• PDI Press

    PDI Press

    BETTY WHITE VS THE STUPID WORLD: The Movie

    PDI Press
    January 17, 2022 2

    Betty White Vs the Stupid World (Chapter Seven)

    PDI Press
    January 16, 2022

    Betty White Vs the Stupid World (Chapter Six)

    PDI Press
    January 15, 2022 3

    Featured

    BETTY WHITE VS THE STUPID WORLD: The Movie

    John E. Meredith
    PDI Press
    January 17, 2022 2
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-D
    • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Anything Joes
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Cahiers du Horror
    • Dispatches From the Field
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • Dungeons & D-Listers
  • Columns F-P
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
    • Marvel at the Movies
    • Muppets 101
    • Page to Screen
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • The Psycho Drive-In Podcast
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
  • Columns S-Z
    • Schlock & Awe
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
    • Unnatural Selections
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews

    Reviews

    Predator: Killer of Killers (2025)

    Movies
    June 8, 2025 7

    From the World of John Wick: Ballerina (2025)

    Reviews
    June 7, 2025 25

    Until Dawn (2025)

    Reviews
    June 5, 2025 8

    Featured

    Predator: Killer of Killers (2025)

    Paul Brian McCoy
    Movies
    June 8, 2025 7
    • Books
    • Comics
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews

    Interviews

    Interview with Indie Horror Master, Chris Bickel

    Interviews
    July 13, 2018 397

    David Black: Carnies, Carnage, and the Creative Chaos of Darkness Visible

    Interviews
    March 7, 2017 223

    Jaiden Kaine joins the Marvel Universe as new Luke Cage baddie, Zip

    Interviews
    September 29, 2016 8

    SDCC 2016 Interviews: The Cast and Creators of Batman: The Killing Joke

    Interviews
    July 28, 2016 61

    SDCC 2016 Interviews: The Cast and Creators of Syfy’s Van Helsing

    Interviews
    July 27, 2016 3

    Wondercon Interview: The Cast of Damien

    Interviews
    April 16, 2016 3

    Featured

    Interview with Indie Horror Master, Chris Bickel

    The Final Girl
    Interviews
    July 13, 2018 397
  • News

    News

    Regular Show: The Complete Series DVD is here!

    News
    February 9, 2025 19

    “PATER NOSTER AND THE MISSION OF LIGHT” UNLEASHES TERRIFYING UNDERGROUND HORROR – A PSYCHEDELIC CULT MOVIE EXPERIENCE COMING SOON!

    News
    November 15, 2023 74

    Breaking Down The Upcoming DC Studios Slate

    Shot for Shot
    February 1, 2023

    Featured

    Regular Show: The Complete Series DVD is here!

    Paul Brian McCoy
    News
    February 9, 2025 19
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Shop
Breaking
  • Predator: Killer of Killers (2025)
  • From the World of John Wick: Ballerina (2025)
  • Until Dawn (2025)
  • Havoc (2025) / Novocaine (2025)
  • RSS
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Who We Be
  • Contact
    Home
    Columns
    Things Once Seen

    Things Once Seen: We Are What We Are

    Joshua Mattern
    Things Once Seen
    December 12, 2016 2

    We Are What We Are, a 2013 sorta-remake of a Mexican horror movie from 2010, is not a bad movie. Not by any stretch of the imagination whatsoever. But I’d also say one would be hard pressed to accurately describe it as “good,” either. It’s one of those film experiences that is so unsettling, from conception to execution, that saying, “Hey, I liked this movie,” runs the real risk of alienating you from friends and family.

    we-are-what-we-are-01

    This is, most definitely, a very technically sound film, with wonderful performances from the cast—particularly Julia Garner as Rose, the middle of three children in the central family. It also does a great job of taking a major plot point the audience undoubtedly already knows about going in, and making its official unveiling on screen still seem like a moment of great importance. The music? Wonderful—This is a horror film with a score that would seem more at home in a movie like The English Patient, with a very dramatic, sometimes soaring and occasionally even romantic tilt to it, and yet it’s obviously a deliberate choice that somehow works: our central characters obviously don’t think they’re living a horror movie—at least not until the end—and the music that surrounds them reflects that. And the few times where we are hit with blood and gore, the camera doesn’t flinch, leading to maximum effect, and a couple of times near the film’s conclusion focuses right in on the carnage, without reveling in it, as if to say (and forgive the turn of phrase), It is what it is.

