Film

We Are What We Are

Other titles called We Are What We Are: the 2010 film.

A family cloaked in ritual and old-country tradition faces catastrophe when circumstance forces the daughters into a power they're unprepared for. Quietly dreadful and perfectly calibrated—horror that builds from shame and necessity rather than jump scares. For those who find terror in what families keep hidden.

TMDb rating2.9

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like slow-burn horror that treats its strange family rituals as grief and loyalty rather than gore, and you'll sit with a tense, quiet dread that builds from a rain-soaked small town.

Skip it if you want the scares to arrive on schedule, since this one moves at a funeral's pace and its violence, when it comes, is sudden and hard to watch.

What it asks of you: Patience for long, silent stretches of mood and domestic routine, then a sharp turn toward brutality; it rewards attention to glances and small gestures more than plot.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Witch2016

A family fractured by puritanical belief and isolation, where horror erupts from faith and fear. Methodical, unsettling, and takes its period detail seriously in ways that deepen the dread.

But Slow-burn patience required; dialogue is sparse and archaic. If you want momentum or explanation, this withholds both.

The Witch poster

Hereditary2018

Family secrets, generational trauma, and a secret passed down through bloodlines that only certain members understand. The horror is intimate and grows from obligation rather than external threat.

But Deeply bleak with a third act that divides viewers. Some find the mythology muddled; others find it secondary to the grief.

Hereditary poster

The Killing of a Sacred Deer2017

A family bound by obligation and moral debt to an outsider, their life disrupted by a debt that cannot be paid. Yorgos Lanthimos makes claustrophobia feel architectural; every scene is wrong in ways you can't quite name.

But Deliberately artificial and cold. Some viewers find the style alienating; it works against conventional emotional investment.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from We Are What We Are

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Raw2017

Both examine family secrets that have biological and ritualistic dimensions—what we inherit and what we must perform to survive within the family unit.

A young woman discovers an appetite she can't control, and neither can her father. Cannibalism as coming-of-age allegory, family shame as genetic inheritance. Gorgeously shot French-Belgian film that rewires the familiar into the grotesque.

But Graphic and unsettling in ways that linger. Not for those who need distance from body horror; the intimacy is intentional and deliberate.

Raw poster
More like this (8)

Goodnight Mommy2015

Austrian horror about children and a parent they no longer recognize. Visually striking and genuinely unsettling, with a twist that recontextualizes everything before it.

But Brutally violent in moments. The shock value is earned but won't appeal if gore reads as exploitation to you.

Goodnight Mommy poster

It Comes at Night2017

Paranoia and family bonds tested by proximity and suspicion. Tense, deliberate, built entirely on what we're afraid will happen rather than what does. Atmosphere as narrative.

But Minimal plot. The film is nearly all mood and dread; if you need story momentum, you'll find it frustrating.

It Comes at Night poster

A Dark Song2016

Grief and ritual, obsession and faith tangled together. A woman and a stranger locked in a house performing ceremonies for salvation. Hypnotic and genuinely moving beneath the strangeness.

But Surreal and patience-testing. Long stretches of dialogue and repetitive ritual; abstract rather than concrete in how it earns its emotional payoff.

A Dark Song poster

The Sunlit Night2020

Family legacy, art, and inheritance examined through a daughter's estrangement. Quieter than we've recommended so far but shares the same unease about duty and blood.

But More wistful melancholy than horror. If you want darkness and dread, this leans toward sadness and longing instead.

The Sunlit Night poster

The Babadook2014

Grief manifesting as something monstrous. A mother and child alone together, the thing in the dark both metaphorical and inescapably real. Australian horror that trusts you to sit with discomfort.

But Relies on your patience with repetition and ambiguity. The creature design is intentionally crude; some find it diminishes the threat rather than deepening it.

The Babadook poster

Starry Eyes2014

Transgression and corruption through covenant. A young woman makes a deal with darker forces. Lurid and unflinching about the price of ambition and the deals we make when desperate.

But Body horror and sexual violence. Stylish but visceral; it's a film that wants to make you uncomfortable in specific, calculated ways.

Starry Eyes poster

Come and See1985

Both films use family and community to amplify individual horror. The everyday becomes unbearable through proximity and obligation.

A Soviet masterpiece about childhood destroyed by war. Brutal, unflinching, and structurally a descent into living hell. Not a comfort film, but a necessary one—cinema as moral witness.

But Extraordinarily dark and relentless. Based on real atrocities; it makes no concessions to narrative convention or the viewer's need for relief.

Come and See poster

The Tribe2014

Like We Are What We Are, it's about group rituals, unspoken hierarchies, and what happens when power shifts within a closed system. Both see horror in community and isolation as the same thing.

A Ukrainian film about deaf teenagers in a brutal boarding school, told entirely without dialogue or subtitles. You read bodies and atmosphere. Savage, visually direct, and entirely its own thing.

But Difficult access—no dialogue means you're working constantly to understand. Violence and exploitation depicted without editorial judgment. A film that demands, not invites.

The Tribe poster

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Recommended by

Blade II, The Boys Next Door, Hell Night, Shortbus, Remember Me, Three on a Meathook, Pickpockets