By RICHELLE CHARKOT
Starring Zorion Eguileor, Gustavo Salmerón and Paula Gallego
Written by Javier Trigales, Raúl Cerezo and Rubén Sánchez Trigos
Directed by Raúl Cerezo, Fernando González Gómez
Dark Star Pictures
It is often noted that horror reflects the fears of its era, whether it’s vampires and blood-transmitted diseases in the ’80s or the phase we’re exiting now when the “monster” symbolizes mental illness. With films like Knock at the Cabin and The Harbinger, it seems we are entering a new cycle that isn’t the least bit surprising – apocalyptic pandemic horror. At first blush, THE ELDERLY appears to be just another run-of-the-mill horror movie that uses old people as something to be feared, as in X (and it’s not without some offenses in this respect). Yet, as a piece of pandemic horror, it adds a layer of insight that saves it from total mundanity.
The film opens with elderly couple Rosa (Ángela López Gamonal) and Manuel (Zorion Eguileor), who, during a record-breaking heatwave in Madrid, experience a heartbreaking tragedy. In a catatonic state, Rosa commits suicide, and Manuel is left alone. Their son, Mario (Gustavo Salmerón), hears of his mother’s death, and against his wife Lena’s (Irene Anula) wishes, takes his father in. Shortly after his arrival, tensions flare as Manuel floats through his days in a strange trance-like state. Matters worsen when he threatens violence.
If you’re looking for a scary horror film, THE ELDERLY is not very exciting. It defaults to some standard scares that we have all seen a thousand times (such as a sudden, loud jump with a bloody and frightening ghost). However, it succeeds in depicting an apocalypse through one family’s story. In this film, Madrid’s oldest citizens are compelled by radio waves to prepare for the coming end times. As though in a somnambulant fugue, Manuel flatly tells his kin that violence is imminent, and with the images of technology piercing octogenarian brains to create a thought virus, it is impossible not to draw the connections to the modern conspiracies harming our senior family members who did not grow up with internet literacy. Had this just been a film in which one elderly man torments a family, we would be left with, essentially, a retread of The Visit, with little new to offer, but, thankfully, THE ELDERLY dares to push its narrative into a unique realm that feels nonetheless quite familiar.
