Animal Among Us (Review)
Animal Among Us Reminds Audiences that Man is an Animal.
Over the past few years, I’ve developed a love-hate relationship with horror movies. Essentially, I love them and I love to hate the really awful ones. So, when I was given the opportunity to view Animal Among Us a few days before it was set to be released, I jumped at the chance. What I saw was a genuinely noble first feature film attempt from director John Woodruff with the promise that a little more experience could lead to some interesting movies in the future. It’s biggest problem is one that I stumble upon constantly in the horror genre, were an interesting concept loses a bit of an edge in its execution. That being said, I have to give this film credit because it was able to do something that not a lot of films have been able to do over the years, and that’s have an ending that I wasn’t expecting.
Animal Among Us premise cashes in on the revitalized true-crime obsession in American culture. It centers around an author named Roland Baumgarner (Christian Oliver) who wrote a best selling novel about the murders of two girls at a camp 15 years ago. High on success, he leaps at the opportunity to be the guest of honor at the camps reopening. However, he couldn’t arrive at a worse possible time as he discovers that the two women left in charge of the camp (Larisa Oleynik and Christine Donlon) are dealing with potential monster sightings and mixed feelings regarding the arrival of the man who profited off the events that nearly put them out of business. It quickly becomes apparent that nothing is what it seems as threats loom from all around them.
One of the things that I appreciated about this film is that it is filled with twists and turns. While I respect straightforward stories, I appreciate a movie that tries to take you off guard, especially when it comes to horror. Animal Among Us does exactly that as it reveals that none of the characters are exactly who they appear to be by the end of it. I won’t go into details and spoil it, but there were genuinely parts I did not see coming. That being said, I feel like the film got a little lost along the way and was unsure of what exactly it wanted to be by the end. Was it a movie about a monster deep in the woods? Was it a movie about a killer returning to the hunt once more? Was it a movie about how there are animals deep within us all that we keep at bay for the sake of polite society? Maybe it was a little of all three. However, in taking a little from all three concepts, it undermines all of them at the same time. It has so many interesting ideas, that it can’t seem to focus on any one of them to see it through to full fruition. Still, there are parts from each of these ideas that I found interesting enough to keep me invested in the story.
The core group of actors in the film do an interesting job of keeping their characters ambiguous. Oliver proves to be the cornerstone that the film is built upon. His performance is solid and reliable as he walks the edge between the audience hating his character and them feeling sympathetic towards his suffering. The guy has a pregnant wife and daughter at home but proves to be the gut-wrenching cliche of the philandering professor. It’s a trait I absolutely cannot stand because I hate cheaters, and he certainly does a good job of getting my blood boiling during certain scenes. However, all of the characters have their dark sides. Oleynik plays a ranger/ camp owner who is more concerned about keeping a lid on things than accepting that a grand opening isn’t the best idea right now. Her sister (Donlon) wants nothing more than to run away from it all and greedily seeks her meal ticket out of there. It proves that there is a dark side to all of us in the end, but in doing so strips us of a primary protagonist that we can root for. Because of that, Animal Among Us brings up plenty of conflicting emotions as the audience tries to decide who they want to live and who they hope will die, or if they even want anyone to survive by the end. The real downfall though is that while the performances are solid enough, the dialogue becomes wooden and unnatural during certain key moments to a point where it’s actually distracting. Credit to the actors for selling some of the messier lines though, it definitely helped to keep the film level.
While there are minor flaws sprinkled throughout Animal Among Us there are two glaring issues with it. For one thing, the cinematography has a harsh, high contrast digital feel to it. That in itself wouldn’t be an issue since there have been plenty of brutal stylized horror films in the past. This though ruins a lot of tension in scenes as the lens cuts through the darkness, keeping it at bay and revealing that there’s no real threat lurking in the shadows. It also forces the film to make any of the “found footage” in it look exceptionally jerky and fake. The other issue was with the editing. Cuts between scenes never really felt fluid or carried the movement or mood well. It’s a little jarring at times, even though the movie quickly recovers each time. These two technical issues though are crucial when it comes to horror and because of them, Animal Among Us risks ruining everything it’s tried so hard to create by the end.
I liked a lot of what Animal Among Us was going for. It has a decent location, some pretty creepy practical effects, and reliable performances overall. It does have some hiccups, which feel less like problems with the film’s vision and more like simple mistakes that could have been fixed with a little more care. Now, if this was anything other than a horror movie those issues could have ruined it. However, fans of horror look beyond things like that. Their expectations are more visceral than visual. In that regard, Animal Among Us is a film that true fans will probably enjoy streaming late at night with a few buddies. It’s a movie that shows promise for a lot of the people involved in creating it. Could it have been better? Sure. Does that mean it’s bad? Not particularly. It’s a movie that has some issues, but nothing that makes it unwatchable. In the end, if the premise is enough to get you interested, this is probably a fun little flick you’ll get a kick out of.
