We Are What We Are: Review

Cannibals, in the genre of horror, have never really had a good time. Only Hannibal Lector came across with any dignity, if you can call it that. Before that they were tribes in the jungles eating any stranger that appeared. Now Mexican director/writer Jorge Michel Grau is trying to change how we see cannibals. Trying being the word.

An old man stumbles around a shopping mall and then falls to his knees and dies. He leaves behind him a family in disarray. His widow and three children have very little money coming in, It is also up to his eldest son, Alfredo to lead the family and to supply them with food. The food, however, is human, brought home for a ritual killing. He is also having to cope with his violent younger brother and a mother who refuses to have whores, as her husband would bring them back constantly. He is expected to deliver.

Already being compared as the cannibal equivalent to Let The Right One In, this actually isn't a patch on the vampire classic, but Grau is almost there. The film looks great and the finale part is very gripping indeed. What it suffers from is pacing.

The opening is intriguing as we watch a man dying but having no idea who he is draws us in. It loses its footing in the scenes after his death, where the family, unsure of what to do, generally sit around in silence. While it takes its time to build the suspense, it really does take far too long. Only when Alfredo takes his position seriously does the film pick up and you get drawn back in.

The film isn't that shocking either. Having moments to repulse are one thing but apart from one graphic scene, most of the film doesn't even make the heart race faster. It's more like a Mike Leigh film with added blood, so horror fans will be disappointed.

The performances are fine, especially Paulina Gaitan as young Sabina, the daughter who holds all the cards int eh family, being the only one to control the violent brother.

It's a frustrating film because you know it could have been so much better, if only it wasn't given so much time to ponder on its own self importance, but lacking the horror factor doesn't help its cause, and so we get a domestic drama about a family who happen to like human flesh.