Old

This is a horror movie where space is the enemy. That space is a vast, photogenic, and uncluttered beach. It threatens us with reminders of our own mortality, degradation and degeneration of body and mind. It is not in vain that we observe all the changes on half-dressed people in swimsuits. The only way to defeat the antagonist, the imminent proximity of our own decline and end, is to acknowledge it. A very uncomfortable spectacle in places, with first-rate camerawork designed to permanently take control of the situation from the viewer. Old is in many ways a physical, almost Cronenbergian horror film and for that reason it is rather disappointing here that it chooses to keep a low profile in some scenes in the interests of maintaining a lower bar of accessibility. Here the compromises are quite blatant. (25.10.2021)

Shyamalan's original and ambitious thriller does not live up to its potential. The premise is certainly imaginative and interesting. The idea of a beach where a group of people start to age is very cool and it's a bit disappointing that the director kept his head down and didn't go too extremes. Of all the people who die here, none will stick in my memory – maybe just the cave scene, that one was excellent, but for a horror film, those elements are quite few. The final twist is satisfying and rational, but it doesn't quite take your breath away. I wasn't downright bored, and for an afternoon Old is an easily digestible genre film that deserves attention, but it needed more emphasis on the material itself and the savagery. Story 4/5, Action 2/5, Humour 0/5, Violence 1/5, Fun 3/5 Music 2/5, Visuals 3/5, Atmosphere 3/5, Suspense 3/5, Emotion 1/5, Actors 3/5. 6/10. (17.09.2021)

So, this is what M. Night Shyamalan serves us spooky rocks after a spooky wind. Unfortunately, his new film is closer to The Happening than to The Sixth Sense, Split or even Unbreakable, at least in how confident it feels despite how stupid it is. Old is actually a useless movie, and I'm fascinated that no one realized this when making it. It works with one single idea that the trailers boiled down to and whoever avoided it unravels it after a few minutes – we're on a beach where people get old fast – and that's the end of it. Shyamalan can't create terror or dread or evoke a mysterious atmosphere. He just tells it like it is and then waits to see if it turns out good or bad. And the whole thing ends with the mandatory twist, but when it came I was already cringing because I was looking for the end credits instead. The main problem with Old, however, is its emptiness. There's really nothing except the aging. Any attempts at drama and the characters realising how little time they have to sort out the problems they don't talk about fade into nothingness. Instead, what has already been said three times is constantly repeated, and the rules of how the beach works and what actually happens on it are explained. Despite the fact that anyone who hasn't fallen asleep knows all of this already after an hour. Old is a good idea stretched out to a hundred minutes. An idea that perhaps no one has even tried to turn into a movie or a script that could work for those hundred minutes. It's boring, stupid, and sloppy stuff from a director who, for the second time in his career (or maybe third, if you count Glass), has become a prisoner of his own ego and his sense of being a narrative genius. Embarrassing film. (22.07.2021)

Old offers Shyamalan’s classic, interesting camera tricks in the opening and the nice idea of “growing old together” around two characters. But everything else is just wrong. The more the film tries to be serious and scary, the more it puts a smile on your face. And it absolutely fails to draw viewers in, to make them believe and experience the events with the characters. We could say that the point of the film is OK, but it doesn’t make up for the embarrassment of childish naïveté in the handling of the preceding events. (29.10.2021)

One of the few films in recent years that fully drew me into the plot, and where I enjoyed the often ostentatious distraction from the sheer 'cinemaness' and stylistic devices that fully support and serve the narrative. It’s evident that the explicitness of some of the themes, driven to extremes within the satirical spirit of the story, will be like a punch in the face for many viewers, but I enjoyed them very much and have no doubt that I will watch a different film on future viewings. In this, Shyamalan is a whiz who should be respected by jaded mainstream consumers – and Old should be watched with a fair degree of detachment to reveal the humorous displacement of his form and ambitious ideas about life and death. Carry on like this, The Last Airbender is almost forgiven. (11.09.2021)