YOU ARE NOT ME (TÚ NO ERES YO)
Review by Kathy Michelle Chacon
For some of us, the term ‘childhood home’ is ripe with tension — two tiny words, coloured by clashing memories of innocence, youth, joy, familial trauma. We can appreciate, then, how bittersweet it can be to enter adulthood and leave the place where you grew up in search of some higher calling: freedom, adventure, safety. In TÚ NO ERES YO, the latest psychological thriller by filmmakers Marisa Crespo and Moisés Romera, this already-complicated rite of passage takes an even more sinister turn when one daughter’s Christmas homecoming transforms into a night of unspeakable horror.
After an abrupt three-year absence from family, Aitana (Roser Tapias) eagerly returns home with her wife and baby to surprise her parents and younger brother on Nochebuena. Unfortunately for the new mother, she does not receive the warm welcome she had hoped for. Her parents are secretive, cold, and, strangest of all, they’ve welcomed a mysterious woman into their lives to act as a pseudo-daughter.
Throughout the night, her parent’s bizarre behaviour becomes intensified by incessant microaggressions and personal digs. Slowly but steadily, an impending sense of doom grows larger and larger until the protagonist finds herself at the centre of a complete madhouse; Think Karyn Kusama’s THE INVITATION (2015) meets Ti West’s THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL (2009), with influences from the works of filmmaker Jordan Peele.
For the astute horror fan, the film has some fairly predictable beats. There are a number of story developments that feel familiar. But what the work occasionally lacks in narrative surprise, it makes up for in ideas. Here, every transgression is shaded by the complexities and vibrant intersectional identities of its lead players, creating an allegory for class inequality. Themes of abuse, exploitation, and greed fuse together with horror motifs and recognizable family dynamics to produce a viewing experience designed to ignite discussion.
In TÚ NO ERES YO, the childhood home exists to stimulate, shock, and provoke you — let it try.