HUMAN ANIMALS (1983)
Label: Mondo Macabro
Region Code: Region Free
Duration: 98 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Audio: LPCM 2.0 Dual-mono with Optional English Subtitles
Rating: Unrated
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Audio: LPCM 2.0 Dual-mono with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Eligio Herrero
Cast: Carole Kirkham, Geir Indvard, José Yepes, “Larry” the Dog
When you've seen so many of the 80's post-nuke film you have a certain expectations; you might be thinking marauding mutants craving human flesh and/or Mad Max styled armored muscle cars and violent scavengers, but this early 80's Spanish entry is a film that defied my expectations from start to finish. It opens with stock footage of several nuclear mushroom clouds, seemingly destroying most of the world’s population. It then zeros in on three survivors who awaken on an unearthly looking stretch of land that is barren. The trio consist of a woman (Carole Kirkham, Panic Beats) and two men (Geir Indvard, José Yepes) who first appear to us unconscious, fully clothed and unscathed aside from some slight facial scratching. Within moments they stir and seem to have no memory of their past lives and are incapable of speaking. Two of them are dressed in fancy formal party attire while the other man is a tougher looking mustachioed rocker dude in hot red-pants and a leather-jacket, sort of looking like Carmine Appice from rockers Vanilla Fudge. As they awaken the pair in party clothes go through the man's wallet and find a picture indicating that they could be siblings, while the rocker puts on an impressive air-guitar show (the first of many WTF moments), before they set-off together into the unknown.
They find their way to an ocean beach and enjoy a swim in the surf until they are "attacked" by crabs that emerge from the black sand and nip at the women's toes. The rocker "saves" her and crushes the crustacean and then enjoys the fresh raw crab meat. He then forces himself sexually onto the woman, much to the dismay of her sibling who seems does little to stop it though, setting up the hierarchy of the men.
Later they come across a dilapidated structure and find it not suitable for habitation with no food, but it's there that a dog appears and leads them to a jungle paradise. It's almost as if God himself had plucked them from nuclear annihilation and has decided to give humanity a reboot, not that we deserve it, but instead of Adam and Eve it's Adam, Steve and Eve, because two men and one woman, what could go wrong?
At this newfound paradise they find an abundance of fruit and vegetables, as well as plentiful small game to hunt for food. They build a hut and learn to make fire, and things seem fine for a bit, it's a paradise. However, it doesn't take long before human nature takes hold, jealousy and rivalry rears their ugly heads in this new garden of Eden as the men vie for the attentions of the woman, and it does not matter that two of them are siblings, so yeah, incest. While they're all having a go at each other the dog seemingly wants ion on the action, too, so yup - there's some bestiality happening up in this post-nuke flick folks, you have been warned!
Ugliness aside, it's an attractively lensed bit of oddball apocalyptic arthouse that has no qualms about diving right into the exploitative elements with lots of sex, rape and bestiality, but somehow doesn't feel super seedy; maybe because it has a sort of documentary sort of feel about it. The acting is solid from all three who put across the base human emotion of the situation without a single word of dialogue, especially poor Carole Kirkham is put through quite a lot here as the sole woman who becomes the sexual desire of both men, and a the dog! If I had to compare this to something I would say it's sort of along the lines of The Quiet Earth (1985) by way of The Blue Lagoon (1980) with you know, rape, incest and bestiality.
Audio/Video: Human Animals (1983) arrives on Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro with a new 4K scan of the original camera negative, presented here in 1080p HD and framed in 1.85:1 widescreen. It looks pretty fantastic after the initial shots of nuclear explosions which are stock footage and have blemishes. Grain looks natural throughout, colors are plenty vivid and depth and clarity are strong.
Audio comes by wat of LPCM 2.0 stereo with optional English subtitles. There's really no spoken dialogue parts here, but we do get English subtitles that decipher some Spanish onscreen text.
The enigmatic apocalypse film does not get much in the way of extras, but we do get a a 51-minute interview with film’s director-writer-producer Eligio Herrero who gets into shooting the wordless film, censorship issues, and lots more. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork that seems to be selling a completely different and more action packed apocalypse film altogether!
Special Features:
- Brand new 4k transfer from film negative.
- Interview with film’s director-writer-producer Eligio Herrero (51 min)
- Mondo Macabro Previews (14 min)
- Brand new 4k transfer from film negative.
- Interview with film’s director-writer-producer Eligio Herrero (51 min)
- Mondo Macabro Previews (14 min)
Human Animals (1983) is a bizarre post-apocalyptic flick like no other I have ever seen, this is definitely a flick that will appeal to fans of wild arthouse cinema with plenty of WTF-ery and sleazy exploitative elements. Certainly one of the most memorable post-apocalyptic film I've ever seen, and totally unique as well, kudos to Mondo Macabro for giving this Spanish post-nuke gem a solid HD upgrade.
Screenshots from the Mondo Macabro Blu-ray:
