Human Form (2014) User Reviews

I once heard that pain is beauty...

[Foreverisacastironmess123 · 7/10 · 18 August 2017]

This was a very eye-catching dramatic horror short film that was thankfully also very sharply directed, and had a cool eerie and well realised concept at its core that you perhaps might not have seen before. It's about an unhappy girl who lives in a world that has developed some seriously dark and twisted ideals regarding what the definition of beauty is, and is a society where it seems that the most highly prized and desirable status in life is to have gone through expensive extreme plastic surgery techniques that frightfully transform the patient into a physical state that is almost inhuman looking, yet in the world gone mad of the short represents acceptance and an ideal physical state of perfection in her society's eyes. She yearns to be like the 'beautiful' idealised walking freakshows all around her including her own family, and she goes to extremes to get her wish, but for all intents and purposes, she pays with her soul as she sacrifices her own young natural beauty and individuality just basically to fit in and be accepted, and what remains isn't really her anymore, she died under the bloody gauze during the procedure. And as she joins her 'perfect' family at the table at the end, we see that she's become something unnatural and hideous..like them! Only of course that's just hideousness by our definition, for in this world the ugly and beautiful have been horribly flipped at some point, and it was her who was the freak and outsider in their eyes. The concept reminded me a lot of the old Twilight Zone episode where all the doctors are pigs? It's a similar theme. The look of the surgically altered people is fantastically done and so spooky, they look like they're wearing 'pretty' masks of their own ruined flesh, and although technically they do look refined and chiselled and even perhaps eerily beautiful in a way, they're also very bizarre and wrong like walking wax manikins come to life... The girl handled it OK but I would go stir crazy with those things creeping around me everywhere all day! In our world are we really so sure of just how far people are willing to go and just how much they're willing to go through if the societal pressure is great enough? Could such a nightmare ever come into being? Never say never. Very well done and presented short with some startling notions on the nature of conformity, and it may not have been in English but to me the message was definitely clear. The young director did a great job with this short and it's certainly worth seeking out and watching. You may be genuinely chilled! x

Unsettling does not equal entertaining

[timothygartin · 6/10 · 12 March 2020]

I have watched this short film a few times. It is original, although it draws from some earlier works - an old Twilight Zone episode comes to my mind that comments on the idea of beauty. It is well acted, especially the young actress lead. The message is very unsettling and I'm uncomfortable every time I watch it. I'm sure that was the filmmaker's intention.

My ultimate disappointment with Human Form is the same I had with The Birch. Sometimes a film presents a great idea that is disturbing. If the movie fails to tell an interesting story about the idea, that is a lost opportunity. Human Form doesn't go anywhere. The characters don't evolve. The dread doesn't change. I'm just left feeling sad at the end.

The Dangers Of Focusing Too Much On Beauty

[ClareLaBelleRose · 8/10 · 23 January 2023]

Human Form is definitely a look into the human mind that you won't forget anytime soon. With disturbing visuals showing the true internal horror of body dysmorphia and the hatred of one's own appearance to a dangerous level. Despite the short runtime of the movie and things that could be explained further than they happened to be, this is definitely very effective and memorable for a short film, with amazing effects and a soundtrack that'll keep you on edge.

If you want jump scares and killers, expect none here, only the dread of the human mind and the fear of yourself. If you're into psychological horror, this is a must watch.

beauty

[Kirpianuscus · 30 September 2017]

a girl.her drawings. his family. a desire. and the high price for it. "Human Form" is an uncomfortable film. because it propose, in precise way, the deep portrait of near reality. the trend, the teenager and his desire to become like the others for be accepted, the temptation and the profound, bitter solitude, the fall as revenge. faces remembering Modigliani portraits. and a warning who escapes from the frame of horror genre. because it reflects the ambition to be the other. the subjectivity of beauty definition, the life reduced at masks. and the dictatorship of majority. aesthetic surgery as the solution for become one of many others. and the innocence. as form of solitude.