One of M. Night Shyamalan’s greatest mysteries will always concern “The Happening”: Was his 2008 killer trees thriller intentionally so ridiculous and unhinged? Or namely, was it aware of how funny it was? No such mistake or question will follow Shyamalan’s latest, an odd pitch-black comedy about a beach that ages its uninformed visitors a year for every 30 minutes. Adapted from the graphic novel “Sandcastle” by Pierre-Oscar Lévy and Frederick Peeters, “Old” is Shyamalan’s kind of summer romp, in which beach bodies decay, and even the most informed people at the end of his puppet strings are completely doomed. His brutal sense of humor doesn’t always translate for a thrilling trip, but Shyamalan knows what he’s doing here, for the most part.
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Shyamalan lays it on thick from the beginning, setting the scene at a fancy secluded hotel that then shuttles select visitors off to a deadly beach of mysterious aging. And that it comes from two boys asking different hotel visitors their name and job—like budding screenwriters—we are made more aware of the various pieces being set up that will eventually be called back. He practically encourages you to clock every reference in dialogue to aging, every reference to a characters’ ailment, or how the kids talk about adulthood with such whimsy and opportunity (“We’re going to be neighbors with mortgages!”). It’s heavy-handed, but forgoing precious tact is Shyamalan’s idea of a vacation. He’s still just as intentional as with his found-footage stroke of brilliance “The Visit” or the multiple personalities of “Split,” and yet that meticulousness here is only so he can blow everything up later on. He then gives himself a cameo as “Hotel Van Driver” to literally put everything in motion and dips out.
“Old” gets strong dramatic energy from its ensemble of characters, who all give worthwhile, grounded performances in such an absurd scenario. Gael Garcia Bernal and Vicky Krieps star as Guy and Prisca, a married couple on the outs who have come to the resort with their son and daughter, Trent and Maddox. They’re joined on the nearby beach by a schizophrenic heart surgeon played by an unhinged Rufus Sewell, who has arrived with his mother (Kathleen Chalfant), selfie-taking wife with a calcium deficiency Chrystal (Abbey Lee), young child Kara (Eliza Scanlen, originally), and their dog. Later they are joined by a nurse named Jarin (Ken Leung) and his wife Patricia (Nikki Amuka-Bird), who just happens to be a psychiatrist. There’s one man who was already at the beach when they arrived, a famous rapper named Mid-Sized Sedan (Aaron Pierre), and he sits in shock against the rocks with a bloody nose.
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The centerpiece of “Old” concerns their time on the beach, in which the characters gradually learn more about the very concept they’re trapped in. The adults begin to wrinkle, while their certain medical conditions flare up and the children suddenly age physically while thinking like the kids they are (Trent and Maddox are played by Alex Wolff and Thomasin McKenzie in their teenage years.) Everyone’s job comes into focus, with a giant wink from Shyamalan, who has these doomed vacationers say things like “This is illogical!” (stated by insurance company employee Guy, who spouts percentage possibilities throughout) or “I studied this!” (stated by the resident psychiatrist, talking about group psychosis) making it all apparent that those credentials are barely going to help them. Meanwhile, Shyamalan’s sardonic approach brings cliche phrases to ominous life, like how children grow up right before their parent’s eyes, or how time comes for us all.
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But regardless of how self-aware Shyamalan is, the parts that matter most to entertain are more hit-and-miss, as its characters trying to problem-solve and attach logic to what is going on. And what overt horror jolts there are of horror can struggle to expand it beyond a type of brutal gimmick of inevitability, especially when they are anticlimactic in a way that may be true to death, but does not help the pacing. It’s almost like Shyamalan wants you to get caught up in the shocking ridiculousness of the very moment, but the action itself is a bit too repetitive to be scary, or as funny as Shyamalan wants it to be.
To be fair, even if his deadly jokes or easily guessed death moments don’t always charm, “Old” does have some truly freaky or uncomfortable moments from it that win you over. Shyamalan still gets a couple of especially nasty body horror moments out of this new scenario, unique to its brutal science. The movie is at its best when it’s the most ruthless. When it shows the scary immediacy of bodies, and how the characters can use that against each other. Packaged within the tone, it shows how only Shyamalan could make a playful, weird movie of this kind, and one that tries to spin abrupt physical comedy out of our solemnity with death and our preciousness with age. Sometimes it just happens, especially when you’re on a beach that aggressively reels in the years.
It’s not until later that “Old” balances out with some poignant emotional notes out of the bizarre crisis, but thanks to the ensemble’s formidable performances, they do land. It’s in the brief moments, like a sweet scene between an aging Vicky Krieps and Gael Garcia Bernal, as they come to a sense of what matters in the long run. And the brother-sister bond between Maddox and Trent is sweet too; Thomasin McKenzie and Alex Wolff have touching scenes, as their characters remain close throughout the wild experience. And like his heart-wrenching work in “Hereditary,” Wolff remains one of the best weepers in horror.
Shyamalan’s script is playing by its own rules, sometimes to its own detriment, but the film is grounded by seriously great cinematography from Michael Gioulakis, one of the sharpest horror DPs in the business (think of the spinning cameras of “It Follows,” or the unsettling shadows of Jordan Peele’s “Us”). His eye for disorienting shots that make distinct use of thirds in the frame, or have the camera ebb and flow between different characters in single takes, is especially wondrous and seductive here. Letting him loose on a location that promises ample negative space—just a few people on a gorgeous beach, surrounded by a rock wall and clear skies—is a bonafide sandbox for him, and his inspired work helps take you shot by shot through Shyamalan’s abrasive experience. It’s all the more to absorb the movie’s bounty of shocked close-ups, as this full cast of expressive faces gradually ages over the film’s run-time.
“Old” is so playful that even the finale has an extra nature to it; it gives you way more than you thought you were going to get 90 minutes previous. In a way that becomes bizarre itself, it makes the existential crisis even more literal, and makes you wonder if the suffering is … a good thing? At the very least, the ending shows that even in the standards of what information comes with a twist, Shyamalan can still surprise you. “Old” may not be weird enough given the promise of its revealing concept, but that weirdness is intriguing, especially for a singular director who is even more openly mischievous than he was 10, 15, or even 20 years ago. [B-]
“Old” arrives in theaters on July 23.
