We Are What We Are

This is a (surprisingly) not totally terrible remake of a grimdull Mexican film, of the same name, from 2010.  This time, events have moved from a poverty-stricken Mexico to the US.  The surprise is that this is one remake that is actually better than the original.  That’s not really saying much, though.  As far as I remember, the original was pretty hard going.

The original was an even bigger barrel of laughs than the remake

This time, the family has two teenage daughters and a young son, and its the mother, not the father, he carks it at the start.  Without mum, the responsibility of, erm, feeding the family falls on the narrow shoulders of the eldest daughter, Iris.  Or Rose.  I’m not really sure which one’s which and they way they’re written makes them feel kind of interchangeable.  That’s not to say both girls aren’t good, because they are, but so what?

Considering SPOILER ALERT that this is about a family of cannibals, We Are What We Are manages to maintain an impressive level of inactivity: there’s very little in the way of story or character development, and while there might be enough blood to keep some horror fans happy, I was bored through most of the 105 minute run time.  HERE ENDETH THE SPOILER.

I will say that We Are What We Are looks good and there’s a fun little bit at the end.  I also quite liked the way they tried to explain why the Parker family is what it is, but for me, it was way too little, much too late.  I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t really like it much, either.

Score: 5/10