User reviews

I really wanted to like this movie, I have enjoyed previous Plaza's films and the trailer for this one had me intrigued. The film has a great production desing and photography and a creepy score, but the plot was too predictable. Skeleton Key already pulled something like this. And also it was too slow burned for my taste. Glad I waited till it got to streaming.

Paco Plaza continues to demonstrate his skill behind the camera, but as he did in Veronica, he does not get rid of the gimmicky and plays it safe with the effective. It seems that he has found his comfort zone and does not want to leave that bubble.

The film fails in how predictable it is, as you don't need more than 15 minutes to know how the story and the final climax will develop.

The best is the interpretative duel between the grandmother, magnificent Vera Valdez, and the no less spectacular performance of Almudena Amor, carrying almost all the interpretative weight of the film and coming out much more than successful.

In conclusion, you are left with a bittersweet taste because this director with these actresses should have produced a much more rounded product.

The Grandmother can be a nice addition to the terrifying old people sub-genre. Being a Paco Plaza's film, of course it has some nice scares and dread. But, with a predictable plot, it offers nothing much more other than that.

Written by Indie Provocateur Carlos Vermut (Magic Girl) and directed by Horror Veteran Paco Plaza (Rec), expectations are pretty high going in.

And La Abuela delivers the goods. For the most part.

The cinematography is exceptional and really helps create a sense of mystery and foreboding.

Almudena Amor and Vera Valdez are perfectly cast as granddaughter and grandmother, bound together in a Madrid apartment after the latter suffers a stroke.

Essentially a chamber piece, the story plays like a dark, modern day fairy tale - a satanic retelling of Little Red Riding Hood perhaps.

While La Abuela might not surprise the audience (the twist being fairly predictable), that does not take away from the overall experience.

It is genuinely creepy and unsettling, in a way that most horror films are not.

It is firstly set in Paris and then Madrid . A Paris model called Susana (Almudena Amor) has to go back to Madrid where her grandmother Pilar (Vera Valdez) who had brought her up, just had a stroke . Susana feels responsible her grandmother , that's why the elderly Pilar became the substitute mother caring along her childhood and adolescence . But spending just a few days with this relative becomes into an unexpected nightmare . Step by step something fantastic , strange and wild will start to infect everyone around the weird apartament . And she starts to experience strong paranormal activity on their home . I was eager to meet you. She's waiting for you . Nobody will love you like I do.

Decent terror movie with thrills , chills , tension , and creepy deeds . Scary and terrifying images when obscure supernatural events emerging from the other side , making sinister and mysterious appearances here and there . At the climax happens shocking and horrific images of diabolic appearances and violent attacks . A scary horror picture shot in fits and starts with disconcerting plot , regarding ghastly and threatening appearances , as a young model suffering from bizarre happenings . The film relies heavily on the two main actresses , the reason for the movie feels somewhat boring and really claustrophobic due to the fact that it is mainly set on a dark flat . The movie is passable, though during the first hour hardly anything happens ; however , the final half hour is frankly terrifying and with full of surprises . Displaying horrifying and creepy images about the young girl being relentlessly stalked by a malevolent and heinous appearance causing creepy , scary , awful and terrible moments . Genuinely horrible moments overcome some obvious plot devices . This is a juicy terrifying material fashioning an iconic possession , providing screams , thrills , shocks and chilling scenes . It has an extremely known premise about an eerie threat that spawns the film in ups and downs . The newcomer and unkown actresses : Almudena Amor , Vera Valdez and Karina Kolokolchykova give acceptable interpretations.

It contains an adequate and sinister cinematography by cameraman Daniel Fernández Abelló , though dark , at times . And frightening , suspenseful musical score by composer Fatima Al Qadiri , adding modern songs by Estopa band . The motion picture was well directed by Paco Plaza , though makes some tiring , slow-moving and extremely claustrophobic. Plaza is a good director with much success particularly in terror genre . He has written or directed with Jaume Balaguero the successful¨ Rec¨ saga formed by : ¨Rec 1, Rec 2 , Rec Genesis and Rec Apocalypse¨ . As well as other terror movies as ¨The second name¨ , ¨Romasanta¨, ¨Christmas tale¨ , ¨Veronica¨and he wrote the American film : ¨Quarantine¨ . He has also made some shorts and documentary : ¨OT¨ . And his only and recent thriller, ¨Quien a hierro mata¨, with Luis Tosar . Rating 6/10 . Acceptable and interesting horror movie . Well worth watching for terror lovers.

