Released this July, Old is an American thriller film written and directed by director M. Night Shyamalan. The film tells the story of Guy and Prisca Cappa taking a final family vacation to a tropical resort with their children, only to discover they can’t leave and that something is irrevocably wrong.

Photo Credit: Cinema Blind (February 2021)

Old is a reflection of M. Night Shyamalan’s classic movie approach through his contemporary supernatural concepts and signature twist endings. The film follows the Cappa family; married couple Guy and Prisca Cappa alongside Maddox and Trent Cappa, their children. The family takes a vacation to a tropical resort as one final bid before concluding serious family decisions. By recommendation of the resort’s manager, the family is swept onto a private, reserved island at an unspecified location alongside fellow resort guests. Joined as a group, the Cappa family finds themselves accompanied by a multigenerational family including an English chief medical officer, his elderly mother, wife, and daughter, Kara; a rapper identified by tween daughter Maddox; and a married couple consisting of a nurse and psychologist.

Soon after, startling, unusual events begin quickly happening on the beach. The Cappa family and fellow resort guests realize that time is accelerating at a rapid pace, causing devastating events with no clear solution of how to escape the island. Rated PG-13, the film includes several scenes including dead bodies, violence, nudity, and adult language.

Old explores concepts of time in dysfunctional and puzzling ways and includes an unexpected twist ending, a film technique that Shyamalan is popularly known for incorporating. While the concept is initially riveting and the cinemaphotography is visually compelling, the film has received a polarized response on factors such as execution of screenplay and acting. The screenplay waivers throughout the film and is uneven, breaking the audience’s interest to see through to Shyamalan’s twist ending. While the plotline captures thrilling, creepy moments, such as the accelerated growth Maddox, Trent, and Kara experience, many of the peak psychological moments are revealed in the trailer.

All in all, Old may not provide the same gasp-worthy reactions such as Shyamalan’s Sixth Sense or Split, but it’s worth taking a look at if one’s interested in intriguing psychological concepts that play on time, or even just to immerse in the breathtaking cinematography that takes place on the beach.

Published by HOLR Magazine.