Los ancianos

Well no pun intended and I won't say the word, because you probably know anyway which one it is. It starts off with a quite gruesome scene - and then gets brutal. Yes you can say this was another pun. Old people in our society have it quite bad to say the least. Generally speaking that is - the director somehow made some observation of that, while being out in town. I guess he saw how alone they are - or he felt they looked that way.

There are some real worries and problems he integrated in the movie. I know that many at the festival I watched this had issues with the performances. I actually liked most of it. Yes you do have cliche scenes ... like the one about love and being eternal or not. Of course this also plays into the aging theme ... but could have been handled better.

This points at an issue our society has - one that will not end up the way it is portrayed here.

It is obvious that this movie is not the common horror flick where old people replace zombies. Hell no, it is horror only on form, but certainly not on the meaning. It is a prophecy scheme, a warning message towards young and middle aged generations about the elders; there are more and more, not living, but surviving and waiting for the ultimate deliverance. In the past we had some horror films where it was question of killer kids, for instance a Spanish movie from the late seventies; Spanish cinema and its obsession for kids in horror films. I am sure we will see more features like this one in the future. But this topic could have been written in a different way, not necessarily in a more or less Hollywood style.

Old People:A dark German film, while it is thematically similar to Mom and Dad, it;s darkness is not leavened by the black humour of that film. It does involve social commentary though of a realistic rather than satirical form. Old people are left on their own in flats with limited home help, dumped in inadequately staffed nursing homes. The film begins in an urban area with an old man rising from his wheelchair and battering his carer to death with an oxygen bottle, even the innocent will suffer, In the distance we see fires raging in a city, signs of the elders revolt. Most of the action takes place in a rural area and while there some soapish strands to the story it is an engaging narrative. Mostly the elderly target anyone younger, there are some exceptions where familial ties stay their hands. Mostly they resemble Zombies the the way they gather together, surrounding and attacking houses. Some savage scenes of horror as younger people are torn apart, axed, battered to death, The film might have worked better with 10 minutes shaved off it's 101 minute running time but it's certainly worth watching even if it's message is delivered with a heavy hand. Directed & written by Andy Fetscher. On Netflix. 7/10.

This German horror-thriller starts promising enough and I think it aims for some kind of social commentary on how inhumane we many times treat our elderly (putting them into homes and forgetting about them).

However, this movie totally misses the mark. For one thing, the elderly kill people indiscriminately, good or bad, hence making them rather a unsympathetic lot.

And the home for the elderly is made too depressing, it almost feels like an open concentration camp, hence exaggerating the premise of the movie into almost a caricature, lessening the impact of any kind of message they want to put forth.

And the direction is extremely anonymous. It's very easy to see that the director has worked a lot in television because the whole movie has the look of a tv-movie with added gore.

There are some interesting bits here and there and also a few neat ideas, but basically this is an "old people-zombies movie" with a lot of borrowings from much better movies (primarily the zombie -movies by George A Romero) that feels a lot longer than it is.

I think it's a very bad idea to portray old people as individuals who murder people for no reason and go crazy in order to explain the abandonment and loneliness.

Although I was extremely uncomfortable in many parts, I continued to watch this movie with sadness rather than fear.

I must say that some of the scenes, which are repeated in many places, are very amateurish. I had a hard time understanding the target of the main villain.

With all my good intentions, I would like to think that such a film was made to reach young people and tell the troubles of old people. That's why I recommend watching this disturbing movie.