The Six Million Dollar men, they ain’t. Horribly mangled in an explosion at the Dynamic Business Machines factory where they worked, both mild-mannered Jerry (Mike Carnes) and agitating dim-witted troublemaker Tyler (Josh Gilberts) are now decidedly low-tech cyborgs. Rebuilt using off the shelf office machine parts, the two tragi-comic buddies are reviled by everyone, especially Jerry’s trailer park trash wife Tricia (Katie Donahue) who scathingly reminds the guys that they’re no longer even human.
Fair enough, reasons Tyler, who somewhat dubiously argues that if they’re not human, then maybe they should stop acting human. Maybe, he reasons, they should start imitating extraterrestrials instead. Apparently, Tyler’s inherited a Commodore Vic-20 for a brain.
In any event, from this convoluted set-up, which consumes nearly half this film’s running time, director Mitch Watson finally sets his oddly clever satire “The De-Humanized” in motion. The balance of this unabashedly silly video is an anti-UFOlogist’s dream come true; a goofy send-up of such ET arcana as animal mutilations, “Gray” sightings, and crop circles.
The pacing of this un-“X-Files” doesn’t always work and some of the humor feels a little forced, but it’s hard not to get a kick out of “The De-Humanized” for its endearingly crude effects and pure cheekiness. Unlike its obvious 1970s source of inspiration, at least “The De-Humanized” is tongue-in-cheek on purpose.