    I suppose that, in a way, it is the ultimate compliment to the film’s vision that it is such an uncomfortable experience. In the opening scenes, we are presented with a seemingly innocuous sequence of a woman going to the market. A close-up on a meat grinder later, with no other visual or audible clue to let us know something is amiss, it is clear that a bad… something is going on. And when, moments later, this same woman suffers an apparent seizure and drowns in a mud puddle, the camera’s focus on her last moments isn’t reveling in the scene, the way, say, Saw seems to delight in a victim’s hand being pierced by hypodermic needles, but rather seems to say, This is something that is happening, and here it is until it is done.

    we-are-what-we-are-02

    And later, when the film’s final act begins to come together, and our main characters sit around a dinner table eating a decisively unnatural meal, the camera’s lingering on the contents of their plates, and on the action of bringing food from plate to mouth, isn’t celebratory—it isn’t saying, “Wow… isn’t this gross???” Instead, its focus is more about acknowledging that yes, this is what this movie is about, and though we’re not holding a high school pep rally over it, we’re not going to hide it, either.

    While the movie’s overall positives, from a technical and filmmaking perspective, greatly outnumber its drawbacks, those drawbacks are, nonetheless present, in varying degrees of jarring distraction. First, as unique as this film strives to be, it still frustratingly ticks some of the genre boxes: There’s an inexplicably creepy little kid who, while his sisters seem utterly miserable to be living and dressing like pilgrims in their family’s bass-ackwards religious heavy hand, appears right at home wearing pre-colonial garb, and who bites a woman’s finger and then gives her a creepy little smile as he says, “I’m hungry.”

    we-are-what-we-are-03

    That scene, and the boy’s characterization overall, is very disconcerting and effective on the small scale, but, again, seems at odds with the characterization of the film’s world overall. And there’s the lengthy, seemingly-contractually required sequence of the protagonist learning the truth of the Big Evil through quiet, solitary research—in The Ring, it’s reading a psychiatrist’s case notes; in most ghost stories, it’s going through old press clippings; and here, it’s studying medical disease books. And, of course, a family pet meet its unfortunate end, though the poor little doggie does make it until about ten minutes before the ending credits roll. But the most unfortunate occasion of a horror trope being bowed to involves the death of a side character.

    I have, intentionally, been going very light on plot details here, because the less the viewer knows going in, the better the overall experience is. It’s no secret, though, to say this is a story about a family of cannibals. And the film, to its credit, explores the why: it’s a generations-long religious rite that, once a year, the “tribe” spends a few days fasting, followed by eating a person (the film uses much more holy-sounding language and reasoning, obviously, but there it is). And, as such, the main characters, especially the family patriarch, aren’t portrayed as particularly evil. Indeed, as the title says, We Are What We Are.

    we-are-what-we-are-04

    All that goes out the window, though, when for no reason other than it serves as a shock moment, the father character kills his oldest daughter’s love interest, while they are literally in the act of having sex. In a vacuum, this scene can serve as a metaphor for the domineering (but with righteous intentions) father who’s terrified of seeing his daughter grow into a woman. But in the context of the film as a whole, it simply doesn’t work—it’s been established, to this point, that he only kills when he has to, and to serve his family’s religious ways. Indeed, early in the film, when he finds the victim for this year’s ceremony, the camera takes great pains to show us just how reluctant he is to capture his victim. So, for an hour before killing his daughter’s boyfriend, the father has been portrayed as a hyper-religious fanatic who nonetheless takes no joy in the mechanics of his family’s traditions, yet when he commits this latter murder it is with apparent glee and with no real reasoning behind it, other than shock.

