Director: Jorge Michel Grau
Running Time: 99 minutes
Major Actors: Humberto Yáñez, Carmen Beato, Paulina Gaitan, Francisco Barreiro,
Miguel Angel Hoppe, Octavio Michel, Daniel Gimenez Chacho
Movie About Cannibals Leaves Audience Hungry For More?
Somos Lo Que Hay, directed by Jorge Michel Grau, depicts a family of cannibals’ struggle to survive following the shocking event of their Papá’s death. While the actors and actresses give depth and vivacity to their characters through the variation in their methods of dealing with the loss of their sole provider, the plotline itself does not afford the same complexity to its audiences. What begins as a curiously dark tale full of chilling perseverance ends as a scrambling bloodbath in a dark basement. Though some mysteries are best left unanswered, when gaping holes remain in more than just the bodies on the screen, as such is the case in Somos Lo Que Hay, it is certain to leave audiences with little to chew on.
Papá, played by Humberto Yáñez, first staggers onto the screen dirty, ignored and unshakably transfixed by the mannequins posed in the mall’s display windows. When he falls to the ground in a mess of his own inky vomit, he is quickly dragged away by mall security. Pedestrians walk over the pavement where Papá’s body falls just moments after a janitor mops his blood off the sidewalk. The silence and efficiency with which the authorities in charge deal with Papá, the quick removal of his body out of sight from the rest of the world, and the wide shots that linger on the spot of his death remove the social responsibility of mourning from passersby and shift it to the audience, drawing us into the story and perhaps becoming more invested in the film than we may have been otherwise.
After we enter Papá’s house and the lives of his wife and children, the revelation that Papá and his family are regularly practicing cannibals is shocking and feels like a betrayal. We are forced to reevaluate their actions and feelings in the context that they are monsters, but the task is difficult when we have already felt this family’s pain and identified with them as humans. This juxtaposition set up by Grau only deepens as the movie continues, forcing us to look inside our own consciences and morality as we slip deeper into their world.
Sabine, played by Paulina Gaitan, convinces her brothers Alfredo and Gustavo, played by Francisco Barreiro and Miguel Angel Hoppe, that Alfredo should be the natural leader to take over in the absence of Papá since he is the oldest, though she is the one who ultimately provides all the direction for their plan of action. When they bring back a whore, we watch in horror as Mamá, played by Carmen Beato, beats her face in and dumps her mutilated body back at the whores’ corner as a lesson for all to view.
The emotional distance we feel from Mamá and her violent passions changes however with Grau’s introduction of the two bumbling buddy cops Teniente and Tito, played by Octavio Michel and Daniel Gimenez Chacho. When their curtains call, the mood in the audience is lightened considerably; there are even cheers, laughter, and applause as we watch their bodies diced by Mamá’s large machete. The following deaths in the film seem laughable, even unimportant. We have sided with the cannibals; we have joined the camp of outcasts, distancing ourselves and our emotions from their victims pain as they have learned to do so that we may laugh at their fate instead of cry.
But still, a question remains… why? Why is it so imperative that Papá’s family practice cannibalism? What is the urgency when they can run down to the supermarket and pick up a slab of ground beef if they really need their red meat? Thus enters the mention of a ritual, and so begins the set-up for the letdown when the film concludes and the major question is still left unanswered as the credits begin to roll.
Vague details about the ritual are peppered throughout the film, including Mamá’s repetition that at least one of them must survive to finish the ritual after police discover their basement and invade their house. Again, as no characters provide the audience a sturdy foundation of reasoning for the bare facts offered up about the ritual, we are left in the dark instead of being brought into the community we have invested in with our time, money, and emotions; Gaul leaves us outsiders to the whole affair when we most need to be included.
As the family is eliminated one by one, we still find ourselves siding opposite the police. There is still tension and apprehension enough to hear a collective intake of breath from the theater seats as we watch the police shoot Gustavo, as we sense our neighbor’s fingers tightening on the wooden armrests as we prepare to see Sabine meet her doom while hoping she somehow escapes, but we are not a part of them any longer. Grau separates us from their world by the sheer fact that he will only allow us to graze the surface of it while he withholds the importance details about why the ritual is important, if it is necessary, why someone must stay alive to complete it, and if they could have sought a different path than the one they followed through to the end.
Somos Lo Que Hay provides a glimpse into an alternate culture much different from our own. While the film allows us to momentarily delve into the grimy world of cannibalism, it leaves too large a gap in the heart of the story to allow us to retain the deep connection with the characters that Grau sets up in the beginning and continues through the middle of the story. If the characters themselves were unsure why they were participating in the ritual, perhaps the story could have been different since we would end up in the same place at the conclusion of the film. Instead, we are left on the outside looking wistfully into Sabine’s eyes instead of through them, more like Papa’s mannequins trapped behind the glass.
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