You may not have seen it (too few did), but Mexican cannibal tale "We Are What We Are" is one of our favorite horror flicks of the last few years. Following a family of flesh-eaters struggling to cope after their patriarch disappears, it was a darkly comic, gruesome tale with more socio-political commentary than most of the genre, and suggested that helmer Jorge Michel Grau was a serious talent to watch.
So, of course, we're getting a remake. Screen Daily report that sales agent Memento Films International have announced that an English-language take on "We Are What We Are" is in the works, and that they've hired Jim Mickle, who broke out last year with low-budget post-apocalyptic vampire tale "Stake Land," to direct and co-write the project. The film will move the setting from Mexico to a poverty-stricken part of the Catskills, presumably making it a sort of "Winter's Bone Is Now Stuck In My Throat After I Ate A Human Arm."
Mickle, who's working on the script with "Stake Land" co-writer Nick Damici, tells the trade that "It's a cool challenge to do justice to Jorge's story, but also explore things from an unexpected angle," and he seems to have won the approval of the original helmer, who also comments "I feel fortunate to have someone with the vision and talent Jim has to re-interpret my work. It is extraordinary to have a team of filmmakers so respectful of the spirit of a film and take such good care of its essence. I’m so proud to know 'We Are What We Are' will be reworked under that kind of intelligent frame of mind. Very happy that Jim will construct a new universe over the bases of mine.”
We can't say we were massive fans of "Stake Land," but it was decent enough, and it did at least suggest a horror director with some new ideas, which hopefully he'll be able to bring to the original, and the presence of Andrew Corkin ("Martha Marcy May Marlene") as one of the producers bodes well. So will it be a "Let Me In" to the original's "Let The Right One In," or a "Quarantine" to Grau's "Rec?" Filming gets underway in June, so it won't be too long before we find out.
