We Are What We Are

Jim Mickle's film about a present-day family of cannibals eschews the one-slaughter-after-another mentality so monotonously common in contemporary horror movies, opting instead for subtle over gross, and (until the final reel) creepy rather than oodles of explicit gore. Loosely adapted from a same-titled 2010 Mexican film, We Are What We Are focuses on the Parker family, a reclusive clan with peculiar culinary needs that are not a matter of choice but stem from physical necessity (resulting from 18th-century events, revealed in periodic flashbacks)—leading to occasional disappearances in their economically depressed Appalachian neighborhood. When a torrential rainstorm unearths some human bones in a creek near their ramshackle home, the discovery piques the interest of the town's medical examiner—a man determined to find out what happened to his missing daughter. For most of the running time, the movie coasts along on atmosphere, gradually building up a sense of uneasiness until the carnage-laden last act (that is still relatively subdued). Ultimately, the Parkers—who are driven to act not out of mere bloodlust but rather from genetic compulsion—are a strangely sympathetic bunch. Recommended. (F. Swietek)