Visionary filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan is back with his old tricks in this frightening yet compelling new thriller.
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Visionary filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan returns with a chilling, mysterious new thriller about a family on a tropical holiday who discovers the secluded beach where they are relaxing is somehow causing them to age rapidly, reducing their entire lives into a single day.
Old plays off our modern crusade against the natural progression of time. Instead of a serial killer or supernatural entity killing victims, it is the natural decay of the human body that is the villain in this story.
The film follows a family who travels to a resort island for vacation. There, they are taken to a secluded beach along with others. As they spend time on the beach, strange events begin to occur. Soon they realize that they are aging very quickly. To make matters worse, the beach is inescapable.
What Shyamalan does with Old is spelled out in what might be the shortest, most fitting title ever for a movie. He manipulates our fear of aging, through the catalyst of supernatural occurrences. If you’ve seen the trailer, you'll get it. But while the story doesn’t really deviate from that single note, you won’t necessarily mind because so much is happening. As the characters age at a rapid rate, they have to quickly come to terms with their depleting mortality.
The kids in the film have to deal with the challenges of becoming adults over the course of a few hours while the adults have to come face to face with debilitating diseases and deteriorating senses. The film does a good job depicting various characters’ unique reactions to their experiences, even if the script’s clunky dialogue makes the delivery feel a bit unnatural.
Shyamalan’s films often take a scientific approach to diagnosing the problem and figuring out a solution. Old plays out in the same manner, culminating in a big reveal at the end to place the film’s events into a new perspective.
Fans of the visionary filmmaker will be used to his old tricks, though they may not always seem effective in this still frightening yet compelling thriller. The plot is less restrained but his signature style still shows.
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