Taglines: Tenía ganas de conocerte. [I was eager to meet you.]
The Grandmother movie storyline. A Paris model must return to Madrid where her grandmother, who had brought her up, just had a stroke. But spending just a few days with this relative turns into an unexpected nightmare.
Paco Plaza is a horror film director, and this fact can be felt in all of his works, whether in the form of demonic possessions, drug dealers without scruples or humanity, or fans obsessed with idols created artificially in reality TV shows. And Carlos Vermut knows a thing or two about terror, too, as the most alien author in recent Spanish cinema who’s capable of casually combining vilest misery with elegance in its subtlest form.
In The Grandmother, which is competing for the Golden Shell at the 69th San Sebastian Film Festival, the former acts as director while the latter takes charge of writing. The result is an exhilarating and horrifying work where the two creators’ worlds come together perfectly.
The Grandmother (Spanish: La Abuela) is a 2021 Spanish-French horror film directed by Paco Plaza from a screenplay by Carlos Vermut which stars Almudena Amor, Vera Valdez, Marina Gutiérrez, Karina Kolokolchykova, Berta Sánchez, Alba Bonnin, Gabriela Calonfirescu, Ileana Wilson, Chacha Huang, Marta Crespo, and José Gimeno. The film was released on July 22, 2022 in the United States.
About the Story
The movie opens with an elderly woman (Valdez) entering an apartment, where she finds another older woman lying dead on the floor, and a half-eaten birthday cake on a table. She’s then greeted by a young, blond naked woman. The old woman seems happy to see her and kneels down on the floor and kisses her.
The film then focuses on Susana (Amor), a fashion model working in Paris; she calls her grandmother Pilar and tells her she will not be in Madrid for her birthday. A short time later, Susana receives a phone call from a Hospital in Madrid, telling her her grandmother had a brain hemorrhage. Being Pilar’s only remaining living relative, Susana travels to Madrid; it is then revealed that Pilar is the same woman from the opening sequence.
Back in Madrid, Susana takes Pilar back home and moves in to take care of her. As the days go by, Susana begins having several disturbing nightmares, making her uneasy. One day, Susana finds a young woman named Eva visiting Pilar. Eva tells her she’s the niece of Pilar’s best friend Julita, and that she and Susana have met before, but Susana doesn’t remember her nor Julita.
One night, Susana comes across her childhood diary; after reading it, she recalls a birthday party where she met both Eva and Julita. On that party, the two girls underwent some sort of strange ritual and got their hair cut; Susana also remembers that, from that day on, she began having nightmares related to her grandmother. She also begins to suspect that Pilar is moving through the apartment at night.
Growing increasingly disturbed, Susana tries to leave and find accommodation for her grandmother, and in doing so, realizes that Pilar is a witch with supernatural powers. She causes the death of Adela, a nurse Susana had hired to take care of her.
Then, the same day Susana takes her to a nursing home a fire breaks out and kills all the guests in the house. Determined to go back to Paris, Susana kills Pilar by poisoning her soup. Minutes after her grandmother’s death, the phone rings: it is Eva, who hears Susana’s youthful voice and calls her Pilar. Susana responds by saying that she is not Pilar, to which Eva replies: “Are you sure?”.
The Grandmother (2022)
La Abuela
Directed by: Paco Plaza
Starring: Almudena Amor, Vera Valdez, Marina Gutiérrez, Karina Kolokolchykova, Berta Sánchez, Alba Bonnin, Gabriela Calonfirescu, Ileana Wilson, Chacha Huang, Marta Crespo, José Gimeno
Screenplay by: Carlos Vermut
Production Design by: Laia Ateca
Cinematography by: Daniel Fernández Abelló
Film Editing by: David Gallart
Costume Design by: Vinyet Escobar
Art Direction by: Laia Ateca
Music by: Fatima Al Qadiri
MPAA Rating: R for some bloody images, nudity, drug use, language and brief sexuality.
Distributed by: Sony Pictures
Release Date: January 28, 2022 (Spain), April 6,2022 (France), July 22, 2022 (United States)
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