The unique concept of M.Night Shyamalan’s latest horror-thriller ‘Old’ undoubtedly had the potential to produce a thought-provoking and memorable cinematic experience however Shyamalan, unfortunately, delivers a narrative sub-mediocre to the premise resulting in a messy, confusing, and almost comical attempt at a new-age horror. ‘Old’ serves to comment on the introspective nature of aging and the difficulties of facing morality; however, to look past the sloppy writing and laughable directive choices and capture the allegorical message of the film proves nearly impossible. The dialogue played a key role in the downfall of this movie. In places, the lines felt unnatural and the limited cadence of the cast made the characters feel inhumane. Furthermore, the absurd amount of exposition destroys any opportunity for the audience to unravel the mystery of the beach as the characters proceed to almost immediately figure out the intricacies of this natural phenomenon and relay it in such explicit detail. It’s difficult to pin the unnatural feel of the film on the actors – given the script – they were faced with a pretty demanding task; particularly for Alex Wolff, Thomas Mckenzie, and Eliza Scalen who were battling with the developing hormones of a teenager In the mind of the child but they gave sufficient performances all things considered. The flow of the movie leaves a lot to be desired. As the characters begin to establish the concept that time is moving at an unnatural rate what follows is a number of loosely connected scenes that seem to highlight this concept without any real progression of the narrative. For example, the scene where a 15-year-old Eliza Scanlen falls pregnant and delivers a baby only for it to die in a matter of minutes. This is essentially a microcosm of the several scenes which seem to tackle the premise but have no importance in the larger scale of the film leaving the audience confused and raising the question – why is this included? multiple times. The ending felt tacky and rushed. There is a loose attempt to make the audience question the morality of the scientists but we get minimal time to decide before Alex Wolff and Thomas Mckenzie return, ultimately saving the day and reporting all the names of the people who have gone missing. One thing that surprised me was the cinematography by Mike Gioulakis. There was an abundance of disorientating and nauseating shots throughout the film which were effective and unique, Although I will say I do not recommend sitting in the front row if you have any form of vertigo or motion sickness!
In essence ‘Old’ fell way short of my expectation as horror and wouldn’t be a film I recommend watching alone however watching with a group of friends proved to be enjoyable in the way that we couldn’t stop laughing at the film’s nonsensicality.
Overall score – 4/10
Lewis’ Film Reviews 