- "This house needs a family."
We Are Still Here is a 2015 Horror film
After their son is killed in a car crash, a grieving couple move from New York to recuperate. However, the house they move into also holds a family of vengeful spirits who awaken every 30 years to demand a sacrifice. And time is running out...
This film contains examples of:
- And I Must Scream: The souls of anybody sacrificed to the Darkness are said to be "burning till the stars go dark."
- Anti-Villain: Dagmar was originally a decent man, until he and his family were sacrificed to the Darkness. And even then, he still displays a sense of nobility, like by killing McCabe before he can get a chance to murder the Sacchettis.
- Asshole Victim: McCabe meets a gruesome end at the hands of Lassander Dagmar, but considering he's been sacrificing innocent people to the Darkness for decades as well as murdering an innocent waitress and even his own wife in the process of trying to sacrifice Paul and Anne, it's safe to say he absolutely had it coming.
- Maddie, the bartender, shows no real guilt for the waitress that McCabe ends up killing just for not knowing her. She then joins him and the townsfolk to sacrifice Paul and Anne, only for the latter to stab her in the neck with a handful of knives.
- The townspeople that join McCabe are all brutally killed by the Dagmars, but like McCabe, they have it coming for their hands in the sacrifices to the Darkness.
- Big Bad: The Darkness, an Eldritch Abomination who lives under the house and demands sacrifices.
- Big Bad Wannabe: McCabe runs the conspiracy of townspeople who keep the Darkness appeased. He's even able to talk Dagmar down and get him to listen in the middle of a killing spree. But then Dagmar just kills him as soon as his back is turned.
- Boom, Headshot!: How poor May ends up getting killed, via a shotgun blast at McCabe's hands.
- Creative Closing Credits: Newspapers showing the town's dark history appear chronologically throughout the credits.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The townspeople receive one in the final act of the film. And not just by the Dagmars.
- Demonic Possession: When Jacob attempts a seance to channel the spirits, Lassander Dagmar takes violent control of him.
- Drone of Dread: The score by Wojciech Golczewski consists primarily of this.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Maddie, one of the townsfolk, is stabbed in the neck by a cluster of knives by Anne when she tries to attack her. Ouch.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: These ones smell of smoke, have a burning touch and serve an Eldritch Abomination who demands sacrifices.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After the Dagmars begin to somewhat peacefully coexist with the couple instead of kill them as the town hoped, they decide to do the job themselves and assault the home. Unfortunately for them, Dagmar and his family haven't forgotten what said town did to them and happily join in the counterattack.
- Shotgun Crazy: McCabe will gun you down as soon as you open the door for no other reason than he doesn't recognize you, which is what happens to an innocent waitress who answers the door when he comes knocking at the local burger joint.
- Shout-Out:
- Among Bobby's possessions is an issue of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos.
- Larry Fessenden's character meets a fate identical to that of his character in Session 9.
- The fictional town of Aylesbury is a reference to the town mentioned by H.P. Lovecraft in The Dunwich Horror. The Miskatonic River is also namedropped during the credits.
- The Starscream: Dagmar was the head of the first family to be sacrificed by the townsfolk to the Darkness and has acted as their executioner ever since. But he and his ghosts are far from loyal, and are still deeply angry with their deaths.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Aylesbury has an Eldritch Abomination living under one of its houses, which demands that one family be sacrificed to it every 30 years.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: While he's by no means sympathetic, McCabe just doesn't want the Darkness to wipe out the town. So he kills anyone who lives in its house and anyone who dares to try and stop him.