    All told, though, for a genre that produces preciously few good titles—2016‘s mini renaissance of top-quality horror films is more an aberration than a sign of things to come, I believe—We Are What We Are is a solid entry, though it’s a shame that its subject matter will likely turn off a large number of people at the outset. And though I’ve heard from other circles discussions on possible deeper meanings—that it’s a commentary on religious fanaticism, or the dangers of patriarchy rum amok—for me those deeper points aren’t explored fully enough to definitely be there. Instead, what we undoubtedly are left with is a film that is beautifully shot and scored, with on-point performances, and is skillfully directed, to all add up to being a solid horror movie. About eating people.

    we-are-what-we-are-05

    Because that is what it is (there’s the turn of phrase again). And that’s okay. But to give deeper meaning to it undercuts the very real worth that is there. A good story—especially, I believe, in the horror genre—goes one of two directions: Either the plot itself is used as a vehicle to explore deeper themes, or the story is just so artfully and technically well constructed that it stands on its own. The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby, both undeniable classics of film generally, and horror specifically, spoke about the uncertainties of parenthood—and motherhood in particular—in a way that few films, within or without the genre, have attempted since; but The Blair Witch Project was simply one of the first movies to tell its actors to hold the camera themselves and pretend the whole thing’s a home video, with no deeper point. And that’s where We Are What We Are exists, as well. I believe it attempted, in small spots here and there, to become a film like The Exorcist, or, for a more direct analog, like the very tonally similar The Witch from earlier this year; but in the end it exists as “just” a Blair Witch Project. And as long as the viewer can accept it as such, it stands as a quality film.

    APPIP ERROR: amazonproducts[
    AccessDeniedAwsUsers|The Access Key Id AKIAIIK4RQAHE2XK6RNA is not enabled for accessing this version of Product Advertising API. Please migrate your credentials as referred here https://webservices.amazon.com/paapi5/documentation/migrating-your-product-advertising-api-account-from-your-aws-account.html.
    ]
    (Visited 66 times, 1 visits today)

    Related

    Ambyr ChildersBill SageJack GoreJim MickleJoshua MatternJulia GarnerKassie Wesley DePaivaKelly McGillisMichael ParksNick DamiciThings Once SeenWe Are What We Are

    FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
    Previous Unnatural Selections: Shark Exorcist (2015)
    Next Big Eyes Smart Mouth: Barakamon
    monsterid
    Joshua Mattern
    Joshua Mattern is a West Virginia native, but lives in Las Vegas. He loves horror movies, shows that try to be as good as The Wire, and playing with his cat, Grendel.

    Related Posts

    From Dusk till Dawn (1996)

    Paul Brian McCoy
    Shot for Shot
    October 21, 2020 21

    Things Once Seen: Sun Choke

    Joshua Mattern
    Things Once Seen
    January 23, 2017 20

    Daily Top Ten

    • i-spit-on-your-grave-09The Final Girl: I Spit on Your Grave (2010) by The Final Girl
    • regular-show-headerRegular Show: The Complete Series DVD Review by Paul Brian McCoy
    • cinderlla12Hey Cinderella! (1968) by Jessica Sowards
    • meg-foster-headerWomen in Horror: Meg Foster by Shawn Hill
    • commander-usa-03Remembering Commander USA by Mike Burr
    • SpideyYa Gotta Start Somewhere: The Amazing Spider-Man (1977) by Paul Brian McCoy
    • Beastmaster-2-Marc-Singer-tiger copyDungeons & D-Listers: The Beastmaster II (1991) by Alex Wolfe
    • house-of-wax-headerHouse of Wax (2005) by The Final Girl
    • nightmare-07Freddy’s Sweater: Revisiting A Nightmare on Elm St… by The Final Girl
    • sidney-prescott-headerWomen in Horror: Sidney Fucking Prescott by The Final Girl
    400x400 GI Joe Funko Banner

