The SimilarsIf our diversity defines our individuality, what would it mean if we were all made to be the same? The Similars is a psychological horror movie about eight people from varied backgrounds who become trapped at a bus stop during a torrential rainstorm. Tensions are already high among the delayed travelers for personal reasons; but after the manager of the terminal, Martin (Fernando Becerril), suffers a seizure and subsequently emerges from his office with his face wrapped in bandages and brandishing a shotgun, events quickly escalate--even on a supernatural level.
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The Similars--known in Spanish as Los Parecidos--is a thriller set on the eve of the tragic Tlatelolco massacre, which took place on October 2nd, 1968 in Mexico City, where hundreds of protesters were slain by the police and many more arrested in the aftermath. The Similars is not outwardly a political film, but uses the escalation of violence and communication breakdown between the characters as a metaphor for why such a tragedy took place. The film also intimates that there were powerful forces at work that made violence inescapable, becoming clear after the reason for the weird transformations is explained. Martin is a relatively calm and quiet old man on the outside; after he is afflicted by a strange "virus" that transforms his face into someone else's, he panics and provokes violent reactions from the other guests as a result. The tension in the bus stop is like a seed of violence ready to sprout at such an event. One of the men at the bus stop named Ulises (Gustavo Sánchez Parra) has been waiting for hours, and is stressed out because his twin children are being born in Mexico City and he cannot be there to see it. A woman named Irene (Cassandra Ciangherotti) arrives in an anxious state, eventually revealing that she fled her husband to join her family; she is eight months pregnant and is afraid for her safety and that of her unborn child. An elderly woman named Roberta (Maria Elena Olivares) is a "Chamana" (a shaman) and is almost always agitated; that she does not speak Spanish makes her interactions confusing--Roberta is given no subtitles for her native tongue. The only other employee at the bus stop is a custodian named Rosa (Catalina Salas), who exudes a nervous quality that is made more unsettling by her unusual teeth. Along with her bizarre insistence that Irene does not leave the station, Rosa compounds her anxiety that there is something wrong with this place. The rest of the players arrive by an unseen taxi cab--which doesn't stick around for Irene and Ulises, despite having called one in the first place--depositing three more volatile characters into the mix. This includes a medical student named Alvaro (Humberto Busto), whose righteous indignation and quickness to jump to conclusions spells trouble from the start, and a prim yet icy restaurant owner named Gertrudis (Carmen Beato). Gertrudis is constantly tending to her unwell son, Ignacio (Santiago Torres), an enigmatic boy who displays the characteristics of autism, and is wrapped up in a complicated neck brace and feeding tube.
The Similars is presented with a muted color palette that borders on black-and-white, and deliberately looks like a long-lost vintage horror film, complete with debris and stains on the film negative. It wears its inspiration on its sleeve; the ominous narration and juxtaposition of horror with social commentary recalls "The Twilight Zone", especially the episodes "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" and "It's a Good Life". The musical score has clear nods to Bernard Herrmann, not least of which include his compositions for "The Twilight Zone". The "cabin fever" paradigm of a group of strangers trapped in the claustrophobic bus stop which leads to sacrifices made to social decorum can also be found in films ranging from The Hateful Eight to Bus Stop. Even the supernatural force binding them to their location in defiance of the conventions of reality recalls The Langoliers, adapted from the novella by Stephen King. The Similars operates on the logic of a dream (or a nightmare); when Alvaro tries to escape the bus stop by shooting out the windows, his bullets cannot penetrate the glass. The front door cannot be unlocked, and a dog perpetually leaps up at the windows while furiously barking--it is as if every force on Earth conspired to prevent them from leaving. The characters in The Similars represent the spectrum of society; being confronted by their differences leads to conflict instead of understanding. Alvaro and Ulises are at each other's throats almost immediately after Martin is subdued, trying to get the shotgun away from the other. Despite Irene's pleas for them to listen to reason, they are tying one another up and violently beating one another before long. The radio contributes foreboding comments about a "global hurricane", which becomes a metaphor for social unrest abroad. Martin's transformation spreads to the others, and the event is likened to a virus. This "plague" causes everyone's face to look the same--hence the title--and the eight people become like a control group, quarantined from the rest of the world. The transformations are like an overly simplistic means of conflict resolution--a defense mechanism attempting to force people to empathize with one another by making them have something in common, though it backfires catastrophically. It is the kind of response a child might have after watching their parents argue, wishing they could just understand one another better so that they wouldn't fight anymore. The irony of such a "solution" is that in spite of making everyone "similar", people will always find things that mark themselves as individuals, subsequently use that to ignite conflict with one another in an unending cycle of anger and ignorance.
Recommended for: Fans of a horror movie that leverages its campy premise and "Twilight Zone"-inspired presentation with metaphor-driven social commentary. The Similars underscores the dangers of failing to reach common ground in an argument with someone and the fascistic futility of trying to pave over those differences to eke out empathy by force.
The Similars is presented with a muted color palette that borders on black-and-white, and deliberately looks like a long-lost vintage horror film, complete with debris and stains on the film negative. It wears its inspiration on its sleeve; the ominous narration and juxtaposition of horror with social commentary recalls "The Twilight Zone", especially the episodes "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" and "It's a Good Life". The musical score has clear nods to Bernard Herrmann, not least of which include his compositions for "The Twilight Zone". The "cabin fever" paradigm of a group of strangers trapped in the claustrophobic bus stop which leads to sacrifices made to social decorum can also be found in films ranging from The Hateful Eight to Bus Stop. Even the supernatural force binding them to their location in defiance of the conventions of reality recalls The Langoliers, adapted from the novella by Stephen King. The Similars operates on the logic of a dream (or a nightmare); when Alvaro tries to escape the bus stop by shooting out the windows, his bullets cannot penetrate the glass. The front door cannot be unlocked, and a dog perpetually leaps up at the windows while furiously barking--it is as if every force on Earth conspired to prevent them from leaving. The characters in The Similars represent the spectrum of society; being confronted by their differences leads to conflict instead of understanding. Alvaro and Ulises are at each other's throats almost immediately after Martin is subdued, trying to get the shotgun away from the other. Despite Irene's pleas for them to listen to reason, they are tying one another up and violently beating one another before long. The radio contributes foreboding comments about a "global hurricane", which becomes a metaphor for social unrest abroad. Martin's transformation spreads to the others, and the event is likened to a virus. This "plague" causes everyone's face to look the same--hence the title--and the eight people become like a control group, quarantined from the rest of the world. The transformations are like an overly simplistic means of conflict resolution--a defense mechanism attempting to force people to empathize with one another by making them have something in common, though it backfires catastrophically. It is the kind of response a child might have after watching their parents argue, wishing they could just understand one another better so that they wouldn't fight anymore. The irony of such a "solution" is that in spite of making everyone "similar", people will always find things that mark themselves as individuals, subsequently use that to ignite conflict with one another in an unending cycle of anger and ignorance.
Recommended for: Fans of a horror movie that leverages its campy premise and "Twilight Zone"-inspired presentation with metaphor-driven social commentary. The Similars underscores the dangers of failing to reach common ground in an argument with someone and the fascistic futility of trying to pave over those differences to eke out empathy by force.