What happens if you don't respect your elders?
As far as this horror movie is concerned, a lot more than a request to speak to the manager.
"Old People" is German-Romanian filmmaker Andy Fetscher's horror thriller wherein the
old eat the young, bludgeon them, and sometimes vomit on them.
It's the sort of concept that M. Night Shyamalan would have a field day with — and did, with
"The Visit" — but Fetscher adds more chaos and a cadre of monsters at the door.
A title card at the opening reads:
"In times of yore, an avenging spirit was thought to inhabit old people.
A dark power that took possession of the frailest members of the clan and drive them into a
seemingly blind rage."
That's right – this is functionally an elderly rage-zombie movie.
What a time to be alive.
At its core, the story focuses on generational disconnect by observing lonely elders, excluded
from local festivities and going feral in the process.
"He's from the home…"
Ella returns to her remote hometown with her two children for her sister's wedding.
Despite the lack of invitations, a gaggle of older nursing home residents hear the reception
revelry and decide to grab some weapons and crash the party anyway, racking up a few bodies
in the process.
What follows upon their arrival is post-wedding mayhem, a free-for-all that rivals the zombie
wedding massacre in "[REC]3: Genesis".
To paraphrase Roddy Piper, the geezers came to chew bubble gum and kill youths, and they're
all out of bubble gum.
The movie is so conceptually wild that it confirms how good horror fans have it these
days — there was a time when folks would have to search every nerdy nook and cranny
to find a movie wherein a neglected grandfather bludgeons a bride and groom on their wedding night.
It's part of a wave of elderly repulsion that's shown up in a few horror movies of late; elderly
bodies, often presented as grotesque in some way, have wreaked havoc in films like Ari
Aster's "Hereditary" and "Midsommar" or Natalie Erika James' "Relic," and "Anything For Jackson."
"Old People" isn't Fetscher's first feature; the Munich-born filmmaker graduated from the
German Film Academy in Ludwigsburg with thesis film "Bukarest Fleisch," a TV horror movie
that appears to feature cannibalism, perhaps an Eastern-European iteration of "The Texas
Chain Saw Massacre."
In 2011, Fetscher's "Urban Explorer," a.k.a "The Depraved," arrived to watch young folks
enter spaces they've got no business being in and suffer the consequences – this time
in subterranean Berlin catacombs formerly used by the Nazis.
The movie stars Nathalie Kelley and Nick Eversman as leaders of the doomed trespassing expedition
and like most of his work so far, Fetscher earned multiple credits as cinematographer,
editor, and director.
"Urban Explorer" fits snugly into the sort of high-octane category defined by the likes
of "Hostel" and "The Hills Have Eyes."
"It's breakfast time!"
The movie earned a handful of trophies upon its run at Screamfest in Los Angeles including
Best Picture – an award previously held by the unapologetically foul "The Human Centipede"
in 2009 and "A Tale of Two Sisters" in 2003.
Netflix has attracted some static — now viewers will be able to pay to watch commercials
before and during their streaming in an affordable "ad-supported" version of the service.
But one thing the streaming giant has gotten right is its robust selection of horror movies;
crucial in October, of course.
"Old People" is just a taste; for more German scares, look to vampires on a plane thriller
"Blood Red Sky" on Netflix, featuring Alexander Scheer's sneering turn as a loose-cannon terrorist
named 8-Ball — think John Malkovich as Cyrus "The Virus" in "Con Air".
Moving over to France, the French-Belgian horror comedy "Girls With Balls" pits a women's
volleyball team against mountain people who want to play the Most Dangerous Game, with
cartoonish gore and plenty of arterial spray to paint the town red.
"The Swarm" is another recent French-language gem, slower-burning than "Girls With Balls"
but based on another incredible premise — bloodsucking bugs.
There's enough Asian horror to go around for those looking for more supernatural spooks;
one worthy highlight is the 2018 Indonesian Satanic horror shriekfest "May the Devil Take You".
South Korea's greatest entry on Netflix is "Kingdom," a visual feast of a political period-horror
series that puts "The Walking Dead" to shame — "House of Cards," but with zombies.
Finally, the crown gem of Netflix's non-English speaking horror section is "Incantation,"
the found-footage horror film which arrived on streaming this summer.
What sets it apart from its brethren is its early and strong insistence upon audience
participation, immersing everyone in its well-intentioned curse from the first lines.