Aging scares us to caring in Old

by Kathia Woods

A troubled family takes a dream vacation, and the resort manager invites them to spend the day at a private beach. When they arrive, they discover that others have been invited to join them on the excursion. Despite the additional guests, they are determined to have a good time. Knowing how badly they needed to de-stress, the family pushes forward, but not everything appears to be as it appears.

M. Night Shyamalan's film Old takes everyday activities and turns them into a horror show. It seems fitting that after a year of confinement, the one thing we've been looking forward to is a vacation is turned into a horror show. Is Old a film full of horrific images? No, but it heavily plays on one's psyche and uses one insecurity to tap into everyone's fear. Nothing makes us feel more uneasy than the prospect of our own death. The idea of not being able to prepare for aging appears terrifying, and that is the beauty of this film. The fact that humans, no matter how hard they try, are powerless.

He focuses on both obvious and hidden fears. First, there's the fear of no longer being beautiful. The fear of not seeing our children grow up. Our fear of people who are racially different from us. Finally, there is the fear of disease, which plays on the current climate. All the scenarios listed above are plausible ways for humans to die. What I find more compelling is the use of life itself to frighten us.

The film Old works because it uses tangible themes to frighten us. We don't need to conjure up some terrifying monster because the monster is life itself.

Furthermore, with lack of control as the theme, the film works because of the cinematography. It's beautifully shot, and cinematographer Mike Gioulakis takes what appears to be a simple landscape, the beach, and transforms it into the most dangerous place on the planet. Caves, waves, and sand are no longer relaxing places.

The script was written by Shyamalan and is based on the graphic novel Sandcastle by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters. This is Shyamalan's first film adaptation. He previously worked primarily with original material, and this new direction demonstrates that the filmmaker is willing to try something new. Old also serves as a nod to the director's earlier work. Shyamalan appears to have had great ideas in recent years, but the execution wasn't always great. He is the type of artist who always shoots big, which is admirable, but when not executed fully sets one up for equally big failures. He was more controlled and focused in Old, and it paid off.

Getting not only younger actors to play these roles was difficult enough, but the other actors had to be a flawless continuation of the previous pair, or we would lose interest in the rapid aging theme. Casting himself did not detract from the film; rather, it enhanced it. It's debatable whether this role would have been better served by casting an unknown who deserved a chance. When it comes to acting, this cast is outstanding. Every actor was a perfect fit for their role. As the struggling couple, Gael Garcia Bernal (Guy Cappa) and Vicky Krieps (Prisca Cappa) made sense. Rufus Sewell (Charles) and Abbel Lee Kershaw (Krystal) were also excellent choices. He was the older man with the hot young wife who was obsessed with beauty. The children were possibly the best cast.

So, salutes to Alex Wolff, Thomasin McKenzie, Eliza Scanlen, Alexa Swinton, Nolan River, Lucas Faustino Rodriguez, Mikaya Fisher, for working together to help tell the story of Trent, Maddox, and Kara. I also enjoyed Ken Leung (Jarin Carmichael) and Nikki Amuka-Bird (Patricia Carmichael) as married couple brining in an additional element to stir the pot. It

The only flaw in the film was its timing. It took far too long to put everything together. If a viewer is unwilling to exercise patience, they will most likely leave at hour thirty.

Old is far from perfect, but what it does well, it does very well, and it's refreshing to see a thriller that makes you stay until the end to find out who the villains and heroes are.