Tubi or not Tubi? That is the question.

I have no idea why I started with that, except that I knew it was going to happen eventually, so now it’s out of the way.

Today we’re talking the 2021 Mexican ghost story Mirame, which didn’t make its way out to most of the world until late 2023 as a Tubi Original. Director and co-writer Pavel Cantu has a couple of small credits to their name, but this appears to be the first feature for most of the creative team, with some more experienced actors in the cast.

Here’s the Tubi plot summary, which is about as concise as you’re going to get: when Lalo becomes haunted by the mysterious ghost of a young girl, he realizes his life is in danger, and sets out to defeat the ghost for good.

My quick, spoiler-free thoughts are that this is a pretty standard ghost story we’ve all seen plenty of times before. It’s well made, and commendable, but it’s just not the kind of story that tends to appeal to me unless it brings something new to the trable, and this didn’t really do that for me. 2/5 Skulls.

If you don’t want spoilers before you see the film yourself, this is where to stop. For the rest of you, here we go with the cut-up.

First, the story: teenage Lalo’s dad dies, and his mom has been dead since he was born, so he has to go live with his aunt Elena, who he has never really met, except as an infant with no memory. Lalo’s dad had completely cut off contact with the rest of the family for vague reasons. Lalo winds up going to the same school his dad went to, has the same science lab teacher, wears his dad’d old jacket and wrist watch. One day the hands on the watch start tickng backward, and then the ghost of a young girl starts haunting him. She smashes a bottle of chloroform in the lab. She tries to drown Lalo in the swimming pool after he joins the swimming team. You know, angry ghost things. Lalo meets Rana and they get all cutesy with each other. Rana’s aunt or something is some kind of psychic who tells Lalo the ghost is close to him, among other things. Long story short, turns out the ghost is actually Lalo’s mom, named Cristina. Lalo’s dad got Cristina pregnant in high school. She had the baby and eventually went back to school, where she was sexually assaulted by the science lab teacher. She tries to kill herself with chloroform in the lab, and the teacher finds her and finishes the job, then sinks her body to the bottom of a local river/pond/whatever. Lalo went to live with his father and was never told the real story, but his aunt finally fills him in. Lalo confronts the science lab teacher, who almost kills Lalo, too. But the  ghost intervenes, saves Lalo’s life, and kills the science teacher. Revenge is served and all is right with the world. The end.

Outside of that, I don’t really know what to say. My biggest issue is that the big reveal of the ghost beng Lalo’s mother came a little out of left field, but that could be a result of something being lost in translation. Ultimately, there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s a competantly told ghost revenge story. The scares are effective, and the effects are good. It’s just a story I’ve seen countless times now, and doesn’t do enough to set itself apart from the pack. If people ask for a ghost story movie, I might recommend it, but I won’t be going out of my way to push it on people.

This feels like a real hamfisted cop-out of a blog, but it is what it is. I’ll try to have more to say next week!