Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

We Are What We Are Blu-ray Movie Review

The Hunger Games.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 11, 2014

My late mother, who had a rather outré sense of humor, once sent me a tv listing she had clipped out of the Salt Lake City Tribune which she found hilarious. The copy editor for this particular listing had missed one teentsy- weentsy spelling error—a single letter, actually—that cast a whole new light on a “very special” documentary that the Utah Public Broadcasting System station had produced. This documentary dealt with a rather infamous and unfortunately ill-fated pioneer wagon train which encountered a series of setbacks during the winter of 1846-47, ending up stranded in the Sierra Nevadas where a bit of cannibalism helped to get them through the hard times. Many of you reading this review will know instantly what the documentary should have been advertised as being named, but it ended up getting emblazoned across the Trib’s television listings as (wait for it) The Dinner Party. The 2013 horror film We Are What We Are is a remake of a 2010 Mexican outing called Somos lo que hay, and one of the salient differences between the two is that the remake includes a bit of a back story helping to elucidate why the film’s focal family has a rather odd bunch of traditions. This flashback material pays homage, whether wittingly or not, to The Donner (yes, folks, with an o, thank you very much) Party, detailing a stranded family whose father ends up slicing and dicing his way through various relatives to provide tasty fillets for his starving children. We Are What We Are boasts a rather impressive cast for this kind of low budget horror fare, with a nice turn by Michael Parks as a country doctor who begins to suspect a rash of disappearances (including that of his own daughter) may not exactly be coincidence, and Kelly McGillis as a well meaning neighbor whose efforts to help after a family tragedy have some ultimately disastrous consequences. The film is long on mood and rather admirably manages to shy away from any outright gore (aside from an early autopsy scene) until the final few minutes, when all bets are off and the dinner (with an i, thank you very much) gong’s a-clangin’.

A torrential downpour is completely isolating an already tucked away backwoods burg as the film opens. A woman named Mrs. Parker (Kassie DePaiva) shows up at the General Store to buy a few supplies before the onslaught really hits, but it’s obvious she has something else. Mrs. Parker is babbling something about saving her babies, but she’s also afflicted with weird hand tremors. She manages to complete her store transaction, but in the raging storm outside, she pauses for a moment before a poster asking for information on a missing woman, before suddenly hemorrhaging a massive amount of blood, and falling over, knocking her head on a faucet in the process and drowning in a culvert as a result.

Meanwhile, back at the Parker ranch we see Mr. Parker, a man named Frank (Bill Sage), repairing a watch. His two girls Iris (Ambyr Childers) and Rose (Julia Garner, The Perks of Being a Wallflower) are informing their little brother Rory (Jack Gore, The Michael J. Fox Show) that it’s “that time of year”, and that the family is about to embark on an annual two day fast, and so no sugary breakfast cereal for him. There’s an obvious sense of subtext running through these early scenes, but the audience is kept in the dark (at least if the audience has not read any press about the film—including that generated by the film itself—which divulges most of the “secrets” outright).

When Doc Barrow (Michael Parks) conducts his autopsy (the aforementioned early gory scene), he slowly becomes aware that Mrs. Parker was suffering from a very rare neurological disorder that is most frequently seen in cannibals. Meanwhile when his dog digs up what appears to be a human bone unearthed during the massive downpour, he begins to become increasingly suspicious, especially after he notices Frank Parker exhibiting the same neurological symptoms that must have attended Mrs. Parker before her untimely demise.

Playing out against this mystery is the family dialectic between the stern but actually weirdly nurturing Frank and his three children, especially in the wake of Mrs. Parker’s death. Frank is insistent that their annual rite continue unabated, but it’s now Iris’ duty to fulfill some sort of initially unspecified role that was formerly occupied by Mrs. Parker. (In what might be seen as a bit of illogic in the film, when the “back story” is revealed during an extended flashback sequence, it’s actually the father who fulfilled this “role”, so why that tradition morphed to the woman of the house is anyone’s guess).

Anyone able to even slightly read between the lines of this review will be able to piece together exactly what’s going on, but that doesn’t necessarily diminish the really creepy mood We Are What We Are manages to convey. There are a couple of outright shocks in the film (one deals with a would-be suitor to Iris and another deals with the neighbor played by McGillis), but this is actually a rather quiet outing for a horror film. Things do go Grand Guignol in the final ten minutes or so, when a slew of carnage ensues, including a kind of funny “banquet” scene.

Performances are suitably low key, helping to ground the drama in an air of relative believability. Director Jim Mickle has a good handle on framing and perhaps more importantly maintaining a consistent mood. The younger performers are quite winning, one might almost say disturbing, offering an unsettling view of youngsters caught in a world not of their own making but having to deal with the ramifications in any case.

We Are What We Are Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

We Are What We Are is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Entertainment One with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. This Red Epic shot feature has been intentionally desaturated to the point that many scenes almost look like living Daguerreotypes. That only makes the two big gory moments of the film pop all the more impressively, but even then, it appears that deliberate color grading has drained (no pun intended) vivid hues from all but the reds. While this high definition presentation boasts the excellent clarity and fine detail typical of this format, there is also persistent (if relatively minor) video noise that accrues during the many darker sequences.

We Are What We Are Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

We Are What We Are lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is quite nuanced for this type of film. The opening montage featuring a furious rainstorm is a great example—not only does the aggressive pitter patter of each drop resonate through the surrounds, but there are some very smart ambient effects utilized as well, as when a leaf falls into a torrent of water and the sound mix becomes muffled as if the listener were underwater. Dialogue is cleanly presented and the film's sparse but effective use of music also sounds great.

We Are What We Are Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• An Acquired Taste: The Making of We Are What We Are (1080p; 55:09) is a really in-depth look at the film, one which should excite genre enthusiasts with its mix of behind the scenes footage.


• Interviews (1080p; 16:18) includes pieces with Jim Mickle, Bill Sage, and Julia Garner.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:32)


• Audio Commentary features Jim Mickle with Nick Damici, Julia Garner, Bill Sage, and Ryan Samul. This is fairly conversational but also manages to impart quite a bit of information about the shoot. Considering the amount of participants, there's very little confusion in the chit-chat and this stays mostly on point.

We Are What We Are Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

We Are What We Are manages to establish and maintain a creepily spooky air of menace, though there really is no ultimate mystery as to what's going on here, something that tends to remove at least some of the shock value from the film. The performances are uniformly excellent and Mickle, who seems primed for bigger things, has a nice eye for both scenery and tone. The film's video quality has a few niggling issues, but the audio is top notch and the supplements are worthwhile. Genre enthusiasts should certainly enjoy this film, and for those folks, We Are What We Are comes Recommended.