    Weekly Top Ten

    • i-spit-on-your-grave-09The Final Girl: I Spit on Your Grave (2010) by The Final Girl
    • AT606-visionAdventure Time 6.06 “Breezy” by Dave Hearn
    • MacbethShakespeare’s Macbeth (2010) by Paul Brian McCoy
    • nightmare-07Freddy’s Sweater: Revisiting A Nightmare on Elm St… by The Final Girl
    • hills-have-eyes-02The Hills Have Eyes (1977) vs The Hills Have Eyes (2006) by Corin Totin
    • DS-headerDungeons & D-Listers: Deathstalker (1983) by Alex Wolfe
    • babylon-5-blu-ray-04Babylon 5 Complete Series Blu-ray Review by Paul Brian McCoy
    • guinea-pig-6-headerSick Flix: Guinea Pig 6 – Mermaid in a Manhole (1988) by Corin Totin
    • ballerina-headerFrom the World of John Wick: Ballerina (2025) by Paul Brian McCoy
    • 2-headed-shark-attack-headerUnnatural Selections: Two-Headed Shark Attack (2012) by Brooke Brewer

    psychodrivein

    We came here to chew bubblegum and write intelligent reviews and commentary on cult TV and movies! And we're all out of bubblegum!

    Today at https://psychodrivein.com Anything Joes: Today at https://psychodrivein.com

Anything Joes: Backstock Blacksite - Night Specter (2008)

In Backstock Blacksite, we open the classified crates and dig deep into Greg’s personal G.I. Joe overflow closet, where extras, variants, and forgotten figures wait to be unearthed.
—
@anythingjoespod #AnythingJoes #GIJoe #GIJoeClassified #NightSpecter #BackstockBlacksite
    Today at https://psychodrivein.com Predator: Kill Today at https://psychodrivein.com

Predator: Killer of Killers (2025)

With Predator: Killer of Killers, Predator fans are feasting, baby!!
—
Read more of Paul’s review at the link in our profile!

#Predator #PredatorKillerOfKillers #KillerOfKillers #DanTrachtenberg #LindsayLaVanchy #DamienCHaas #LouisOzawa #RickGonzalez #MichaelBiehn #JoshuaWassung #MichoRobertRutare
    Today at https://psychodrivein.com From the World Today at https://psychodrivein.com

From the World of John Wick: Ballerina (2025)

I can’t wait to see more Ballerina films. Seriously. I want one right now.

—

Read more of Paul’s review at the link in our profile 

#Ballerina #JohnWick #FromTheWorldOfJohnWickBallerina #AnaDeArmis #KeanuReeves #IanMcShane #AngelicaHuston #GabrielByrne #DavidCataneda #LenWiseman #ShayHatten #ChadStahelski #NormanReedus #LanceReddick
    Today at https://psychodrivein.com The Psycho Dri Today at https://psychodrivein.com

The Psycho Drive-In Podcast 05: Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2 

Join Paul and John in the fifth episode of the Psycho Drive-In podcast, where they delve deep into the universe of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill.
—
Listen to the guys at the link in our profile!

#PsychoDriveIn #ThePsychoDriveInPodcast #KillBill #QuentinTarantino #LadySnowblood #Arena #FemalePrisonerNumber701Scorpion
    Today at https://psychodrivein.com Until Dawn (20 Today at https://psychodrivein.com

Until Dawn (2025)

If you’re going to be Until Dawn in name only, why not just be that original horror idea and let someone else actually adapt Until Dawn as it was? 
—
Read more of Nate’s review at the link in our profile!

#UntilDawn #DavidFSandberg #PeterStormare #EllaRubin
    Today at https://psychodrivein.com The Psycho Dri Today at https://psychodrivein.com

The Psycho Drive-In Podcast 04: Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning (Part One)

In this week’s Psycho Drive-In Podcast, Paul and John delve into the world of espionage and high-octane action with a focus on Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning.
—
Listen to the guys at the link in our profile!

#PsychoDriveIn #PsychoDriveInPodcast #MissionImpossible #MissionImpossibleDeadReckoning #ArmyOfShadows #TheBourneLegacy
    Today at https://psychodrivein.com Havoc (2025) / Today at https://psychodrivein.com

Havoc (2025) / Novocaine (2025)

Both Havoc and Novocaine are fairly enjoyable escapes and reminders that action cinema can be some of the most gleefully transporting sensory experiences.
—
Read more of Nate’s reviews at the link in our profile!

#Havoc #TomHardy #GarethEvans #Novocaine #JackQuaid #AmberMidthunder #ForestWhitaker
    Today at https://psychodrivein.com The Psycho Dri Today at https://psychodrivein.com

The Psycho Drive-In Podcast 03: Sinners

In this episode, Paul and John discuss their recent film binges, and review Sinners.
—
Listen to the boys at the link in our profile!

