We Are What We Are:
A gorgeous film, that lost it's focus.
Paulina Gaitan - Sabina
Francisco Barreiro - Alfredo
Alan Chavez - Julian
Carmen Beato - Patricia
Written and directed by Jorge Michel Grau
Produced by Nicolas Celis
IFC Midnight
1hr 29min.
'We're monsters', the mother tells her child as they drive through the dark, green tinted streets. The mother, (Carmen Beato), and her child (Alan Chavez), are two of four remaining members of a cannibalistic family. She tells her son this in a very matter-of-fact way. And this is much the same as the tone of the film: 'We Are What We Are' (Somos Lo Que Hay) is dark, plodding, and real. Only hours previous, the head of the family dies mysteriously in a shopping mall. The patriarch hunted and brought home food for the family, so the task is now left to his oldest son, Alfredo (Francisco Barreiro) to provide for his siblings and mother. Almost instantly, we become aware that his younger sister, Sabina (Paulina Gaitan) is far better suited for this task. Intelligent and resourceful, she spars briefly with Alfredo, passive and childish, and Julian, headstrong and violent, as she tries to convey the family's needs to the boys - and exactly as they need to hear it. Sabina is a survivor, determined to keep the family together, and keep their 'ritual' intact. After her brothers fail at their first attempt, she councils Alfredo on 'their ritual', the line of succession, and what to do. 'No matter what, we have to continue', she tells Alfredo. We are never given reason for their adherence to this 'ritual', beyond the fact that we can assume her father, a watchmaker, had put this system in place.
Alfredo and Julian successfully, albeit clumsily, bring home a prostitute for dinner. Apparently because their father was 'addicted to whores', Patricia finds the woman unacceptable to butcher. As Julian begins assaulting the prostitute, Patricia violently beats her to death. Patricia and Julian return the body to the same corner they found it. This proves to be the family's undoing, as a pair of idiot, corrupt detectives decide to make this case the case to solve. Ultimately, the police find the family, and the two brothers are killed. Before his death, Alfredo attacks his sister, momentarily absolving Sabina of their crimes: by injuring her, and causing her to be victim to their atrocities, she is able to live, to start over. Patricia, on the other hand, is beaten to death in an act of vengeance: the gang of prostitutes finds her, and are able to exact their revenge. At the end of the film, we find Sabina escaped from the hospital, spotting her prey in the crowd.
Jorge Michel Grau has created a film which is both horrific and empathetic. Beautifully shot, like the kitchen sink dramas to come out of England in the 60's and 70's, the film treads slowly along, exhibiting the social and psychological dysfunction the family faces. As a first horror film, 'We Are What We Are' succeeds where many fail: it's dark, tense, and visually stunning. The family's insistence on time and ritual serves the story well: we are meant to be horrified and disgusted by the fact that they are cannibals, yet the viewer is wary of judging them based on their socio-economic realities. The father being a watchmaker, time and ritual is what enables the family to continue doing what they do; by blanketing the unthinkable in 'ritual', it takes away the horrific nature of what is being done. The characters are made empathetic because they are introverted and alien - they are lost in a ritual they cannot break out of. The teenagers are consistently gazing into the world outside their apartment; we see the family through an opaque plastic sheet smeared with blood; through smoke, bars and fences. The family is seen through barriers, however small, as a conduit to their reality and condition. This is where the film differs from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The cannibals of Texas Chainsaw Massacre are repugnant in every way - physically, mentally, and socially - yet the viewer never considers their behaviour as necessity. The family that Tobe Hooper creates never feels the need to hide themselves - it's the rest of the world that infringes upon them. Grau enables the viewer to pass less of a harsher judgement on the family in 'We Are What We Are' because we do feel empathy for them. We feel for their situation, and, despite a similar socio-economic environment being emphasized in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, one situation causes the viewer to fear, the other to empathize. (To an extent, of course.)
That being said, the film does lose it's focus. Is it acceptable to think that the family will quite readily eat a taxi driver (by all appearances a strong, stable person), but won't stoop to eating 'faggots', or 'whores'?(the latter briefly discussed, and the former we see is the case when the wayward Alfredo somewhat proudly brings home a homosexual to butcher for dinner). Is it acceptable to still retain empathy for this family when they perpetrate violence against women and homosexuals in a way that seems beyond the films intent? The prostitutes resemble little else than a mob of zombies. If Grau's intention is for us to bear witness to his impoverished family as the Other, than his voice is lost when he uses the disenfranchised as a stepping stone. The purpose is weakened if we empathize with impoverished cannibals, while sex workers and homosexuals have little humanity to reveal to the viewer.
However, I believe 'We Are What We Are' is an exceptional horror film that simply loses it's focus. The claustrophobic set is fantastic, and the film's score is phenomenal. The cannibals lurk through their apartment littered with clocks and butcher's tools - a kind of nightmare living situation by way of Dali and 1970's punk rock. Jorge Michel Grau is very talented, and 'We Are What We Are' is an exceptional horror debut - the type that keeps the genre new and fresh. I can only assume his next film will be just as visionary.
