I keep mis-remembering the title We Are What We Are as “We Are What We Eat.” And it seems that’s not so far off. Spoilers allowing, maybe we can get to an explanation. In the meantime, this supremely creepy film finds a groove between arty horror and throttle-out craziness.
Director Jim Mickle, who did a cool job with the vampire movie Stake Land, adapted this one from a 2010 Mexican movie. He and co-writer Nick Damici have considerably changed the story around, and set it in the backcountry of the U.S. Northeast.
Our focus is a reclusive family, whose world is rocked when the mother dies suddenly in an accident, during a rainstorm of biblical proportions. The patriarch (Bill Sage, an underrated actor) runs his household according to what appears to be a long-standing religious cult. He informs his teenage daughters that they must take over their mother’s duties during an annual family ceremony, due this week.