Aged – review

Director: Anubys Lopez

Release date: 2023

Contains spoilers

Perhaps I have been doing this for too long or perhaps punches are broadcast too far in advance but I kind of knew from just title and trailer that Aged was going to be vampiric in nature. What I didn’t know, of course, was just how we were going to get there. What we did get was a slice of American Gothic that reached back into the past to create a sense of uncanniness. Some aspects were a little on the nose but they worked if you just accepted them for what they are and accepted that our protagonist was virtually ignoring them almost wilfully.

first meeting

Starting in a Texas coffee shop, Charles Bloom (Dave McClain) drinks a coffee. Approaching him is Veronica Grey (Morgan Boss-Maltais), a young woman he has come to meet in order to offer her a job. That job is caregiver for his mother, Mrs Bloom (Carla Kidd). She has, he reports, dementia and he is looking for a live-in carer. This doesn’t seem to be her ideal career choice but he asks her to consider it – his tale makes it clear that looking after her is exhausting him.

creepy pictrues

She clearly, later, makes the choice to go with him on a temporary basis and he picks her up. The house is in the middle of nowhere (no signal) and, as they arrive, she sees the gardener, Joe (Adonis Ringo), he seems terrified and manages to slice his hand open… Charles ignores him altogether and draws her into a house that seems stuck in a bygone era. Now here we have a moment that Veronica wilfully ignores. There are pictures of an old type adorning the walls but all of them have the faces scratched away. It gives us a moment of the uncanny but, if I’d have been her, I’d have turned tail. These pictures are later mentioned in dialogue but ignoring them for most of the film seemed off-kilter.

Carla Kidd as Mrs Bloom

She is introduced to Mrs Bloom – a mention of the aging makeup; it is pretty good but obviously makeup and needed in order to de-age, of course – but when she asks to see Charles, she is told he has gone home to his family. Now he didn’t say he was his mother’s live-in carer but it was implied and I’d have again seen a red flag. The film then draws an uncanny cloak around proceedings. Veronica becomes tired and gets mysterious bruises in her sleep. Mrs Bloom talks about going to university, about a man named Henry (Kelly Kidd) who watches her (and Veronica can’t see but we do later), about how, when she is better, she’ll be able to do things.

distant figure

Veronica early on goes for a walk (looking for a phone signal) and sees a figure (too far for the viewer to identify but possibly Mrs Bloom) who runs at her and chases her back to the house. Later Veronica cannot leave the house without fainting and is eventually told that the house won’t let her leave and that it dislikes being changed… making the house an entity in its own right. We can see Veronica age (a grey streak appears in her hair) and lose time (though she is gaslighted, so whether the assertion that she has been there two months, when she thinks a week or two, is accurate is debatable). Mrs Bloom, on the other hand, begins to subtly become sprightlier.

the bath

How? My overall reaction is that it is energy (and youth) transference but there is stealing of Veronica’s blood by Henry and Mrs Bloom. This is taken to a bathtub and added to the water and roses in there. Mrs Bloom will eventually bathe in it (somehow, probably down to magic, it remains fresh it seems). It all goes down to tuberculosis and Mrs Bloom’s granddaughter (Bria D'Aguanno) dying, leaving Mrs Bloom ill, abandoned by family but unable to die. To bring death she made a deal with an evil spirit, to die she would trap another Bloom in her place. Mrs Bloom is not the original and Veronica, unbeknown to herself, is of the familial line. Mrs Bloom can regain her youth by taking Veronica’s and leaving her to remain in the house.

it won't let you leave

This was interesting just for the sense of uncanny it produced and it was this that was central to the film. There are some light jump scares but mostly the film relies on atmosphere to carry itself. Morgan Boss-Maltais really made the film, giving a strong central performance. It’s nice to see youth stealing in a film though more could have been made out of the house – it really felt like the aim was to make itself almost the central vampiric entity and they could have played more with that. 6 out of 10. The imdb page is here.

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