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We Are What We Are begins with an old man who’s seen walking about a shopping mall in Mexico and leering at shop window dummies…
As the shop’s owner shoos him away and cleans the glass of finger prints, the man walks off but soon collapses and starts spewing up some form of black liquid before slowly dying. Rather than calling for an ambulance, the mall’s cleaners arrive and drag the body away while a third mops up…
Cue two lads, Alfredo (Francisco Barreiro) and Julian (Alan Chávez), who, for the time being, don’t know the fate of their father and are left to run his clock- and watch-mending stall on the local market because he hasn’t returned. Meanwhile, their mother, Patricia (Carmen Beato), just assumes he’s off having sex with “whores”, while their sister, Sabina (Sin Nombre‘s Paulina Gaitan, the only recognisable member of the cast for me, and with Francisco Barreiro, right), initially feels like a bit of a third wheel in all of this. However, once the fate of the man of the house is confirmed, she instructs Alfredo that he is now the leader and about “having to get something”, but what exactly?
What grisly secrets lie behind that curtain…Well, it’s a film about cannibalism and capturing other humans is the meal they put on their dining table. Sabina tells him to capture a whore, since that’s what their father always used to do. However, Alfredo’s so reticent, he couldn’t catch a cold. I’d read beforehand that this was a really macabre tale and features gore aplenty, but… it only actually gets gory in the last third and mostly treads water beforehand. At first, it seems like it’s got a lot of promise, but there’s no payoff of any worth and that becomes a real disappointment.
If you want to see a weird ‘family’ film that’s so much better, take a look at Mum & Dad, starring Olga Fedori and Perry Benson. It’s difficult to describe without giving too much away, but it really earns its 18-certificate.
Presented in 2.35:1 and in 1080p high definition, the picture is good, but far too dark most of the time, so can’t make as much impact as it should. The sound is apparently in 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, but there’s Very little use of split-surround FX. The sound is mainly used for dialogue and ambience, but there’s not a great deal of the former.
The sole extra is a 90-second Trailer. That’s it.
The menu mixes eerie audio from the film with sepia-toned clips from the film. The subtitles are in English only, and also cannot be switched off, so that will most likely annoy any Spanish owners of this release. Is it so difficult to include an ‘off’ function for them? No, it is not. The total number of chapters is the usual Optimum disaster with just 12, over the 89-minute running time.
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FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
4 7 6 1 |
| OVERALL | 8 |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 89 minutes
Year: 2010
Cat no: CFBD021
Released: March 2011
Chapters: 12
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1
Languages: Spanish
Subtitles: English (permanent)
Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Anamorphic Panavision)
Disc Format: BD50
Director: Jorge Michel Grau
Producer: Nicolás Celis
Screenplay: Jorge Michel Grau
Music: Enrico Chapela
Cast:
Alfredo: Francisco Barreiro
Julian: Alan Chávez
Sabina: Paulina Gaitan
Patricia: Carmen Beato
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.