Look, I like Shyamalan movies, I know they are flawed and a little pretentious. I recognise that they are, at times, too clever for their own good while also not being quite as smart as they think they are.
That being said, in a time of cinema where sequels and reboots rule supreme, it is refreshing to find a filmmaker trying to make original, if not perfect, pieces of film.
They are also fun and, sometimes, scary to watch....just not over 100% of their runtimes.
Old is an adaptation of a 2010 graphic novel called Sandcastle and sees M. Night Shyamalan dabble once more in the twilight zones of horror and sci-fi.
The efficient set-up goes like this – married Guy (Gael García Bernal) and Prisca (Luxemburg’s very own Vicky Krieps) are a married couple with no shortage of issues, who along with their precocious young kids Maddox (Alexa Swinton) and Trent (Nolan River), arrive at the health-focused Anamika Resort, an enigmatic but no doubt beautiful Caribbean vacation destination.
Heading to a gorgeous and Insta-ready secluded cove the family meet up with a band of characters who will provide the thrust as the scares pile up.
After a dead body washes up on the shore, the protagonists soon realise that all is not well. They begin to rapidly age and must work fast in finding a way to survive.
Before you can say DiCaprio the sunny beach refuge becomes a hellscape of violence and psychosis.
All of the familiar Shyamalan tropes are here. Terrific framing. Moments of incredible unease and suffocating dread. The obligatory and infuriating cameo.
Terrible dialogue.
For a good 50 minutes, the viewer is rapt. Shyamalan has made a half classic, half dreadful feature film.
I used to work for an editor, you’ll know of him, who hated M. Night films, almost only because serious film fans are taught to hate them. He would plump for the latest haughty taughty indie, or the film that caused the most buzz at certain film festivals as a recommendation, and piffle on about their undertones and allegories. Some of those pictures were unbearably butt breaking borefests that positioned themselves as being ‘think pieces’ and ‘necessary’ cinema and were work to be endured rather than entertainment.
I am no apologist for lazy filmmaking, poor production values or awful scripting. But on occasions, mostly Friday nights, I am looking for a wee bit of escapism. I’ll watch the latest Loach, or take in the most recent Haneke on different occasions.
If that comes across as an attack on that editor’s tastes, it is not the intention. Different strokes.
So I guess what I am saying is, if you didn’t get on with The Village or Lady In The Water, there’s little here to convince you that Shyamalan is anything but a phoney.
If you did, however, find much to admire in Unbreakable, Split or the little seen The Visit, then Old will be worth the price of admission.
Click the below poster for Kinepolis film times.
