Old People is a Netflix horror movie that tries to send a meaningful message about the present condition of the elderly in society but fails miserably at execution.
Story
Ella takes her children to the country for her sister’s wedding. Her ex-husband and his wife are also invited to the wedding. The family visits their grandfather at a retirement house to invite him to the wedding. They encounter strange old people residing there.
The old people see the wedding celebrations and start killing everyone in the town. They kill the newlywed couple and attack Ella and her family. Ella asks for help from her father but he joins his fellow residents from the retirement house.
The family fights to protect each other and try to escape using a piece of information given to them by their grandfather years ago. The family has to resolve their interpersonal issues and accept their mistakes to save themselves.
Performances
With award-winning actors on the cast, the performance by the actors is probably the only aspect that makes the movie appealing.
Melika Foroutan plays the role of Ella, an ambition-driven woman who tries to gain the love of her children. Her performance throughout the movie gives an insight into her character and her emotions.
Without any dialogue, Paul Fassnacht plays out the emotional conflict of Aike as he betrays the other residents of the retirement house to protect his family.
Positives
The visual elements of the movie add to the horror of the movie with the country life aesthetics and the colour palette which follows the tone of each scene.
Despite a shallow script, the splendid performance by the actors adds dimensions to the characters and increases the emotional stake of each scene.
Negatives
The movie tries to send off a message about the poor condition of old people after being abandoned by their families but ends up antagonising them. Instead of humanising the pain to help the audience connect with the old people, the movie’s resolution intends to hold its viewers at a gunpoint by warning them about the potential uprising of old people if society is not good to them.
Instead of using the novel concept of a horror movie based on old people’s lives, the movie sticks to the basic tropes of a horror movie and adds nothing new to the genre. The lack of empathy or words spoken by the old people transforms them into zombie-like figures in the movie.
Certain scenes in the movie are so poorly-written and absurd that it switches the genre of the movie from horror to satire.
The main conflict occupies only a short duration of the movie. The rest of the scenes are filled with irrelevant interpersonal conflicts between the family that contribute nothing to the plot and provide no resolution.
Verdict
The unique concept of the movie certainly held potential but the execution and writing created a disaster. The dialogues and tropes of the movie are so bizarre that it makes the movie a fun satirical watch to study the genre.
Old People
Director: Andy Fetscher
Date Created: 2022-10-07 12:30
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Also Read: Old People ending explained: Did Ella and her family survive?