They Look Like People

2015 Directed by Perry Blackshear

Love, Loyalty, and Living Nightmares.

Suspecting that people around him are turning into evil creatures, a troubled man questions whether to protect his only friend from an impending war, or from himself.

MacLeod Andrews Evan Dumouchel Margaret Ying Drake Mick Casale Elena Greenlee

Alternative Title

Они похожи на людей

mystery drama horror

79 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Keith Garrett ★★★★½ 6

It's the middle of the night and Wyatt lies in bed awake, facing his girlfriend. He stares blankly at her. All we see is her outline lit by the moon, her face is cloaked in complete darkness. The shot, which already exudes an indefinable menace, is held just barely too long. What was merely a strange shot quickly becomes uncomfortable, and then genuinely unnerving. All in the span of one minute. The very first minute of the movie.
It's an incredibly simple but incredibly effective moment of tense unease and this film is littered with them. Wyatt has an undefined(?) mental illness, but it resembles schizophrenia. He receives phone calls in the middle of the night (or does he?) from…
Review by Max ★★★★★ 1

two bros chilling in the basement five feet apart cause theyre not gay
Review by Sheena ★★★★★ 3

How often do you find a film where schizophrenia is displayed in the background of a horror film as a twitching person in a straight jacket meant to be ogled? They draw on the walls, throw feces, and make for spooky background stories of abandoned houses in every other film these days. We are always on the outside, as spectators. There is no horror in that display, just misunderstanding.
They Look Like People unsettled me far more than I expected it to. Perhaps it is because I was anticipating a typical thriller of some kind, but it was not. You are placed within the confines of a person who is mentally unstable and on the verge of a mental breakdown.…
Review by Hollie Horror ★★★ 4

Thankfully I have a friend looking out for me who suggested a double feature of They Look Like People and I Am Not a Serial Killer (watched in reverse order) and both movies worked really well together, so I'll pass along the pro-tip to all of you!
While a low budget effort, They Look Like People's greatest strength lies within MacLeod Andrews' performance, a naturalistic approach to the is he or isn't he genre that was quite haunting, as well as effective.
Review by bree1981 ★★★★ 1

Celluloid Screams 2015 Film # 3
This was by far the biggest surprise of the weekend, had skipped over the film at Frightfest and I hadn't heard anything about it either good or bad so I went in with pretty low expectations but it probably ended up being my favourite film of the weekend. The debut feature from writer/director Perry Blackshear is an assured film, a New York set character piece that straddles many genres, part paranoid thriller, part mental breakdown drama with plenty of humour, some rom-com staples and obviously a large dose of horror thrown into the mix.
MacLeod Andrews stars as Wyatt, a mental unstable man who visits his old college friend Christian (Evan Dumouchel) out of…
Review by C.J. ★★★★ 1

I'll need some time to think this one through a bit, but it's fantastic. Deeply unsettling, and it's so resonant in the way it explores loneliness, isolation and dealing with "growing up" amidst a really disturbing combination of Take Shelter and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
This should be getting praised to high heaven in the same way The Babadook and It Follows were over the last 2 years. They Look Like People is way, way more subtle, emotional and impressive (based off the end credits it looked like they never had more than a 2 or 3 person crew) than both of those films in my eyes.

Recent reviews

Review by Cynthia Kenne ★★★★

This was terrifying.
Review by Nathan the Banana ★★★½

As a film student, it's so fulfilling and hopeful to watch films that tackle complex thematic content and function adequately creatively be so achievable in scope. This feels like a script I could have written, a production I could have produced, or an edit I could have tackled. Watching it made the gap between film student and filmmaker feel a little less enormous.
Also, this movie fucking slaps.
Review by Chadman

An intense story of a man who sees monsters in those around him. The movie leaves it ambiguous as long as it can, basically until the very end. It allows tension to permeate the whole movie. The question over whether he is the threat or others are, is handled really well. Acting is pretty good for a low budget film and both the leads are well written.
Recommended
Review by Danielle ★★★★

I feel like this just has to be experienced.
Review by Jake ★★★★ 2

Out of the many, MANY horror films I have seen throughout my life, I think ‘The Look Like People’ has the most chilling opening scene. A scene I find myself remembering a lot about in the two years since I first saw it. In fact, nearly every overtly ‘scary’ scene from this movie has been burned into my brain since my initial viewing. This is my third viewing, but I remember these sequences beat for beat.
I feel like I’m overselling it, in a sense. There is in fact, nothing overtly horrifying about it. Coupled with the fact that this is an amateur production, there is nothing even truly ‘impressive’ about the filmmaking with the horror involved. There is no jump…
Review by Discourse Stu ★★★★

Anxiety and paranoia type moves usually work pretty well for me. YMMV. Effective use of glimpsed and suggestive imagery and sound design over in your face ooga booga.
Review by phlpt ★★½

Some decent tension, but a very muddled middle and a bit of a clichéd look at schizophrenia.
Review by TheBeastIWorshi ★★★★½

The ending was giving me an anxiety attack.
Review by shteev ★★★★½

This is great.
A young man is troubled by hallucinations of evil beings around him. BUT ARE THEY HALLUCINATIONS?!?!?!
Yes. They are. This is a story about mental illness, and a very powerful and affecting one it is too. I look forward to more work from this first time writer/director!