Blu-Ray Review: We Are Still Here

By Less Lee Moore

The Sachettis have recently lost their only son Bobby to a car accident and move from the city into an old house in the middle of nowhere, hoping to be able to get past the pain. When the grieving mother Anne tries to explain to her husband Paul that the presence she feels in the house might be the ghost of their son, he scoffs at first, but agrees to let their psychic friends May and Jacob visit in an attempt to put Ann’s mind at ease. As it turns out, the presence in the house isn’t Bobby; it’s something much darker and more malevolent.

This plot seems like it would make for a fantastic movie. Unfortunately, We Are Still Here isn’t that movie. It’s painful to watch such a promising premise go so dreadfully awry.

Part of the problem is the pacing. Instead of building suspense slowly to an inexorably terrifying conclusion, We Are Still Here squanders its setting—an isolated home in the dead of winter—by showing endless establishing shots of the house, the trees, and a wooden birdhouse in one of the trees. It feels like it’s supposed to indicate something important but instead it just feels lazy and boring and definitely not suspenseful or scary.

Additionally, the tone of the movie never feels sure of itself. We are introduced to the dark presence in the house very early on, which destroys the creep factor. I feel like writer/director Ted Geoghegan wanted to mix things up by dropping the big reveal about the true nature of the evil in the house later on, but his plans are totally undercut when the secret is revealed twice, by the same character, and using virtually the same language in both scenes.

The most egregious mistake that We Are Still Here makes is the awkward tonal shift that takes place about halfway through the film, when it goes full Fulci, with outlandishly gory (and admittedly pretty amazing) kill scenes. And for a movie that spends so much time explaining things, it sure does have a frustratingly out of place ambiguous final scene. (I could also expound on how the costume design is horribly distracting, especially Mary’s white dress and black turtleneck/leggings outfit or Harry’s orange shirt, but I feel like this review is already negative enough.)

There are a few good things about We Are Still Here, though. Larry Fessenden is predictably great as the Sachetti’s stoner hippie friend Jason, lending the movie a raw quality that is desperately needed. The creature effects are incredible, a grotesque blend of zombies and the Balrog from Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings. The music from Wooden Indian that’s used in the film is also fantastic.

As fun as the last part of We Are Still Here is however, it’s not enough to make up for the dreadful first half. I truly wanted to love this movie but I just didn’t love it at all.

We Are Still Here was released on October 6 from Dark Sky Films in the U.S. and on October 13 in Canada from Anchor Bay Entertainment Canada.