We’re accustomed to viewing the elderly as kind and benevolent. Perhaps they’re our diminutive granny still married to her landline or our chatty great aunt who’s obsessed with her garden. We make duty calls on Sundays and trust them to safeguard family traditions. They are pleasant, benign, and ultimately absent from the day to day bustle of everyday life.
But the horror genre knows better with sinister octogenarians hiding in plain sight. They may fool us with quaint sayings, rambling stories, and a slightly vacant smile, but they’re often just as devious as women half their age.
Karl R. Hearne’s The G. follows an extremely dangerous older lady. Nicknamed “The G,” Ann Hunter (Dale Dickey) may seem feeble and frail, but when she’s forced into elder care by a devious thief, she has no problem taking justice into her own gnarled hands. Dickey stuns in this empowering role and follows an impressive line of murderous older women.
Here are six all-timers to revisit ahead of The G, which is now available on Digital.
X (2022)
The cast and crew of The Farmer’s Daughter, a low-budget porno film with artistic merit, run into trouble just moments after driving onto the Douglas’ farm. The elderly Howard (Stephen Ure) answers the door with a shotgun, demanding to know what producer Wayne (Martin Henderson) is doing on his property. He’s completely forgotten about their arrangement to rent the neighboring bunkhouse and believes Wayne to be a malicious intruder. But Howard is not the most destructive creature on the farm. His reclusive wife Pearl (Mia Goth) has a habit of feeding younger visitors to Theda, an elderly crocodile living in a nearby pond. She fixates on Maxine (Goth), the film’s enigmatic young star, remembering her own days of youthful grace. After watching a day of X-rated filming, this vicious old woman unleashes her bloody rage on the unlucky cast and crew, robbing them of the vitality that has now passed her by.
Drag Me to Hell (2009)
At first glance, Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) appears to be an elderly woman in need of help. Christine (Alison Lohman) first meets the Romani grandmother as she’s asking for another extension on her overdue mortgage. But hoping for a coveted promotion, Christine leaves the destitute woman begging for her help. Filled with rage and humiliation, Mrs. Ganush ambushes Christine in the parking lot, deploying an impressive array of bodily fluids. But she also saddles her victim with a hideous curse. As punishment for Christine’s cruelty, a demon known as the Lamia will torment her for three days before literally dragging her down into the depths of hell. Mrs. Ganush dies shortly after unleashing her revenge, forcing Christine to seek restitution from her decaying corpse. While a goat-headed demon may be the film’s overt villain, Mrs. Ganush is the story’s most frightening character.
The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014)
Most horror films featuring elderly women explore the horrors of an aging body, but Adam Robitel’s The Taking of Deborah Logan shows the terror and frustration of an aging mind. Deborah Logan (Jill Larson) was once a headstrong single mother and vital member of her small community, but now an aggressive form of Alzheimer’s disease has left her incapable of living on her own. She and her daughter Sarah (Anne Ramsay) have agreed to participate in a documentary chronicling the daily reality of living with dementia, but they quickly find Deborah’s symptoms more extreme than expected. When Sarah uncovers a dark secret from her mother’s past she and documentarian Mia (Michelle Ang) begin to suspect a more sinister cause. It seems the spirit of a long-dead serial killer has been waiting for an opportunity to hijack Deborah’s body in order to finish his sinister plan. Adam Robitel’s film is both horrifying and heartbreaking, asking who we become when our mental faculties fail.
Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)
Though most of the Paranormal Activity franchise centers on youth, an elderly villain emerges in the series’ third chapter. VHS tapes transport us back to 1988 where an invisible entity terrorizes a suburban home. Videographer Dennis (Christopher Nicholas Smith) tries to convince his girlfriend Julie (Lauren Bittner) that the imaginary friend her younger daughter Kristi (Jessica Tyler Brown) has been playing with is actually a demon raised by a coven of witches. When the haunting grows to frightening levels, Kristi submits to Toby’s demands and asks to be taken to her grandmother’s house. But Grandma Lois (Hallie Foote) is not the protective port in the storm that Julie had hoped. Late at night, Dennis awakens to strange sounds wafting through the darkened house and occult symbology decorating the walls. Lois and her coven are responsible for summoning the demon and plan to offer Kristi up as his bride. Directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman use period-appropriate techniques to create the franchise’s most frightening entry while positioning a dangerous older woman as the true source of terror.
The Visit (2015)
Most teens think the worst thing that can happen on a week-long trip to their grandparents’ house is missed social opportunities or interminable boredom. But Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) and Becca (Olivia DeJonge) can’t wait to meet their mother’s estranged parents and learn more about this part of their past. With their mother away on a cruise, amatuer documentarian Becca plans to chronicle the visit for a film exploring her family tree. However, her grandparents have a few strange house rules. The siblings must not leave their rooms after 9:30 PM and under no circumstances should they go into the basement. After dark, Nana (Deanna Dunagan) begins exhibiting strange behavior while Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie) stashes soiled diapers in the shed. Perhaps their doting grandparents are not the elderly saints they appear to be. M. Night Shyamalan’s film places horror in an old-fashioned home and suggests that no matter how innocent our grandparents may appear, they’re still capable of causing unthinkable harm.
The Skeleton Key (2005)
The Devereauxs are another elderly couple who prove that appearances are seldom what they seem. Caroline (Kate Hudson) is a hospice worker who takes a job providing round-the-clock care on a crumbling plantation in rural Louisiana. Ben Devereaux (John Hurt) has recently suffered a stroke and his wife Violet (Gena Rowlands) struggles to accept her own limitations. She will allow no mirrors in her beloved home and seems to bristle at Violet’s presence in her husband’s life. But when Violet’s behavior grows disturbing and strange, Caroline begins to suspect that this doting wife may be behind Ben’s deterioration. The discovery of hoodoo paraphernalia and an old record called “Conjure of Sacrifice” sends Caroline running for her life, but it might already be too late to escape. Iain Softley’s film is a southern gothic nightmare exploring the unique fear of finding yourself trapped in a powerless body.
The G, starring Dale Dickey, is in select theaters and available to watch at home today.
