[Review] We Are the Flesh

Mexican director Emiliano Rocha Minter's debut We Are the Flesh is a brutal and uncompromising post-apocalyptic oddity that makes this year's mother! look tame by comparison.

Set in a dystopian city of ruins (think The Road), the story revolves around a sister and brother (played by María Evoli and Diego Gamaliel) as they stumble into a dilapidated building that just so happens to be occupied by an absolute maniac (Noé Hernández). From there, the guy essentially keeps them as prisoners, while controlling, manipulating, and tormenting them in the worst of ways.

This definitely isn't the easiest film to watch. It's full of predatory perversions, unwavering ugliness, and visceral visuals. As the head-scratching and stomach-churning narrative meanders, the camera crookedly weaves through tunnels like a voyeuristic sadist on its last leg, while psychedelic interludes twist in with disorienting edits and abstract warps of colors. I'd be remiss if I didn't say that the film often drifts into pure distastefulness and shock-for-the-sake-of-shock, as if it were checking off boxes for the utmost taboos. So it'll either keep you engrossed or make you want to shut it off and burn it.

We Are the Flesh is its own private hell, encompassing the nastiest of humanity all in one. It's also extremely effective and audaciously crafted. An artful atrocity--one that you can't wait for to end.

( 7/10 )

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