We all are getting older. This fear is so basic that it feels silly to turn it into a movie premise, let alone a movie named Old. We are adults, and we are cultured! We value subtlety more than we want a movie with a title that is also referred to as very rude. But maybe adulthood is the problem. The twist on writer-director M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film isn’t in its story, which does exactly what audiences might expect. The surprises come from its presentation, which is surprisingly loving for a film that is not afraid of horrific death. Old is a pretty bad horror movie about adults, but a pretty good one about kids.
Based on the graphic novel Sand castle by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters, Old is an uncomplicated thriller about a few people on a lonely, idyllic beach. Over time, they notice that something is wrong: They all age surprisingly quickly. Children become teenagers, then adults. Wrinkles appear in front of her eyes. Seeing and hearing begin to deteriorate. And none of them can go because anyone who tries to leave the path they came will pass out and then wake up in the surf.
The source material offers no explanation for the phenomenon, however Old does. This moves Shyamalan’s adaptation more into the realm of mystery and away from contemplative horror, which feels like a grave, fundamental flaw. Shyamalan’s recent career has been marked by a departure from the big twists and turns that like a calling card for his early hits. were The sixth Sense and Unbreakable, and during Old not returning to this tradition of great twist, Shyamalan’s preoccupation with answers can frighten audience expectations. Everything is explained in Old, and this explanation does not recontextualise the previous hour and a half very deeply. The story makes sense, but it also feels like it’s from another movie that deals with very different ideas than Old.
It cannot be stressed enough how much of Old is simply working through this premise and showing how vacationers slowly realize what happens when they finally give in to despair or do not escape. The main characters are Guy and Prisca (Gael Garcia Bernal and Phantom thread Star Vicky Krieps), a married couple whose marriage is in danger. They take one final trip before breaking the news to their children Trent and Maddox (played first by Luca Faustino Rodriguez and Alexa Swinton and then others as they get older).
When the family arrives at their surprisingly sophisticated hotel, the host offers them and a few other guests a shuttle to the best beach on the island, where most of the film takes place. They are joined by an arrogant doctor (Rufus Sewell), his vain wife (Abby Lee) and their child (initially 6 years old and played by Kyle Bailey), a rapper (Aaron Pierre), a nurse (Ken Leung) and his psychologist Wife (Nikki Amuka-Bird).
Old marketed and constructed as a thriller – the opening act is permeated with horror, and its horror comes from the reduction in its small cast, both psychological and deadly. But it’s also a surprisingly sentimental film. While the title and premise suggest a focus on an adult’s fear of old age and death, Shyamalan’s script and staging deal predominantly with children. The few scenes in front of the beach are almost entirely from her perspective, when Trent, precocious and smart, rattles facts and makes friends and his older sister Maddox takes care of him. The nightmare of the beach is not what happens to adults, who should know better, but to children who are pushed into adulthood just a few meters away from their parents without any guidance and the regrets of a lifetime are compressed in a few moments.
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Photo: Universal Pictures
Shyamalan’s camera focuses on fleeting moments: clumsy limbs, lost in the surf and the flood. He pays attention and care to freeze-tag games, little puzzles and sandcastles and the strangeness of characters who suddenly find themselves in older, more mature bodies. Getting old isn’t bad, but growing up is.
From this lens Old is less of a thriller than a weird fairy tale, a tongue-in-cheek parable about the narrow egoism of adulthood that obliterates the broad curiosity of children. It’s not particularly subtle, but it’s loving and a little wistful. As a thriller, the film is mediocre, occasionally confronting the audience with shocking body horror, but mostly exploring exaggerated fears. As a lament it is sometimes easy, but also sometimes beautiful. It’s an ironic statement, however intended, from a filmmaker known for his endings. Getting old is just another end, after all. If you focus too much on it, you will miss the whole damn point.
Old Premiere in theaters on July 23.
