visions of demonic entities and receiving phone calls from a guide that tells him he must fight in a holy war against this demonic plague that has diseased the human race since biblical times. As Wyatt prepares for battle, we are never quite sure if he is suffering from delusions or if the things he sees are real.

'They Look Like People' has a very old-school horror vibe to it. It makes you feel on edge from the very beginning; everything feels awkward and off. I liked this; it seemed reminiscent of The Shining because it always feels like something isn't quite right. Throughout the film, the lighting and the lack of music make everything seem bleak and depressing, putting you in an anxious frame of mind.

Even the friendship between Wyatt and Christian seems off and awkward, which, although I am sure was done on purpose, did, unfortunately, throw me out of the story a little because it just seemed too much like they didn't like each other. I found it hard to believe it was a genuine friendship.

I enjoyed Margaret Ying Drake as Mara, Christian's boss and love interest; this film didn't really follow any stereotypes of a love story, and Mara's feisty and independent character was a friendly stray away from a lot of the more helpless victim roles of a lot of female horror characters.

There is a lot of focus on the audio in this film, with the podcast affirmations, the phone calls, and even a scene inside a whisper box. You can tell that the upsurge inspired these scenes in AMSR videos around the time the film was made. I liked the way this was done, as it added a more rounded dimension to the media being used to tell the story; however, if you suffer from even mild misophonia (are triggered by mouth sounds), this may not be the movie for you, as the mouth sounds are persistent and overbearing.

Wyatt's vision sequences are genuinely scary and extremely unsettling, and the film does an excellent job of pulling you into the terror felt in these moments.