Chillers Old Folks at Home (1990– ) Online

A young couple decides to take in and old couple as an act of kindness and social conscientiousness. But good feelings turn sour when the homeowners begin to feel trapped in their own home. It seems that the "underpriveledged seniors" have some quirky habits that create havoc and leave the young couple in a state of exasperation. When the well-intentioned couple attempts to evict the seniors, a social worker reminds them that they are contracted to keep them in their home. This story is well acted, entertaining, and humorous. I found this episode worthwhile and mildly suspenseful. On a personal note, I have taken in homeless friends on occasion and was reminded constantly of my own battles with my ungrateful guests while watching this humorous but all-too-realistic portrayal of good intentions gone awry!

Sylvia (Brigitte Fossey) and Luc (Jean-Pierre Bacri), a successful yuppie couple take in Fred (Llewellyn Rees) and Rose (Odette Laure), an octogenarian husband and wife from the local couples' retirement home, currently under renovation. Immediately, however, Fred and Rose prove impossible to deal with and Sylvia and Luc find themselves regretting their good intentions.

"Old Folks at Home" is the perfect example of everything that's wrong with the French episodes of "Chillers". First of all, the dubbing is so appealing it made my skin crawl (in that sense, at least, the episode is chilling), but most importantly, screenwriter Gérard Brach and director Peter Kassovitz, somehow manage to miss the point of the tale.

The original short story is loaded with cynicism and is, in fact, a savage satire of bored, middle-class yuppie couples. While most of their friends buy expensive paintings or clothes to show off, Sylvia and Luc get themselves a poor, old couple. Their intentions are not kind or generous, they only took them in so they could brag to their friends how they're "so charitable". But it seems Highsmith's trademark irony and subtlety was missed by the filmmakers who interpret Sylvie and Luc's intentions as genuine and thus turn a bitingly satiric short story into a run-of-the-mill comedy about a lovely younger couple who take in a grotesquely over-the-top elderly couple. As such "Old Folks at Home" simply doesn't work. Unlike the previous episode "What the Cat Brought In", it fails to see or convey the humour of the piece and ends up becoming heavy-handed, drawn-out, and painfully unfunny.