Disturbing, slowly burning, and set apart by its vivid rural-Gothic atmosphere, We Are What We Are is a genre-film exploration of extreme religious zeal and patriarchal failure. Set in a small mountain town, the film turns on a father and his three children. Living in antiquated isolation, he is grieving the recent, abrupt death of his wife, their mother. Without giving away the film's macabre twists and turns, it is clear from the start the family has a sinister history and violent secrets. In a vein similar to recent festival favorite Martha Marcy May Marlene, the film's core interest is how an outsize personality can separate his or her adherents from civilization and distort their view of society and of their own selves. As the commanding, stern, and unstable father, Bill Sage exudes a certain frontiersman integrity gone mad and left to decay, while the two actresses who play his daughters, Ambyr Childers and the hypnotic Julia Garner, perfectly convey the plight of their characters: youthful women trying to reconcile the malevolent world they know with what remains of their more deeply ingrained understanding of right and wrong. I believe the film could have ended on an even more provocative note if the end credits began to roll 30 seconds to a minute earlier than they do, but this is otherwise a well above average dramatic horror film crafted with intelligence and a high level of formal elegance.

A-

Have you seen the original, David?

I thought the original was pretty good, but it definitely needed an English-language remake. I'm interested to see this one.

I haven't, sadly. It was never on my radar, but I definitely want to.

The original had a good concept, but the execution left A LOT of room for improvement.

Pretty much the only way to find this thread is through the thread index. Searching We Are What We Are won't work.



Anyway, it's technically well-made and the atmosphere was really good. But the first hour was so damn slow. It just wasn't interesting at all. By the time it finally gets good (and it definitely did) it's a little too late. Very good performances though, especially by the two girls. Loved the ending.

C+

You could search for the director's very distinctive last name.

I suppose. At the time I didn't know if it would have even been mentioned in the thread. Still too bad it can't be found by searching the title .