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We Are What We Are Movie Review

We Are What We Are is a 2013 horror film directed by Jim Mickle and starring Bill Sage and Julia Garner. It’s a very effective vampire tale.

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“I heard somebody down in the shed earlier“

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The Parker family struggles to keep their traditional cannibalistic habits and hunting process hidden after the father of a missing girl finds bone fragments in a creek and vows to find the truth. This is the remake of the Mexican film that I haven’t seen, but apparently this one is better. Jim Mickle, the man behind ‘Sweet Tooth’, isn’t getting a lot of gigs these days, but he surely deserved to get much more off of this excellent feature. His directing is terrific here.

This is one very grounded take at horror and specifically vampire storytelling. We rarely see vampire stories done this well and this potently. The cannibalism on display here was truly sickening and that ending was absolutely shocking. It sticks with you long after seeing it.

The build-up toward that shocker is rather slow and at times definitely trying the patience of viewers. I found the family drama dark, memorable and very effective, but the detective story elements were thoroughly unnecessary and those padded the overall pace significantly. I would have personally cut them off and we wouldn’t have lost anything of substance.

We Are What We Are benefits from terrific acting performances across the board. Bill Sage and Julia Garner got the meatiest roles and they were excellent, but all performers got their moments to shine. I found the characterization a bit slight here, but the actors elevated their roles and made them feel fleshier, pun intended.

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This is a very well shot and scored film that at times was so atmospheric, so brooding and so mysterious that it reminded of Southern Gothic fiction. I would have liked to have seen even more of those elevated elements, but what we got was still superb. The movie felt suffocating and hopeless in the best way possible and it truly is a chilling watch throughout.