We Are What We Are

Jim Mickle's loose remake of the 2010 Mexican original is wonderfully atmospheric with some nice performances, but suffers from terminally slow pacing and a predictable script.

After the death of their mother, a deeply private religious family struggle to continue a grisly tradition. To say exactly what that is here would be unfair, as the film slowly reveals what’s going on while the town doctor starts to put the pieces together and threatens to expose them.

Ambyr Childers and Julia Garner, as the family's conflicted daughters, are both terrific, but Bill Sage's patriarch feels underdeveloped in comparison and lacks the scenery-chewing lunacy of other religiously inclined villains of cinema. Piper Laurie he isn’t.

Despite looking great, there’s also a lack of any real surprises and the script rarely deviates from expectations. If you can handle the bum-numbing pacing, it is worth sticking with, but one for the more dedicated horror fans. [Scott McKellar]