I stumbled upon the 2021 Spanish horror movie "La Abuela" (aka "The Grandmother") from writer Carlos Vermut and director Paco Plaza here in 2022. I had not heard about the movie prior to watching it, but I will say that I was lured in by the movie's cover/poster, and the synopsis seemed fair enough.

And now having seen "La Abuela", I must say that this is a slow burn of a movie. The pacing of the narrative from writer Carlos Vermut is really slow and sort of mundane. If you are expecting a great horror experience, then "La Abuela" is not the best of choice.

The storyline was just ultimately too weak and slow paced for my liking. Sure, I will say that the concept of the storyline was definitely interesting, but it was just brutally killed by a very monotonously directed movie that moved ahead in snail pace.

I wasn't familiar with the cast list in "La Abuela", but I will say that the cast actually carried the movie well enough, especially when taking into consideration the severe limitations imposed by the script and storyline.

I managed to sit through the entire movie, but I wasn't particularly entertained, much less impressed. And there wasn't a single scary moment throughout the 100 minutes that the movie ran for.

My rating of "La Abuela" lands on a three out of ten stars. The movie was just lacking in crucial areas and moments to be worthwhile.

The critical grandmother

La Abuela (The Grandmother) tells us the story of Susana, a model who has to leave her life and her work in Paris to return to Madrid. Ella's grandmother, Pilar de Ella, apparently just suffered a stroke. Years ago, when Susana's parents died, her grandmother raised her as if she were her own daughter. Now Susana needs to find someone to take care of her grandmother Pilar de ella, but what should only be a few days with her grandmother will end up becoming a terrifying nightmare.

I have to say, if you've seen "The Skeleton Key" from 2015, you'll know what this film is about from the beginning, this thanks to the first scene they show, no matter what as the movie progresses they play with the viewer to mislead him into thinking it might be a ghost tape or possible possession; On the contrary, if you haven't seen the tape I mentioned above, it can definitely become an interesting story.

Something interesting is the complicated situation that Susana will go through, she has her life made, she has important things to do and she puts everything on pause to take care of her grandmother, forgetting for a moment the horror genre, the director Paco Plaza shows us in a way briefly how difficult it can be to provide palliative care to a person whose life expectancy is relatively short due to illness.

The film promises much more than it really offers, but the best thing it has are the performances by Almudena Amor as Susana and Vera Valdez as Pilar, on the one hand Susana goes from being the worried granddaughter to being the terrified granddaughter of the strange events that she experiences with her grandmother and Pilar goes from being a needy grandmother to becoming a gloomy being; however, they could have better explained the interaction of the grandmothers with the granddaughters, since it feels like a gap without further character development, almost at the end they show a somewhat important connection, albeit briefly.

Paco Plaza seeks to convey terror with moments of tension with his dark shots, or some creepy images trying to give a sinister atmosphere, but he does not succeed, the problem is that the pace of the film is slow, certainly one would expect a better polished story and little predictable by the director of "REC" or "Veronica" that we can not say they were great tapes, therefore the result is a predictable movie with few scares, nothing out of the ordinary.

Rating: 7.0.

I really enjoyed this film. I would consider it "elevated horror", much like A24 horror films like Hereditary and The Witch. It is a slow burn film, but that is precisely what I love about it. It takes its time to build tension and suspense. This isn't a jumpscare film.

Anyway, I was extremely impressed with the elderly actress, Pilar. She gave out one heck of a performance. Anyone who has ever been a caretaker for an elderly family member will know what I am talking about. The actress who plays Susanna was also very talent. My heart went out to her as I watched her reach her wits end and was teetering to the point of a meltdown. She really conveyed her mental distress.

The only thing I didn't like was the movie poster because it gives away the story and ruins the mystery. They should have used the photo they used for the movie's soundtrack album. But perhaps they felt the poster on imdb would sell more tickets. I just hate it when trailers and the artwork give away the story.

Oh yeah, never mind the reviews that say it's boring. I think they are used to slashers and teen horror popcorn films.

What, that ending! Paco Plaza once again does not fail. Some directors seem to speak our language, even when some of their films disappoint other people and Plaza is one of them for me. Always works.

A film that from the beginning wants to tell us a lot about being young and beautiful and how we look at the aging process and old age. The last act is perfect, but the way it builds the whole story - slowly - is smart and always growing. At times the second act can be slightly repetitive, but it is a film that rewards us for what we invest in it, filled with good performances and a good atmosphere.

