This is a beautifully shot and constructed, a family drama and teen coming of age story built on a horror premise...the controversial & hard to digest sub-genre of Cannibalism! But if the gore hound fans are looking for gore & gruesomeness all over, they need to be patient. This character piece with art house attributes delivered much more than a full blooded horror; though the cannibal sequences are deliciously graphic when they arrive at close to the end, the director takes his time to getting there. The story is about a family with an awful secret binding them together as well as tearing them slowly apart, it's a dark exploration of family bonds & blood rituals where the family that eats together stays together! This is a shocking satire not only on family dysfunction but also on poverty, society and the law. Even the director himself described the film's themes as "family disintegration, urban violence, and social deprivation, the fight among minorities to survive and be noticed." A little more depth to the characters and some more understanding of the motivations may be needed but it would have taken away the brutal feeling of the film. But Somos Lo Que Hay aka We are what we are is still a very promising debut from a talented young director (Jorge Michel Grau) of Mexico.
Review of We Are What We Are
