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United States, France · 2013
Rated R · 1h 45m
Director Jim Mickle
Starring Bill Sage, Ambyr Childers, Julia Garner, Michael Parks
Genre Drama, Horror, Thriller
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The Parkers, reclusive people who cling to ancient customs, find their secret lives threatened when a torrential downpour and the death of the family matriarch forces daughters Iris and Rose to assume special responsibilities.
There’s a hint of Terrence Malick (or David Lowery, of “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”) in the often-gorgeous photography of Ryan Samul, and a hint of Shakespearean grandeur in Sage’s portrayal of a dignified and honorable American father infused with an ideology of madness. I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen an exploitation film played so effectively as human tragedy.
Jim Mickle plays the scenario deadly straight and unintentionally exposes all of its attendant absurdities, leaving the cast stranded.
The Hollywood Reporter by David Rooney
The film is that rare modern horror movie that doesn’t simply fabricate its scares with the standard bag of postproduction tricks. Instead it builds them via a bracing command of traditional suspense tools... This is polished film craft.
Make no mistake: Mickle wants to make you jump and scream, but death only arrives in this movie once its world comes to life, which makes each sudden turn all the more intense.
That We Are What We Are steers just shy of silliness even at its most outrageous is in large part thanks to a committed cast of non-disposable character actors.
The A.V. Club by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
It plays less like a contemporary horror film than an increasingly gruesome drama, building to a climax — completely original to this version — where the movie’s core themes are expressed through grotesque imagery.
We Are What We Are is just a great yarn, well-acted, elegantly shot and put together cleverly so that even its more visceral delights feel well-earned.
Outside of its cracked psychology (well conveyed by papa Bill Sage), We Are What We Are is horror leftovers, neither inedible nor piping hot.
Village Voice by Pete Vonder Haar
It isn't until the ending, which turns the squirm amplifier up to 11 and exceeded even my horrific expectations, that we finally see the story's potential realized.
Among the stronger American horror films of the year.
Parents can be bloody murder.
A film about people like you and me
What gave us our beginning, will lead to our end.
A police captain partners with an arrested drug dealer to go undercover and catch his partner’s methamphetamine ring.
Ex-spy Sylvia becomes involved in a murder investigation while visiting her sister in Panicale, Umbria.
In a fit of drunkenness at a wild party, Jamie invites an eccentric woman—a radical spirit named Crystal Fairy—to come on a road trip with him and his friends.
She has a killer appetite.
Stay Home. Lock Up. Don't Breathe.
Death is no escape.