For Want of Humanity

What does it mean to be human? What does it take to unleash monsters within us?

Larry Fessenden’s Depraved does not shy away from it’s literary inspiration. As with Frankenstein, the monster is created out of human flesh, against all notions of scientific ethics or responsibility.

What Fessenden concocts is an examination of what it means to be human. The monster is shown with a trajectory of life and humanity through midpoint of the film. It — or maybe “he” — enjoys ping pong, reads books, solves puzzles, enjoys art, gets angry, is sexually aroused.

He is triggered to become “the monster” only when his creator attempts to destroy him. He had longed for love and companionship, and is denied.

Depraved works much less as a horror movie as it is a drama with some hints of science fiction. It features the tropes of horror, yes, but it embraces the latter genre more fully.

Ultimately, I think the film wants us to realize that love is all it takes to be human. With Depraved, as with Frankenstein, it isn’t.

★★★☆☆