Old came out in 2021 to very mixed reviews.
Depending on where you go online, Shyamalan is either a genius or a robot who doesn’t understand human beings.
The sixth sense had a nice plot twist, but now that he’s known as « the plot twist guy », it lost all of its original appeal.
The visit was a nice little thriller movie.
Was it perfect ? Noooo. But it was a decent watch. The characters were weird, but not as weird as in this one.
And I’ll give the guy some credit, I’m just writing reviews on his work, not actually creating anything… but the credit has its limits.
Free trauma
When you have a strong basis to adapt, it’s damaging to your work to not use it to its full potential.
Old could have been sooooo much better.
No one needed to see a 6-year-old give birth to a baby that died seconds later. No one.
The dog also dies. We luckily don’t see it, but yeah… Heads up.
The movie could have felt claustrophobic, frightening and honestly been a real-life nightmare if executed correctly. Imagine the calcium deficiency scene as a main plot point ? See what I mean ?
Instead we could almost follow the script written on screen.
No dialogue in this movie has ever been pronounced by a human being, ever.
It feels like what an alien who briefly went undercover on earth would transcribe.
Without understanding how English works.
No one should be rooting for the beach to win, and yet…
Good effort, but that’s not how it works
Now it is difficult to write and direct a good thriller-horror with a PG-13 rating that takes itself seriously.
Only a few good ones come to mind…
But Old isn’t one of them.
Trent had time to grow up, have sex, become a father for a brief second, lose his parents and still didn’t have time to decipher the riddle his friend gave him ?
Oh, and the ending pissed me off.
How does a cop on vacation have jurisdiction on the resort ?
And I know they are still technically children, but there is absolutely zero universe in which the evil corporation resort would not have killed them on the spot the second they got back. They got insanely lucky to even be able to tell what happened to anyone.
They would have at least been arrested by security, or much much worse.
In a movie where a magical beach that makes people grow old in a matter of hours exists, this is the most unbelievable part.
Which somehow says a lot.
If you do like Shyamalan‘s style though, you might want to give this one a go as it is very much his writing.
Some things work, but just know that the rapper is called Mid-Sized Sedan.
That should have been my first clue on the whole alien-written script thing.
My rating 1/5 bats
🦇⛱⛱⛱⛱
If your movie is this weird, at least don’t kill the dog.