Human Zoo – 2020 – Reality Show horror
What dragged me into watching Human Zoo was more or less the cover art. It’s really something else. And the title, it seems like the world’s best reality show, right? Or, if not the best, the most brutal and degenerate ever? I was sure intrigued!
What happens is, a number of people applies to be part of a totally new concept of reality TV. They will all be locked away alone and the point is to see who can stay the longest without going mad. There can be only one winner and that person will win one million dollars. The contestants don’t get much information about what they sign up for but, without spoiling anything, they get in way over their heads and get much more than they bargained for. They will be fed once a day and if they give up all they have to do is to cross their arms over their head and say “I give up”. The first couple of days goes pretty smoothly but some have more stamina than others of course. Som cracks up soon and we get to follow their stay in the cells and witness one by one go crazy.
The feeling of being a fly on the wall and witness their stay in the cells is very strong, to begin with. Everything is seen through the camera mounted inside the cells. It’s a very voyeur-ish feeling and it’s actually a pretty suspensive movie. We don’t really know what’s going to happen to begin with. Will they be left alone to go mad? Be tortured? And, if so, how?
Unfortunately, there is not much going on. It’s a very interesting subject on display, that’s for sure. But there are too few events going on. You can see it as an experiment in human nature if you please and I must confess I was pretty patient with waiting for the horrific things to happen. There are things happening for sure, but not in the way that I imagined it would. I’m very disappointed. If it weren’t for the first half or so of the movie, which made it interesting I doubt that I could have coped with it for almost 2 hours.
But, I have to give it – it creates questions at the end. What really happened? What was it all about? Why did the events happen and who was really watching the strange reality show? Well…Your guess is as good as mine.
