Human Resources – Film Review

Well, that’s certainly one way to start off the new year.

I went into Braden Swope‘s Human Resources knowing absolutely nothing about the film and yet even still, I walked away feeling immensely disappointed. The potential to tell a legitimately engrossing horror-comedy was quite high and yet it all came crashing down in the first thirty minutes.

These are essentially the set-up parts of the movie but sadly, even these scenes felt incredibly cheaply made and were honestly quite boring to watch. Not a whole lot happens, to tell you the truth. We watch as our lead protagonist desperately tries to get a job, even at one point trying to hand his resume to someone at a fast food restaurant drive-thru window.

Of course, he eventually finds work somewhere and as he settles in, the film’s storyline starts to kick in. The problem is just that it’s never all that interesting. Screenwriters Braden Swope, Evan Swope, and Chris Kelly struggle to give depth to any of the characters and don’t give us a reason to care about anything as soon as things start to hit the fan.

The story just felt overly sloppy and like it wasn’t carefully planned. It’s not one of the worst horror-comedies I’ve seen in recent years but it’s definitely not one that I’ll look back on with fond memories. It’s a film that doesn’t care about its characters or telling a tightly-knit, compacted story. It jumps all over the place.

One thing that does deserve praise, however, is the atmosphere. There are some instances in which the film does bring with it a strong sense of unease. These eerie feelings don’t last throughout the entire movie, sadly, but I still found myself appreciating it whenever the feeling was in the air.

Hugh McCrae Jr. also serves as an excellent leading actor in the film in the role of Sam Coleman. Despite the fact that his character is poorly fleshed out, McCrae Jr. did a more than stellar job with this performance. I just wished I saw this performance in a much better movie.

Human Resources wastes an intriguing concept and, sadly, brandishes a sloppy script that doesn’t care to flesh out any of its characters.