HORROR MOVIE REVIEW: WE ARE WHAT WE ARE



It’s day eighteen of my HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE where I have to see a horror movie a day during the month of October and write a short review for each one.

Officially WE ARE WHAT WE ARE is an American re-make of a very good Mexican film of the same name. But I would rather call it re-imagining, as after the familiar set up, the movie takes a completely different direction from the original.

Parkers is a small town family who had just experienced a tragedy - Emma Parker, the mother of three children had passed away. But for Parker's family, apart from the feeling of grief and loss, her death presents a very practical problem - they will have nothing to eat. And mom had provided them with a very special type of food...

WE ARE WHAT WE ARE stands out for its very human portrayal of monsters, to the point that you can almost feel sympathy towards them. Two innocent girls, the small boy and the maddened with grief father, all seem vulnerable and desperate. As hunger overtakes them they start to slide into panic mode... and make mistakes. The movie is slow, but mysterious. It's a family drama and detective story in one. And the gory ending is borderline nauseating.

WE ARE WHAT WE ARE is almost a perfect horror film, except it could do without the backstory explanation. The flash back sequences feel out of place and take away some magic from the set up. Monsters' motives and origins don't always need to be perfectly explained to be scary.

It is nice to see the American remake doing a good job. Instead of trying to steal the glory of the original, WE ARE WHAT WE ARE simply compliments it, by giving us a different storyline and a bunch of new interesting characters.

SCARY SCORE: 👻👻👻👻
GORE SCORE: 🗡🗡🗡🗡
FUN SCORE: 🎃🎃🎃🎃

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