I reviewed writer-director Jorge Michel Grau’s debut feature We Are What We Are (Somos lo que hay) for Moving Pictures.
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| Following the sudden death of their patriarch/caretaker, the temperamental Patricia (Carmen Beato) and her three teenage children must fend for themselves. Father prepared the rituals and acquired the meat for this family of cannibals. Aided by his impetuous younger brother Julián (Alan Chávez) and his pragmatic sister Sabina (Paulina Gaitán), the eldest son, Alfredo (Francisco Barreiro), is now charged with this momentous task, a responsibility he seems ill suited for. Chaos and emotional turmoil follow as the family hunts for the flesh they need to survive. |
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| Astonishingly, despite the unpleasant premise, Grau manages to keep the bloodletting below pre-spectacle levels, rather relying primarily on shadows and innuendo with just the proper amount of shock-inducing gore, more in line with a Hitchcockian thriller than the film’s more immediate antecedents such as the “Saw” films, “The Descent” and “Hostel.” The oft-times surprising story, replete with none-too-subtle parallels to contemporary urban Mexican life, disappointedly culminates into a predictable conclusion. |
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| Empowered by some excellent acting especially from Gaitán (“Sin Nombre”) and Barreiro (“Perpetuum Mobile”), the mesmerizing “We Are What We Are” features the arrival of a promising new talent, destined to be a prominent figure within the next generation of horror moviemakers. |
So much for the popular conception that I hate everything…