Is That You?

A viewer’s patience is sorely tested while watching this glacially-paced creepshow about a daddy’s girl who assumes her father’s fetishistic, monstrous demeanor after he’s gone. Lili (Gabriela Ramos) is the teen daughter of Alina (Lynn Cruz) and Eduardo (Osvaldo Doimeadiós). Is That You? begins with the grotesque sight of Eduardo sniffing a captive and miserable Alina’s feet, one of his less brutal practices with her. Tying her ankles so that she can’t get very far, restraining her with ropes, and beating her for unspecified reasons he nevertheless alludes to, Eduardo is a horrifying presence. But he’s pleasant with Lili, making it difficult for her to request he go easier on her mother. But then Eduardo disappears, and a visit to a medium leads to Lili becoming more like her father, suddenly imprisoning and beating Alina. Is Lili possessed by Eduardo, or has she been eclipsed by his stronger personality? It’s impossible not to think of Hitchcock’s Psycho and its theme of an eternally dominant parent in the subconscious. But ultimately this funereal Cuban horror flick is submarined by its drunken-snail’s pace. Not recommended. (T. Keogh)