Lar dos Esquecidos

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.

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.

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.

Surprisingly this was a pretty good horror slash thriller film. I think it deserves a little higher of a rating then it has been given here. It was an enjoyable movie when it comes down to it. Sure its really quite violent and gory but you do expect that from a horror type film. It was also pretty darn sad when you think of it and what drove these old people to murder was because basically they have lost all hope in life of someone taking care of them. The acting was ok in this and i felt especailly the daughter held her own and was very brave. The direction worked well but i will say the script could be improved in areas. Apart from that though not a bad nextflix horror film.

I've seen a lot of articles about people complaining this movie was to brutal. I honestly don't understand. There were So many movies just as, if not more brutal that have passed through. The Hostel franchise, Green Inferno. I'm certain I'm missing quite a few. It might be the fact that it centers on the elderly that it offends, I can't say. All in all, I personally thought it was a solid watch. The acting was good but not over the top.. The family dynamic and characters were believable. Sadly in today's world life is like this for many of our elderly. I most definitely would recommend it to any horror fan!