Dystopian flicks are beginning to feel a little too close to reality—and that’s exactly how Caitlin Cronenberg’s Humane feels.

The film opens with depressing and overwhelming sound bites that feel a little too close to what we hear on CNN—snippets of various television networks spewing nothing but bad news.

Humanity is facing a horrific environmental crisis, and governments worldwide are enforcing voluntary, humane euthanasia upon society to lower the population by 20%. Soon, population control will become involuntary, and euthanasia will be performed through conscription—with the “lower class” dying first.

Water is scarce. People are impoverished. The streets offer sun-drenched sidewalks of a sordid, crumpling, and destitute suburbia—eerily cheerful posters promoting premature death line city walls.

At a large manor, we’re introduced to former news anchor and prominent public figure Charles York (Peter Gallagher), who is planning to be euthanized along with his wife, famous chef Dawn Kim (Uni Park).

Charles gathers his troubled children at his home for the last time and announces their decision to die. Irate, his children try to change his mind. And, when things don’t go according to plan, it may mean one of them leaving the house in a body bag.

Humane isn’t an outright horror film. There are no jump scares, there’s limited gore. Nothing notably frightening about it. Nor is it the best feature to roll into cinemas.

But, it’s one of the most haunting films I’ve seen in years.

Why?

Because like all dystopian works, it makes me think about the future. It makes me worried about the future (well, more than I already am).

Humane‘s ability to transport its viewers into the disturbing world that Cronenberg has built is harrowing. It feels too much like our own, like something that could happen in the years to come.

We watch this “normal” family faced with a terrifying problem—a problem that they never thought they would have to deal with. The mundane setting of a family home and lack of futuristic technology reinforce that this subject is rooted in reality, a haunting vision of what could be.

But that’s the most effective part of science fiction, isn’t it?

Between dialogue used, modern environmental crises, and allegories to the issues we face today, Humane feels like a waking nightmare—one that I hope will never come to fruition.

Humane
2024
dir. Caitlin Cronenberg
94 min.

Streaming on Shudder and AMC+ starting July 26.