La Abuela

Paco plaza guives one of the best direction classes of the last years with this movie. Pure cinematic joy. Almudena amor is amazing too, she vas a nice carreer to follow now.

I really wanted to like this movie, I have enjoyed previous Plaza's films and the trailer for this one had me intrigued. The film has a great production desing and photography and a creepy score, but the plot was too predictable. Skeleton Key already pulled something like this. And also it was too slow burned for my taste. Glad I waited till it got to streaming.

I stumbled upon the 2021 Spanish horror movie "La Abuela" (aka "The Grandmother") from writer Carlos Vermut and director Paco Plaza here in 2022. I had not heard about the movie prior to watching it, but I will say that I was lured in by the movie's cover/poster, and the synopsis seemed fair enough.

And now having seen "La Abuela", I must say that this is a slow burn of a movie. The pacing of the narrative from writer Carlos Vermut is really slow and sort of mundane. If you are expecting a great horror experience, then "La Abuela" is not the best of choice.

The storyline was just ultimately too weak and slow paced for my liking. Sure, I will say that the concept of the storyline was definitely interesting, but it was just brutally killed by a very monotonously directed movie that moved ahead in snail pace.

I wasn't familiar with the cast list in "La Abuela", but I will say that the cast actually carried the movie well enough, especially when taking into consideration the severe limitations imposed by the script and storyline.

I managed to sit through the entire movie, but I wasn't particularly entertained, much less impressed. And there wasn't a single scary moment throughout the 100 minutes that the movie ran for.

My rating of "La Abuela" lands on a three out of ten stars. The movie was just lacking in crucial areas and moments to be worthwhile.

Spanish horror film produced in 2021. Although the movie gives a good dose of tension, the ending is easily predictable. The only person left from the family of the girl who is a model in Paris is her grandmother. He has taken care of her since childhood. This woman is suffering from a cerebral hemorrhage. Her granddaughter is coming from Paris to Barcelona to take care of the old lady. The girl, who took care of him with compassion at first, starts to have terrible times due to strange events at home. A movie with creepy scenes. There are also occasional nude scenes.

Written by Indie Provocateur Carlos Vermut (Magic Girl) and directed by Horror Veteran Paco Plaza (Rec), expectations are pretty high going in.

And La Abuela delivers the goods. For the most part.

The cinematography is exceptional and really helps create a sense of mystery and foreboding.

Almudena Amor and Vera Valdez are perfectly cast as granddaughter and grandmother, bound together in a Madrid apartment after the latter suffers a stroke.

Essentially a chamber piece, the story plays like a dark, modern day fairy tale - a satanic retelling of Little Red Riding Hood perhaps.

While La Abuela might not surprise the audience (the twist being fairly predictable), that does not take away from the overall experience.

It is genuinely creepy and unsettling, in a way that most horror films are not.