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Reviews
Human Zoo (2020)
It Takes More Than You Think
For the life of me, I can't understand why people think a review is supposed to be based on their own subjective feelings of bombs and boobs when reviewing a movie. Do they not realize there are multiple categories on which to base their review? For instance...
Title:
Human Zoo. Okay, it wasn't a zoo by any stretch of the word. Insane Asylum would have been better, or perhaps Human Asylum. Or maybe even get right to the point and call it a Crazy House. And the graphic for the advertisement gave the impression it was more of an escape room. But Human Zoo? No. And so the Title gets only a few stars from me.
Story line:
I don't care what all the other reviewers say. The plot was a well-written story. Imagine being fooled into thinking you're signing up as a contestant for a Reality Show, when it actually might be a Psychological Study. Imagine being told you will be placed in an 8 ft x 8 ft room with no windows, no doors you will have a key for, and one low wattage light bulb in the ceiling that stays on 24/7. The walls are a plaster color. You have only a Yoga-type mat to sleep on, no blanket and no pillow. Did I mention the fact that your shoes are taken from you? And no jewelry. And imagine being given minimal food, a blob of oatmeal in a Styrofoam container, and one bottle of water each day... and that's all. And, imagine being told, if you reach the end of your wits, you will be released simply by stepping up to the camera that's watching you 24/7, and crossing your arms like an "X" shape and you will be set free. Imagine further that upon giving-in and doing that, you're NOT set free, and you have to continue with the experiment. And imagine becoming so physically ill so that blood is coming out of your mouth and or nose and you think the people in control will see you and they'll come get you, but they don't, and you have the setting for one hell of a creepy horror story. So, as I indicated above... to all the others who couldn't see past their idea of bombs and boobs as criteria for what they think constitutes a good movie, and you really do have a well-written movie, and to that you can thank: John E Seymore, John D. Crawford, and Selfin Morose... and no, I don't know them! To the writers, I give three stars each, and that comes to nine stars.
Set design:
It didn't take much, but it took enough to give the impression the volunteers were in, not a setting for a study, but in a solitary confinement room in the Gulag in Siberia! And for that, I give the builders of the set ten stars.
Actors:
Listen, those of you who have never taken an acting course in school or college, or if you did, you never picked up on anything related to method acting, do you NOT realize what it takes to get into such a level of emotive outlet that these actors displayed in this movie? Do you think it's easy to do what they did, just so you can sit back and give them one star? I won't say anymore. And for the amount of energy the actors had to release to get to their levels of display, I give them all ten stars.