Movies
We Are What We Are (VOD)
“We Are What We Are is this year’s Let the Right One In, a film that all horror fans will fall in deeply love with. It’s horror that’s dark and darker. There is no ying to the yang, and that’s why this cannibal tale is more gut wrenching than nearly anything to ever hit the big screen.”
Mexico and horror aren’t usually uttered in the same sentence, but thanks to filmmaker Michel Grau, things are about to change. Straight out of Mexico comes the compellingly realistic We Are What We Are, a tale of a family of cannibals who struggle to continue forth after the death of their husband/father.
While “cannibals” is the obvious selling point, We Are What We Are is quite simply a striking character piece filled with so much pain and suffering that it’s hard not to identify with these “monsters”. Before his death, Papa was a piece of sh*t who left his family with horrible debt, and spent his nights out with whores. The widowed wife is bitter, angry and resentful. She takes her anger and frustration out on her kids; one who is determined to take over his father’s place as the man of the house, the other who feels nothing but disdain from his mother, and the quiet sister who believes in keeping the tradition alive (daddy’s little girl). The film is the struggle of this fractured family and how everything falls to pieces because of their inability to talk to each other/work together. It’s a sad reflection on poverty stricken families that’s both chilling and gut-wrenchingly sad at the same time.
With his beautiful camerawork, gritty set pieces and earthy/blackened cinematography, Grau takes the viewer on an unrelenting journey to the darker side of Mexico. The style itself is unnerving as the audience is thrust into each scene where the family fights over obtaining “food”. Every scream, slap or door slam will make you jump. There is more horror in the everyday life of this poor family than in the terrors of eating another human being.
Don’t expect splashes of gore or a numbered amount of kill sequences, We Are What We Are is atmospheric horror (think The Ring) that’s well above the need to shock the audience. While much of the violence is committed off screen, Grau beautifully shoots these scenes so that it’s just as captivating (the silhouette dismemberment is fantastic).
We Are What We Are is this year’s Let the Right One In, a film that all horror fans will fall in deeply love with. It’s horror that’s dark and darker. There is no ying to the yang, and that’s why this cannibal tale is more gut wrenching than nearly anything to ever hit the big screen.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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