‘You Are Not Me’ Review – A Dark And Unsettling Christmas Miracle

The holidays can be a stressful time of year, whether it involves traveling, gift-giving, or reunions with family. The latter reunions with family can bring out the best and sometimes the worst in people. You Are Not Me is the capstone of a Christmas gathering from hell. Set in the Spanish Countryside, the psychological horror is no silent night. This is a game of cat and mouse with dark power at the center. The film sometimes feels pedantic, but it plays fast and loose with the truth and perception to make the ride pulsating.

Aitana (Roser Tapias) is returning home for the first time in three years to celebrate Christmas with her family. In addition, she is bringing her wife Gabi (Yapoena Silva) and their adoptive son João (Boubcar Djitte Silla) to the festivities. However, when what to her wondering eyes should appear, but the appearance of a new guest in her childhood home. Nadia (Anna Kurika) is a Romanian refugee taken in by Aitana’s parents and has seemingly become a surrogate daughter. Aitana must reckon with her parents’ strange hospitality and determine whether or not Nadia is there with good intentions or a nefarious purpose.

You Are Not Me is far from any wholesome family gathering this holiday season. The film has an inherent meanness, particularly at the start when Aitana contends with her staunchly conservative parents’ change in attitude. They are nurturing and kind to Nadia. She stays in Aitana’s bedroom and is enviously given family heirlooms. Her parents shower her with love, seemingly giving Aitana and her family the cold shoulder.

At first, we see Nadia as a disrupter. Someone usurping the nature of Aitana’s parents to better herself. Aitana suspects her of stealing from the family, even hawking her brother Saul’s (Jorge Motos) morphine. The film plays it cleverly by making it seem like Nadia pulls the strings, setting up third-act machinations. However, perception is crucial to the film as strange occurrences and bizarre acts are uncovered.

The film works mainly as a mystery thriller, unwrapping itself like a perfect gift. However, elements of satanic and cult-worshipping films give this movie more oomph than our initial assumptions about the story. Smartly, the movie keeps its twist and plot under wraps until the end. This allows the audience to go through the motions along with Aitana.

The classic Christmas song “Carol of the Bells ” recurs throughout the film. The song has an ominous tenor, particularly as the true villains show themselves in the third act. Though typically a cheerful refrain given its joyous nature, here the song is provocative, especially as it envelopes itself in the audience’s mind like an earworm. Christmas is tangential to the film in terms of aesthetics, but the subtext is horrifying and far from anything resembling the jolly time of the year.

While the film sometimes feels it takes too long to arrive at its clever twist, there is never a fear of the story tasting like stale fruitcake. Roser’s lead performance is poignant and intense. In particular, her relationship with her disabled brother Saul is the film’s emotional backbone. Further, that emotional core makes the film’s twist both heartwrenching and ultimately dark as pitch.

You Are Not Me unveils itself through twists and a reliance on playing psychological games on the audience. Aitana finds herself in the spotlight and uncertain at various points. The movie does its part by making the audience despise the character of Nadia so much that when the story turns, we cannot feel pity for her fate.

The Spanish film is complete with English subtitles, but the performances are transformative, and audiences will immerse themselves in the story. Glances and stares take on special meaning and raise the stakes, especially when the film takes a brutal and miraculous turn. It is expertly dark, with enough clever twists to keep the audience on the edge of their seat. You Are Not Me delivers a scary little Christmas for horror fans at this most wonderful time of the year.

You Are Not Me is currently playing in select theaters and is available on Digital platforms courtesy of Doppelgänger Releasing.