Yndige mennesker / Adorable Humans

 

Anders Jon, Kasper Juhl, Michael Kunov, Michael Panduro: Yndige mennesker / Adorable Humans (DK 2025).

Anders Jon, Kasper Juhl, Michael Kunov, Michael Panduro: Yndige mennesker / Adorable Humans (DK 2025).

Country and year: Denmark 2025

Producer(s): Thomas Gram Veyssiere, Frederikke Greve, Elena Arndt, Michael Kunov, Frederik Carlsen, Kasper Juhl, Frida S. Klüver, Lene Rasmussen, Michael Panduro

Director and writer: Anders Jon, Kasper Juhl, Michael Kunov, Michael Panduro

Cinematographer: Tobias Scavenius, Fredrik A.G. Sundbye

Music: Ida Nørby

Cast: Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt, Mille Maria Dalsgaard, Mie Gren, Peter Høgsbro, Sus Wilkins, Marinus Refnov, Mie Gren, Adam Ild Rohweder, Iben Skau

Duration: 117 min

Language: Danish

Subtitles: English

Format: DCP

Night Visions (NV) Maximum Halloween 3025

Viewed at Kinopalatsi 2, Helsinki, 19 Nov 2025

NV 2025: "Hans Christian Andersenin maailmankuuluja satuja on tuotu valokankaille lähinnä siloteltuina Disney-versioina. Samalla on unohdettu, että kirjailijan tuotannossa oli myös paljon synkempiä aineksia. Tanskalaisantologia Adorable Humans nostaa esiin Andersenin HC-potentiaalin.

Neljä modernisoitua tarinaa vyöryttää seksiä, rockia ja visvaista väkivaltaa.

Kuollut mies kertoo vanhustenhoitajasta, joka rakastuu hulluun naiseen ja ignoroi himopäissään kuolemansairaan asiakkaansa kohtalokkain seurauksin. Äidin tarinassa massaonnettomuudesta selvinneen pojan syyllisyys henkiinjäämisestä kasvaa hengenvaarallisiin mittoihin. Lumikuningatar-klassikon brutaalisssa variaatiossa mielenterveysongelmista kärsivä nainen saa mystisen peilin, jota naamioitunut muukalainen hamuaa itselleen.  

Night Visions -veteraani Michael Panduron (Nasum: Blasting Shit to Bits – The Final Show) osio Hammassärkytäti kertoo luomisblokista kärsivästä rokkarista, joka turvautuu mystikkotätinsä apuun. Se ei tule ilmaiseksi.

Tanskalaiset näyttävät, miten indie-elokuvaan saadaan näyttäviä tuotantoarvoja. Inhojen efektien ja seksuaalisten halujen kimara pyyhkii Andersenista Disney-glitteriä – missaamatta silti satusedän ihmisluonnosta tekemiä oivalluksia." NV 2025

NV 2025 QUOTATION MONTAGE:

”This is Denmark in its purest, most savage cinematic form — bleak, stylish, unnerving, and absolutely relentless.”

– Saul Muerte / Surgeons of Horror

”Solid practical effects and a wonderful overall production”

– Karina Adelgaard / Heaven of Horror

”Put the kiddies to bed because this Danish anthology of Hans Christian Andersen adaptations is decidedly not for them. Adorable Humans is abundant with sex, drugs, and yes, rock and roll — not to mention no shortage of violence — with each segment deserving of the description ”macabre.” Boasting top-notch acting and impressive directing and technical aspects throughout, this portmanteau offering should be considered must-see viewing for fright-fare devotees of the weird and the wild. —

Adorable Humans is dark and features plenty of jaw-dropping gore and practical effects work. If you’re in the mood for classic fairy tales revised for modern-day horror aficionados, you need to see this anthology.”

– Joseph Perry / Horror Fuel – NV 2025 QUOTATION MONTAGE

AA: The world's first H. C. Andersen horror anthology? It is a promising option. If the name "H. C. Andersen" had not been mentioned, I would not have guessed that there is a connection. In this movie, H. C. signals both "Hans Christian" and "Hard Core".

The four films are original and disturbing, and they evoke rather Stephen King than H. C. Andersen. This is no time for hygge. Generous helpings of gore and splatter are on display.

I was particularly curious about the second episode, Michael Kunov's The Story of a Mother / Historien om en Moder (1847), a favourite of Vincent van Gogh and Fritz Lang, an inspiration for Der müde Tod. Kunov's interpretation ends with the original quote "And Death went away with her child into the unknown land". But this is a completely different story of a boy suffering from the death of his father and all his schoolmates having died in a horrible bus accident. Powerful and enigmatic.

The first episode, Anders Jon's The Dead Man / Dødningen, et Fyenske Folke-Eventyr (1835), Andersen Opus n:o 2,  takes us to the world of hospice but also sado-masochism.

The third episode, Kasper Juhl's The Snow Queen, is based on Sneedronningen, et Eventyr i Syv Historier (1844), a fairy-tale that has inspired an extraordinary amount of art, including in Finland Päivi Hartzell's movie The Snow Queen (FI 1986) and Tuomas Kantelinen's ballet The Snow Queen. The Frozen phenomenon is not based but obviously inspired by it. Tonight we will see Lucile Hadzihalilovic's La Tour de glace, also part of this legacy. This episode takes us to a quest through a loss of faith and broken mirrors.

In the fourth and last episode, Auntie Toothache, Michael Panduro channels the fairy-tale Tante Tandpine (1872), Andersen op. 199, into a rock singer's ordeal through a dentist's chair. The evil witches in this omnibus movie display female agency also in sexual life, preferring to be on top.

Sex meets death in these tales which are also pain endurance tests.