YOU ARE NOT ME – Review by Justina Walford
You Are Not Me is a Christmas horror film from Spain. I jokingly told a friend that it’s The Wicker Man meets Home for the Holidays. While not an entirely accurate description, it feels true in a horror holiday sense. The film has the eerie feel of The Wicker Man, with a supernatural unease that sets in the moment Aitana makes an unexpected visit to her parents with her wife and baby. And at its core, the film is a story about a woman who feels alienated in her own home among her own flesh and blood.
Aitana has always felt different in the family, combative with her parents and only feeling a true connection with her brother. The moment she steps in the door, she senses her worst fear has come true—she’s no longer wanted.
Years ago, Aitana canceled a wedding with a man who seemed her parents’ perfect son-in-law, and now, years later, after finding her authentic self and her own happiness, she comes home to show her family her lovely wife and child. But instead, she is brushed off and discovers she has been replaced with a new addition to the family – young refugee Nadia. All the more distressing, her conservative parents are blind to the red flags, making Aitana feel like the heartless skeptic of the family instead of her xenophobic parents. But it will all make sense in time, her parents’ horrific motive soon to be revealed.
The performances are solid and telegraph the twist, but I enjoyed knowing the ending and watching it unfold. While relatively easy to decipher by the end of the first act, the film still captivates with its execution. Watching Aitana’s jealousy and confusion as the true intentions of her parents unfold are much more intriguing than the “horror” of what they are doing.
Marisa Crespo and Moisés Romera work well together in showing us a family with very distinct motives and emotional conflict. Finely crafted performances come especially from Roser Tapias as Aitana and Pilar Almería as her mother. Also, a fun twist on Santa is Nick, the eldest of guests, and how he plays a wonderfully evil leader of the night. It’s a subtle moment, but I do love a good dark shake of the Santa mythology.
The film’s gradual unveiling of the twist—while no great surprise—still delivers emotionally. It ends with dark questions for Aitana. For the horror she has witnessed and partaken in, what is Aitana’s view of her family? And when it comes to taking care of our family, what is really too far? While it plays as a tense drama to me more than horror, I still admit I jumped a few times and enjoyed the unwrapping of the story like a Christmas present you know you’re getting but still very excited to find.
