A little-known Spanish made post-apocalyptic drama, of primary interest due to its complete lack of dialogue. Filmed on the Canary Islands, HUMAN ANIMALS (Animales racionales; 1980) is quite scenic, and lascivious enough to suggest that it was intended for the exploitation market.
HUMAN ANIMALS (1980) Trailer
A nuclear war has devastated civilization. It seems that just three people have survived: a pretty woman (Carole Kirkham), a strapping young blonde man (Geir Indvard) and a swarthy dark-haired fellow (José Yepes), who find themselves coming to in natty outfits atop a parched mountain. Heading off to the nearest seashore, they promptly get chased to higher ground by malevolent crabs. That night the dark-haired men seeks sexual gratification with the woman, and she does little to dissuade him.
A bit later the trio, led by a stray dog (Larry), settle in a tropical landscape where the dark-haired man and the woman have sex by a roaring fire while the blonde fellow runs off. The woman takes pity on the latter and seduces him while the other watches, precipitating a sexual dynamic that grows increasingly fractured.
Depending on one’s point of view, the third act can be seen as a complete fail or the logical completion of a stylistic trajectory whose grasp of reality was shaky from the start. In this portion the woman takes to doing everything in the nude, and the dog becomes attracted to her(!) while the two men elect to have sex with each other, and in so doing burn down the makeshift hut in which they’ve been residing. A final confrontation awaits, from which only one of the woman’s three male suitors will walk away.
The apocalyptic love triangle is a longstanding cliché that this film, for all its weirdness, fails to render novel or interesting. The lack of dialogue (with histrionic music cues utilized to convey emotion) and frequently surreal imagery suggest that writer-director Eligio Herrero was trying for Jodorowskian weirdness, but the indifferently staged, frequently underlit proceedings are much closer in spirit to the sexploitation oddity TANYA’S ISLAND (1980), meaning whatever Herrero was attempting wasn’t accomplished.
None of the three actors manage to galvanize the proceedings, or even stand out, with the most striking performance element being the frequent nudity. Larry the dog isn’t very good, either, with his major sex scene pulled off with little enthusiasm and even less coherence.
Vital Statistics
HUMAN ANIMALS (Animales racionales)
Video Cadena 3
Director/Screenplay: Eligio Herrero
Producer: Andrés Santana
Cinematography: Manuel Rojas
Editing: José Antonio Rojo
Cast: Carole Kirkham, José Yepes, Geir Indvard, Larry