The Similars (Los Parecidos) is a 2015 Mexican film by writer-director Isaac Ezban that falls somewhere between a throwback episode of The Twilight Zone and a slapstick farce.
During a violent rain storm in 1968, eight strangers become trapped at a bus station where they gradually fall victim to a supernatural phenomenon. Seemingly at the center of the story is Ulises (Gustavo Sanchez Parra), a man impatiently waiting for his bus so that he may reunite with his pregnant wife in a nearby city. For reference that will make sense soon, Ulises has a full beard and a head of medium-length, feathered and puffy hair.
One-by-one the other inhabitants of the bus station break down into seizures. Upon waking, their faces begin to change into that of Ulises, beard and all. Naturally, this leads to high tensions among the group as they scramble to find meaning behind their predicament.
As I mentioned before, much The Similars leans heavily on Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. The film begins and ends with a cryptic Serling-esque monologue from an unseen narrator while the film’s look is extremely desaturated, nearly to the point of an old black and white broadcast. Even the acting seems to emulate the exaggerated emotions of a retro sci-fi serial, which was honestly very off-putting for me.
Whereas, depending on the season, Twilight Zone episodes run for 25 to 45 minutes, The Similars is at least double that length, and with just as little substance. You can really feel it start to stretch thin approaching the last act and answers to the mysteries begin to surface, really squeezing the single location and limited cast for all their worth and then some.
5