General, rather mundane anxieties (and some more alarming pitfalls) that can accompany travel—luggage lost in transit, exhaustion, impending long-distance jet lag, a car colliding with a surprise creature on the road—set a mood of slow dread that grows increasingly sinister throughout You Are Not Me, writer/directors Marisa Crespo and Moisés Romera’s intriguing contribution to the terror-within-the-home and holiday-frights subgenres.
Aitana (a winsome Roser Tapias) decides to surprise her family with an early visit (she was supposed to arrive at their villa in rural Spain for New Year’s, not Christmas), eager to introduce everyone at last to her Brazilian wife Gabi (Yapoena Silva, somewhat wasted in an underdeveloped, overly accommodating role) and their adorable, 6-month-old adopted son. But after three years away, her homecoming reception is not quite the holiday-cheery one she’d expected. A stranger answers the door, and once inside, she finds other unfamiliar guests—not her beloved aunt and uncle, whom she can’t even get on the phone. Worst of all, a young Romanian woman, Nadia (Anna Kurika), has taken over her room, her belongings, and her life in general as the “daughter” of the family. Even Aitana’s wedding dress (which she ultimately didn’t need) has been repurposed for Nadia’s use. Her parents seem ruffled, almost downright displeased, by this unannounced arrival, even trying to encourage Aitana and her new family to go to a hotel because there’s not enough space, though there clearly is. Only her sickly brother in a wheelchair, Saúl (Jorge Motos), is excited to see her. But he’s not exactly himself either, suffering from seizures and claiming to engage in regular conversations with their grandfather’s ghost.
Many of us deal with feelings of alienation during family visits to memory-laden hometowns and childhood abodes, especially over the holidays. Long-buried angst from our youths can bubble to the surface, and You Are Not Me conjures up a lot of such torment. “We are all replaceable,” cautions the film’s tagline, bringing to the mix that commonplace fear—which usually applies to matters of the heart and work life more than the “safe space” of the home. Aitana’s mother isn’t shy about expressing her disappointment in some of her daughter’s past rebellious choices and tendency to run from rough situations, and is deeply hurt by how long she’s stayed away, but to replace Aitana seems an unfathomably extreme reaction.
As our heroine grows progressively more frustrated and incredulous—and scared for her baby’s safety after having a too-realistic nightmare about Nadia trying to harm him—we are taken along for the rocky, familiar, yet still-unpredictable ride right alongside her, discovering the details behind the new houseguests, and what’s transpiring under the villa’s roof, as she does. It’s best to keep any further details under wraps, but it can be said that the existence of actual ghosts is one of the least concerning things going on here. Also, Christmas miracles are sometimes possible, but in a super-dark thriller or horror film—and You Are Not Me has elements of both—you know they won’t be precipitated by anything virtuous. 
is a writer, editor, and horror programmer based in New York. She is the editor of Bloodvine and her writing has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Film Comment, and Rolling Stone.
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