As We Are What We Are film begins, an old man is seen walking about a shopping mall in Mexico and leering at shop window dummies...
As the shop's owner shoos him away and cleans the glass of finger prints, the man walks off but soon collapses and
starts spewing up some form of black liquid before slowly dying. Rather than calling for an ambulance, the mall's
cleaners arrive and drag the body away while a third mops up...
Cue two lads, Alfredo (Francisco Barreiro) and Julian (Alan Chávez), who, for the time being, don't
know the fate of their father and are left to run his clock- and watch-mending stall on the local market because
he hasn't returned. Meanwhile, their mother, Patricia (Carmen Beato), just assumes he's off having sex with
"whores", while their sister, Sabina (Sin Nombre's
Paulina Gaitan, the only recognisable member of the cast for me, and with Francisco Barreiro, right), initially feels like a bit of a third wheel in all of this.
However, once the fate of the man of the house is confirmed, she instructs Alfredo that he is now the leader and
about "having to get something", but what exactly?
Well, it's a film about cannibalism and capturing other humans is the meal they put on their dining table.
Sabina tells him to capture a whore, since that's what their father always used to do. However, Alfredo's so
reticent, he couldn't catch a cold. I'd read beforehand that this was a really macabre tale and features gore
aplenty, but... it only actually gets gory in the last third and mostly treads water beforehand. At first,
it seems like it's got a lot of promise, but there's no payoff of any worth and that becomes a real
disappointment.
If you want to see a weird 'family' film that's so much better, take a look at
Mum & Dad,
starring Olga Fedori and Perry Benson. It's difficult to describe without giving too much away, but it really
earns its 18-certificate.
|
Presented in 2.35:1 and in 1080p high definition, the picture is good, but far too dark most of the time, so can't
make as much impact as it should,
