Viejos

No pun intended - and maybe you could argue that hell is on earth. Religious stuff aside and the movie is not really a religious one. It is more of a philosophical one - there is also another question this may raise ... but let's not delve into specifics here. It is about how we treat elders - but also how they deal with the ... well inevitable.

There are certain things that the movie or rather I have issues with. Why would you go to a flat in the middle of the night to clear it out? Forget about horror tropes and cliches - it just isn't practical. Of course it is always better for the suspense if it is dark and the character and the viewer has a few moments where we can all be frightened ... suspend your disbelief and there is more than a bit of entertainment to be had.

I gave the movie 9 for several reasons:

Great horror music and atmosphere.

Good acting.

Reality of characters.

Me and my wife enjoyed it so much. It was suspenseful all the time, do not agree at all with people complaining it was slow. I really wished i could watch it in cinema

A lot of horror movies is a failure for my own taste. Films like "ring" and "grudge" that has no justified events rather than an evil creature killing everyone for no reason. But here, we have a really good story, some supernatural events and surprises.

Of course there are holes in the plot, but overall i feel lucky that i randomly picked it.

I love my hubby. He is one of the best things in my life. The fact, however, that he actually lends any credence or weight into Rotten Tomatoes movie scores, drives me crazy! Yes, yes, I know .... the same can be said about me who uses IMDB to test the temperature of films before viewing or to leave thoughts on them once viewed. But seriously, speaking of comparisons, RT is a joke with a bad punchline.

So is the case with this film.

The Elderly, or "Viejos" stands at a 100% RT Rating at this writing. Not 15% of that is deserved. To say that some serious SOMETHING must have exchanged hands in order to generate that 100% score, is probably not an exaggeration.

While both the two gents who play the dads (dad and granddad) and the lady who plays the stepmom are pretty believable, one of the MAIN characters (the daughter/granddaughter) is AWFUL. Let me say this just for the record: BlG BOOBS DON'T EQUAL TALENT. Her acting is stiff and her facial expressions when no lines are running, are awkward and annoying.

The MAJOR problem is the story itself. Now, while I would like to say it had potential, how true can that be, exactly? I mean anything and everything COULD have potential and in the case of The Elderly, if a million things had been done differently with it, perhaps it would have. As it is, it was a hodgepodge of angry statements by one character, clueless responses from another, lots of tight shots of worried faces, and THEN, the most ridiculous of endings to have ever made film less than it should be.

An empathetic take on being - not growing - old. This is not an investigation of growing into old age, but of being old and becoming older. To put it bluntly. "Things fall apart". Our bodies and minds start to fail, our partners die, and we have to cope. It is confusing and frighteneng-- some of us become passive, some become aggressive--but we all react. Violence against, and by, those who are "losing it", is a real problem Rarely is the "violence by" deadly, but often, the "violence against", is, if not deadly, cruel. Throughout our lives we have all entertained thoughts of revenge that we did not act upon, but in our dementia reveries, we may.

All of the actors did credible jobs. To criticize the actress who played Naia for having an ample bosom is entirely offensive--it wasn't a "thing" in the movie and I did not even notice until "that reviewer" made an issue of it. She did a very good job as the most empathetic person in the room--I think she has a fine career ahead of her.

Stars is the absolute maxima extremadura for this movie, havings seen quite a few films lately that issues elderly vs violence, not violence upon the elderly but violent elders, that has become a popular item next to zombies and undead etc...

this is an extremely slow churning spanish horror movie, showing some of the worst cases of ælsheimer and picks syndrome with the entire realms of hallusinating symptoms among the senile population, combined with climate change and electromagnetic pollutioning, its set for a violent climax in the end. Its a volatile ''wait till youve turned the page'', extremely colourful visualistic product, with a decent cast that hasnt got the best of scriptuals to work on. They could also have given a better timeline for the whole callosum, heat domes over madrid has become the norm over the last years, so when wouldve told alot.

If you like spanish horror or spanish film in general i might recommend, but not on top of the grumpy old mans list.

To all health workers handling elderly people at work, just be aware...me, the grumpy old man am a nurse and ive seen the change in volatileness and violence among the elderly pasients over many years and the borderlines of commitment have moved over in favour of the elders, so the flick aint that unrealistic.