THE ELDERLY: The Agonizing Tale Of Grumpy Aging
The world of cinema is divulging, it teaches us to feel for others to laugh, cry, empathize and sense. To feel for others and for a moment get out of the world and feel for someone else. The genres prejudge the feelings we will be having. Some say the term “genre” is all about putting the movies in proper order at the DVD store but it can describe a lot about movies even before we what they have in store for us.
But in all of the genres, horror is a special one. When was the last time someone told you they loved it when someone scared the shit out of them, if you did it surely is when they went out to enjoy a horror film.
Exploring the world of The Elderly
Combining aging and horror ventures always happens to be the best combination to experience, combining these masterfully weaved dramatic sequences. A Person’s Films, La Dalia Films and Antidoto Film Productions bring us a classic horror venture in The Elderly. Co-directed by Raúl Cerezo and Fernando González Gómez and co-written by Javier Trigales, Cerezo and Rubén Sánchez Trigos, the Spanish horror drama takes us to the world of a lower middle-class Italian family. We surface through their lives filled with hardships, where married couple Mario (played by Gustavo Salmerón) and Lena (played by Irene Anula) make their living out of hardships as Mario lost his job and Lena takes up some odd jobs to make up their living – while daughter Naia (played by Paula Gallego) tries to support the family with she can. But soon things starts turning around as Mario brings in his father who is suffering from a mental disorder and needs someone to care for him.
As we witness the paranormal behaviour from Mario’s Dad, better known as Manuel (played by Zorion Eguileor), the same behaviour can be noticed with Naia, who happens to be the granddaughter of Manuel. The fearful quest for the unknown continues as we go on to see the most violent and self-destructive side of Manuel – which honestly wasn’t that surprising.
The story dwells deep into the psyche of the elderly, who often are ignored when it comes to frequent mental health issues and mostly, these people are the ones that need the most assistance when it comes to mental well-being. Though they tend to show their stronger personas, most of the old people are stressed out and lonely. These stressed lonely people with wrinkled faces and affected minds have a lot to deal with, and their well-being is often ignored or overlooked. This theme is brightly dwelled on throughout the film, compelling some typical horror elements like jump scares and slow haunts the rising temperaments for the fear of the unknown.
A Walk through Technical Aspects
Working through the technical aspects, the film is exceptionally well-ordered especially when it comes to camera work as most of the shots remain static. Most of the camera work is with extreme zooms in and out, carrying out the extreme expositions. Creating a fear of the unknown is something that is surprisingly made possible with the limited multi-camera setup and expressing heavy static shooting and is something noteworthy.
Something that needs a special notation is casting. The casting assistant Sameul Romero has done a fantastic job when it comes to finding the right choices for the job as every actor does justice to the role they are assigned to, and not only with the acting, but the character looks exactly the way we would imagine it to be. The expressive faces match every feel and do justice to the temperament of the story, raising stakes with every scene.
Taking a look through the directions and writing, the script for the film is extremely tightly woven and doesn’t give us any chance to fade out. Forcing the audience to keep their eyes on the screen for the hour and 35-minute venture, helps us grasp as much film as possible. It is an explicit horror venture and if you are one of the horror-loving film buffs, this is an undoubted treat.
The Elderly had a limited release on October 13, 2023 and a digital release on October 31, 2023!
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