Stay on the path, or you will die

Only one may win. 

The school, the house, and the prison are safe. 

Follow the arrows, or you will die. 

Stay on the path, or you will die. 

If you are lapped twice, you will die. 

Do not touch the grass, or you will die. 

Race, or die. 

You might be wondering: What kind of rules are these? What is this? That's exactly what the people in the movie The Human Race are thinking as well. A group of people finds themselves suddenly on a strange trail. They hear these rules. No further explanation. The conclusion is: race or die. The group of people is very diverse: Old & young, fast & slow, they all have different backgrounds, views etc. At the beginning of the movie, we get to know a few of these people a little bit. We see a war veteran and his friend. Two deaf friends. A priest. A cyclist. An old man with a walker. And there are many many more people. Question is: Who will survive? And what of person are you in this race?  

I read the plot of the movie a while ago and I thought it was interesting. It reminded me of the Hunger Games and I was curious to find out how this story would go. I put in on my Christmas list. And as you can see in my Zeno Pictures unboxing, I got this movie for Christmas from Sigmund. He didn't really feel like watching this movie. So when I was home alone, ironing, I decided it was time to watch this movie. 

The Human Race is directed by Paul Hough. I have to admit that I'm not familiar with his other work. I was mainly curious to see how the race would go ( I wasn't aware of the rules before I watched the movie). And also how the character would develop. There are always characters that are helpful and characters that only want to save themselves. It's interesting how filmmakers show this in the movie. Main roles in the movie are for Paul McCarthy-Boyington, Eddie McGee, Trista Robinson and T. Arthur Cottam. 

Indeed, that's what people do. They start running. However.. not everyone is capable of running (remember I told you there was an older man with a walker?) and some people are clumsy (bumping into someone who lands on the grass is a fatal mistake! For the person that steps on the grass..). The movie starts with lots of running, but also people trying to help and heads exploding (always follow the rules)! 

The movie shows via some flashbacks who people were before the race. That's fine and gives some background. But sometimes it takes too long and the scenes aren't always significant enough. I had expected the movie to start a bit different. Because it started with these flashbacks right away, I didn't always know if it were flashbacks or scenes of people outside of the race (because the race just starts after some flashbacks). I would have divided this more over the movie, during the race. 

I like seeing how the characters behave in the race. If they try to help, make friends, or just want to survive themselves. People that follow the rules. People that don't. I liked that and there's enough to see in that. Everyone behaves differently and I liked that. I thought the races and how everyone copes with it, was nice to see. And the special effects aren't too bad.   Sometimes the characters change a bit too fast in my opinion.  You don't know them very well. So I can't always explain why someone changes his or her behavior. And that is in some cases confusing. 

That is also something the people in this movie are wondering about. Why are they in this race? Where are they? I like the dialog between Eddie (Eddie McGee), Justin (Paul McCarthy-Boyington) and the priest (B. Anthony Cohen): 

Justin: Do you have any idea where we are? 

Priest: In the purgatory. The bible teaches: those who find themselves in purgatory must walk the narrow path to heaven. 

Justin: The narrow path? 

(...)

Priest: Do you hear him? He's testing us. Stay on the path. Do not give in to temptation.  If we continue on the path, eventually we will reach heaven. 

Eddie: Temptation? Like, step off the path and your head explodes.. That doesn't sound temptiing to me father, sorry. 

Okay, if you don't want to read any spoilers stop here. I'm not going to say exactly how it ends, but I will tell what I think of it. 

The big "why" is my most troublesome point with this movie. I liked watching it. But then there was the end. Which was little satisfying. Well, actually not at all. There are so many questions still unanswered. So much unclear. Maybe that could be picked up in a next movie. But for now, I'm left with the feeling 'What did I just watch?' which overshadows the parts I actually liked in the movie. I enjoyed watching it. But the end is just not rewarding enough for me. Want to see my review on YouTube? Check it out below!