the old people in my opinion portrayed death. u've gotta read A LOT into the movie to make any sense of it. the whole idea is that the girl (i don't remember her name) is dreaming through about 1/3 to 1/2 of the movie. the main girl (i think she had dark hair at the beginning) kills herself when she 'wakes up'. from that point on it's completely told from the perspective of dream. the old people in my opinion represented death.. this is kinda rambly, but i saw the movie a while ago, when it first came out, and i don't remember specifics about it.