Let's be honest, there's nothing great about growing old and infirm, and it's easy to understand why pensioners might resent those in the prime of their life, especially when left to spend their final days rotting in a retirement home. In Andy Fetscher's Old People, coffin dodgers of the world unite, rising up against the young (possessed by an avenging spirit that punishes those who break family ties and abandon the elderly, or so I understood).
Ella (Melika Foroutan) is a prime target for the wrathful wrinklies: not only has she left her husband, but she has neglected to visit her father Aike (Paul Faßnacht), who lives in the understaffed Saalheim Hellhole for the Nearly Dead. When the oldies get up with murder in mind, they make a beeline for Ella and her family, who are celebrating a wedding nearby. Imbued with supernatural speed and strength, the geriatrics prove formidable foes, trapping their terrified victims in a farmhouse.
I love the idea of psychotic senior citizens on the rampage, appreciate Fetscher's attempts at social commentary, and enjoyed the brutality, but Old People still didn't quite work for me: the film suffers from a dreary pace for much of the time (it moves slower than Richard Briers on his zimmer frame in Cockney's vs Zombies); the script delivers too much talk, not enough horror, the old cliché of the asthmatic kid needing an inhaler, and a really awkward example of foreshadowing (Noah talks about a tunnel under the house - will it prove useful to escape? You betcha!); and we get a rather daft ending where Ella's daughter Laura saves her life by singing a song.
5/10.
Ella (Melika Foroutan) is a prime target for the wrathful wrinklies: not only has she left her husband, but she has neglected to visit her father Aike (Paul Faßnacht), who lives in the understaffed Saalheim Hellhole for the Nearly Dead. When the oldies get up with murder in mind, they make a beeline for Ella and her family, who are celebrating a wedding nearby. Imbued with supernatural speed and strength, the geriatrics prove formidable foes, trapping their terrified victims in a farmhouse.
I love the idea of psychotic senior citizens on the rampage, appreciate Fetscher's attempts at social commentary, and enjoyed the brutality, but Old People still didn't quite work for me: the film suffers from a dreary pace for much of the time (it moves slower than Richard Briers on his zimmer frame in Cockney's vs Zombies); the script delivers too much talk, not enough horror, the old cliché of the asthmatic kid needing an inhaler, and a really awkward example of foreshadowing (Noah talks about a tunnel under the house - will it prove useful to escape? You betcha!); and we get a rather daft ending where Ella's daughter Laura saves her life by singing a song.
5/10.