Horrorfest 2016: We Are What We Are

I went into WE ARE WHAT WE ARE, the 2013 film from Jim Mickle, expecting something different from what I got. Based on the film's promotional poster, featuring a father and his two daughters dressed up and at a nicely-set table, I assumed this was going to be a cynically-toned "look how weird we can be, I dare you to take this seriously." But really, for the most part, it's a dark, depressing, drama. With horror, of course.

Bill Sage stars as the patriarch of a family living in a poverty stricken rural town. As the film opens, a disastrous rain storm floods the area and Sage's wife (Kassie DePaiva) is found dead, seemingly drowned. The sheriff (Nick Damici) breaks the news to the family and Sage's two daughters (Ambyr Childers and Julia Garner) visit the local doctor (the great Michael Parks) to view the body.

So, stop here if you don't want to know any plot secrets. Turns out Sage's family is a group of cannibals descended from early settlers who resorted to cannibalism to survive. In honor of this act of survival, the family eats someone they've kidnapped once a year, after fasting. It's the woman's job to prep and cook the body, so when Sage's wife turns up dead, it's his daughters' turn to play.

Unfortunately for Sage, his daughters are sick of the whole thing and ready to escape. The eldest figures she'll do it this one last time and then they have a whole year to plan their escape before they have to do it again. Unfortunately for everyone, the recent flood has unearthed the remains of some of their previous victims and it isn't long before the town doctor (still the great Michael Parks) starts looking into things. See, his daughter is one of the missing people, probably killed by this family.

Everything in this movie is drab and depressing. The low-income rural town, the rainy weather, the over bearing patriarch. It's almost overwhelming. The cannibal element, of course, keeps you watching rather than giving up in despair, but then that ends up being the movie's undoing in its final moments. The writer/director goes for a final WTF moment to ratchet up the horror but it's so out of left field and so unbelievable, given what we know about the characters, that although it might work from a literary analysis standpoint, it doesn't work from a dramatic one. This last moment is the only time the movie sinks to what you might expect from the poster. Too bad.

And that sucks, because right up until the last moments, this flick is pretty good. Michael Parks is especially strong as the suspicious doctor. It's interesting because he's the kind of actor who could just have easily played the cannibal father. So, it's a stroke of casting genius to have him play the sympathetic doctor. His quest, and Kelly McGillis as a concerned neighbor, are the only rays of hope in the whole movie.