Several families become trapped on an isolated beach
that's causing them to age multiple years in just a few hours. HORROR
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Old (2021)Written and Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Starring Gael García Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Rufus Sewell, Alex Wolff, Thomasin McKenzie, Abbey Lee, Ken Leung, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Eliza Scanlen, Aaron Pierre, Embeth Davidtz, Emun Elliott Based on the graphic novel Sandcastle by Pierre-Oscar Lévy and Frederick Peeters |
For a while there it seemed like we finally got Shyamalan back. Following two big successes, he quickly started declining with each film and started to become a joke in Hollywood. With his first couple of films, he was being deemed the next Spielberg and a master of his craft. Not too long after, though, he was being considered a hack who would never direct a good film again. But then, a surprise happened. He came out with The Visit. Audiences and critics took notice. Shortly after, he followed with two more well received films. It was at this point where we all seemed to get back on board and agreed the once infamous director might just be back. Then his most recent, Old, came out. A film which brings back all the qualities of his bad films back in full force. What the hell happened?
You know, I’ve seen some low-budget inept films. But very rarely do I see one like this released by a major studio to the general audience. This is awful. Not a single character acts like an actual human would in a situation like this. Shyamalan acts like he has zero idea how to make a coherent, technically good film. And there are truly no rules being followed on this mystical beach. Characters react to terrifying situations with the attitude of paying taxes. Seriously, people are killed, go through an entire pregnancy and labor in the span of a couple of minutes, and rapidly age for no reason. Yet, the most I get from this cast of characters is bad acting and no emoting whatsoever. On the aforementioned technical side, it’s just as bad. Scenes transition to the next with zero context and the camera movement feels less like an experienced director and more like a film school student project. Finally, this whole aging process the film setups. Something which would make for a unique hook if there were any consistent rules. And more visible signs of aging for most of the cast. I should have seen this coming. It was too good to be true. I guess the truth with Shyamalan is his good movies are flukes and his bad ones are the norm. It’s just so frustrating since he has shown how to get good performances from his actors and good technical skills as well. Yet here we are with Old. A movie which seems to point towards a return to the Shyamalan we are all too familiar with. |
Old finally made me realize something about M. Night Shyamalan. I don't think he understands how people really talk to each other. His dialogue always feels forced or overexplanatory. And that's just one of the many problems this undercooked thriller has going for it. There is so much wasted potential here, and it is yet another reminder that there are essentially two different M. Night Shyamalans in Hollywood. There's the visionary horror filmmaker who gave us The Sixth Sense, Signs, Unbreakable, and Split. And then there's the hack who can't stop churning out horseshit like Lady in the Water, The Happening, and The Last Airbender. I'd say Old is somewhere in the middle.
Two families, one of which is on the verge of divorce and one of which is suffering from severe mental distress, are led to a private beach inside a nature preserve. What they find is a dead body, a rapper with a nosebleed, and a situation that is causing them all to age at the rate of one year every half hour. The kids are adults before you know it, and one of them ends up pregnant in a weird and unnecessary scene. The doctor goes insane quickly, and nobody ever seems to be asking the right questions. And in the end, we don't get any real answers. What the hell was this place? Why did it have the power it possessed? I guess we'll never know, unless of course I decide to read Sandcastle. Old isn't Shyamalan's worst effort, but it proves that we, as a society, should probably stop giving him second, third, and fourth chances. He had his time, he gave us some decent movies, but he's yet to really come back in any genuine way. If he keeps half-assing it with films like Old, he'll inevitably do it to himself. |