Old is one of the few films I actually got to see in theaters during the pandemic and while personally I did not find it to be the scariest thriller however I thought the concept itself was definitely interesting and something I had not seen before in a movie which prompted me to actually go and see it in person. It is a thriller movie based off the graphic novel Sandcastle produced by M. Night Shyamalan. Through this film Shyamalan teaches us to appreciate life through a new and twisted concept. Old shows a group of families deciding to take on a tropical vacation to make good memories and enjoy time together. They end up on a beach where they enjoy their time until they realize they are beginning to age faster than the normal rate and there is no escape from the island.
The adults begin to realize things are weird when they see their children begin to age into teenagers within hours and then a dead body stumbles upon the beach. And of course upon finding the body like anyone would they attempt to leave the beach however when they do they are knocked out and wake up older than before. It is especially concerning for the adults because as they stay longer on the island they begin to slowly die. The movie kept me pretty engaged throughout and it was hard for me to figure out the ending and it was shocking to find out that the whole thing was planned by the travel coordinators behind the scenes.
As the movie goes on the kids grow into teenagers and the two of them even conceive a child, while it was weird to watch i questioned wether it was really okay even though they were aging both physically and mentally but with no prior life experience. As the adults age many start to die by either escaping the island or from simply aging. One of the adults turns psycho after losing her beauty and becoming a shriveled old hunchback lady, and later her husband turns psycho and attempts to murder everyone on the island due to age and the constant pressure for him to find a solution because he is a doctor. Others suffer from health issues and some slowly age as they begin to lose hearing and go blind and you truly start to feel bad for the position they are in.
However this is a movie that really sits with you when your done, as a teenager myself I did not quite understand the deeper meaning behind this movie but it actually provokes a lot of thought when you put yourself in the perspective of the adults on the island. On out outside it appears to be a basic thriller film about people trying to avoid death on a beach, and if you’re looking for horror like I was you would be very disappointed. The film hits on more adult like issues such as the fear of growing old both. Growing old mentally and physically, fear of losing your beauty and youth, losing the reputation you’ve worked so long for, And most importantly the fear of fighting within marriage in life and then one day having it all end.
I like how you talked about how this movie captures more adult issues like the fear of growing old and losing beauty and youth , I think this is a subject people don’t talk about as much about even if it’s very common.
The thought of aging and how close we are to reaching that final stage is something that I also try not to think about. It’s very interesting that someone made a thriller movie on a topic like this. When you think thriller, your first thought wouldn’t be a movie about the fight against time, so its cool that’s someone thought of this
I loved this movie I thought it was so good. I thought it was interesting how they made the movie and how the characters all individually suffer from a sort of mental/physcial issue. I like how at the end of the movie it was all used for research it really caught me off guard