This film isn't going to be for those who are looking for jump scares and gore or for those with a short attention span.

If you pay attention there are subtle clues that fill in parts of the story as it unfolds, which made the film all the more enjoyable for me. Sure, it isn't fast-paced, but that is not what this film is about.

The acting is superb, particularly by Vera Valdez as the Grandmother.

What is interesting is that most of the cast have few acting credits in film, yet they put in incredible performances - better than many other more well-known actors.

This has a strong story, is well acted with realistic characters, an atmosphere that sucks you in, and is well worth watching.

I don't think the twist will be surprising to many people. Especially if you are a fan of the genre - there are other movies, which I won't name for obvious reasons, that do the trick a lot better. Where I actually was "what?" - and that is a big and really surprised what, just so you know how you should read/say it in your mind.

But the movie is well acted and even though the conclusion is ... imminent and as I said not surprising at all (for most I assume), it is still a good horror movie. The mood it creates, the way it is edited, everything plays out the way it should. Sometimes there is no escape - and if it is a good movie like this, you let yourself be kept a .. prisoner (no pun intended).

This is not a good movie, let's get that out of the way. I gave it a shot because I thoroughly enjoyed Rec (and hated the American remake) however in this case it's this one that is the crappy remake. Now, Skeleton Key is a fairly terrible movie in it's own right but I actually enjoyed it, it was quick-paced and didn't take itself too seriously. The Grandmother moves like a drowsy slug and takes itself so seriously. It attempts to be a study of aging and youth and the toxic relationship we have with them but... it isn't. At the end it's just an unoriginal, slow, boring and unnecessary movie. I mean if you're gonna use an old idea at least add a twist.

The setting and photography are beautiful, but the story line is a little more monolithic. If you watch the movie at 1.25 times the speed, it may be more able to drive the movement of horror elements. It's like a certain episode of Supernatural, where the evil spirit or the witch is the premise. If you like this kind of story, you can probably ignore the story and enjoy the interior scenes and arrangements of the nineteenth-century rich-style apartment alone. Although there are many stereotypes, the terrifying atmosphere is still scary, interspersed with stunning ladies' figures, which are very elegant contrasts. I love this part.

Spanish horror film produced in 2021. Although the movie gives a good dose of tension, the ending is easily predictable. The only person left from the family of the girl who is a model in Paris is her grandmother. He has taken care of her since childhood. This woman is suffering from a cerebral hemorrhage. Her granddaughter is coming from Paris to Barcelona to take care of the old lady. The girl, who took care of him with compassion at first, starts to have terrible times due to strange events at home. A movie with creepy scenes. There are also occasional nude scenes.

This is a film about tension and atmosphere. If you want jump scares, you'll be disappointed. I personally loved that the whole film was built without resorting to this device; there is only one and thank God for that.

TG has been accused of being predictable. It is. I mean, the hints are huge and come very early in the film, but I believe that was the whole point. You know how the plot is going to unfold, and yet it keeps you on the edge of your seat. I'd personally call that a success. Yes, other films have used this story, there's nothing new under the sun. Doesn't bother me, as long as it is a good watch.

The clues regarding what is actually going on are obvious enough as to not call for further explanations, flashbacks or similar. We get all we need, and it's more than enough to build your own story.

Paco Plaza deserves more credit than he gets. Vermut is an excellent writer. The actresses are top notch as well and carry the film fantastically. Recommended.

It's like an old movie on late night TV that isn't worth changing channels for.

A Parisian model is called back to Madrid after her grandmother has a stroke. But as she starts taking care of her elderly abuela, mysterious things begin happening.

This feels like a remake of The Omen, but at the opposite end of life. It has the same slow beginning, the same weird events, and the same predictable climax.

I expected more from the director of Rec.

The scariest thing about this movie is thinking about how people are going to have to change your diapers one day.

It doesn't leave you indifferent. It takes a while, after watching it, to assimilate all the story not the argument . It is so condensed and , at the same time, so familiar , that you will feel uneasy and saved at the same time no matter if you are young or old.. It has so well planned scenes and it is so visual that you can compared it with a silent movie.

Meh story all round, Grandma kinda thicc, But she lost that hot bod. By the end, Dont waste time. I did so you didnt have to. No real horror, the only thing scary about it was the fact that i feel old now, due to the movie taking so much of my own life. Its ironic in a way, The movie took my life just like the grandma took her daughters life. Bad movie. Please dont give time of day.