#ThePsychoDriveInPodcast #PsychoDriveIn #Sinners #RyanCoogler #MichaelBJordan #JackOConnell #HaileeSteinfeld #MilesCaton #DelroyLindo #WunmiMosaku #LiJunLi
    Today at https://psychodrivein.com Anything Joes: Today at https://psychodrivein.com

Anything Joes: S02E28 - File Card Focus: Recoil

Greg and Jaren take a deep dive into the world of Recoil?
—
Watch the @AnythingJoesPod guys at the link in our profile!

#AnythingJoes #GIJoes #FileCardFocus #Recoil
    Follow on Instagram

    Look Who's Talking

    Shawn EH
    Shawn EH - 5/4/2025
    Thunderbolts* (2025)
    Yep, very well done; avoiding the big flashy battle that these heroes (can any of you fly?)...
    Ideonova
    Ideonova - 12/26/2024
    Page to Screen: F. Paul Wilson’s The Keep
    Not living up to the source material? What source material? The book is a predictable, at times...
    Fred L. Taulbee Jr.
    Fred L. Taulbee Jr. - 8/17/2024
    Cahiers du Horror 03: Frank Henenlotter and The Brain that Wouldn’t Die
    I need to see that again. Maybe make it a double feature with All of Me. Steve Martin is someone you...
    RSSTwitterFacebookinstagramtumblr

    Archives

    Large_rectangle_336X280
    • PDI Press
      • PDI Press Catalog
      • PDI Press Writers
        • Fiction
    • Columns A-D
      • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
      • ABCs of Horror
      • All Binge… No Purge
      • Anything Joes
      • Beautiful Creatures
      • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
      • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
      • Cahiers du Horror
      • Dispatches From the Field
      • Drive-In Saturday
      • Dungeons & D-Listers
    • Columns F-P
      • The Final Girl
      • First Looks… Second Thoughts
      • The Flesh is Weak
      • Innocence and Experience
      • Lost in Translation
      • Marvel at the Movies
      • Muppets 101
      • Page to Screen
      • Popcorn Cinema
      • The Psycho Drive-In Podcast
      • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
    • Columns S-Z
      • Schlock & Awe
      • Shakespeare on Film
      • Shot for Shot
      • Sick Flix
      • Unnatural Selections
      • Versus
      • Video Word Made Flesh
      • We Got Lists
      • Women in Horror
      • The Xeno File
      • Zombies 101
    • Reviews
      • Books
      • Comics
      • DVD/Blu-ray
      • Movies
      • TV
      • Series
    • Interviews
    • News
      • Trailers
    • Psychos
    • Shop
    • PDI Press
      • PDI Press Catalog
      • PDI Press Writers
        • Fiction
    • Columns A-D
      • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
      • ABCs of Horror
      • All Binge… No Purge
      • Anything Joes
      • Beautiful Creatures
      • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
      • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
      • Cahiers du Horror
      • Dispatches From the Field
      • Drive-In Saturday
      • Dungeons & D-Listers
    • Columns F-P
      • The Final Girl
      • First Looks… Second Thoughts
      • The Flesh is Weak
      • Innocence and Experience
      • Lost in Translation
      • Marvel at the Movies
      • Muppets 101
      • Page to Screen
      • Popcorn Cinema
      • The Psycho Drive-In Podcast
      • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
    • Columns S-Z
      • Schlock & Awe
      • Shakespeare on Film
      • Shot for Shot
      • Sick Flix
      • Unnatural Selections
      • Versus
      • Video Word Made Flesh
      • We Got Lists
      • Women in Horror
      • The Xeno File
      • Zombies 101
    • Reviews
      • Books
      • Comics
      • DVD/Blu-ray
      • Movies
      • TV
      • Series
    • Interviews
    • News
      • Trailers
    • Psychos
    • Shop
    Type to search or hit ESC to close
    See all results
    Username
    Password
    Remember Me
    Lost password?
    Create an account
    Username
    Email
    Cancel
    Enter username or email
    Cancel