Filming for The Human Surge 3 took place in multiple countries, particularly in Sri Lanka, Peru, and Taiwan. The film has a cast of nonprofessional actors, many of whom are LGBTI people. They were cast from residents close to the shooting locations except in Sri Lanka, where a more widespread search was needed to recruit LGBTI performers.[1]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 92% of 12 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.60/10.[3] For Variety magazine, J. Kim Murphy wrote that although the film "provides itself the space to wander and arrive at new insights, the detachment can sometimes come across as a restraint that betrays an overall adventurous spirit."[4]Slant Magazine reviewer David Robb described it as "a bold deconstruction of the cinema image, an ayahuasca-inflected study of globalization, and a mind-numbing work of video art juiced up with haphazard technical gimmickry".[5] In a review for Filmmaker magazine, Vadim Rizov remarked that the film was "Williams's first film recapitulating prior work rather than discovering new modes, but to be fair, Surge 3 is unsurprising primarily in relation to his own self-created universe."[6]