Old Review: A thriller without ghosts and monsters, but speaks to the deepest fears of all

If in one day, the body rapidly aged, even to the extent of old age and death. How would you spend this last day? Such a bold idea, by the Indian director Shyamalan shot out. In accordance with his usual tone of “no reversal, no comfort”, it is really just reading the title of the film is full of expectations – Old

Before talking about the film, I have to mention the “eccentric” M. Knight Shyamalan. As a strong type of director of suspense thrillers, Shyamalan has a very personal style of filmmaking. Whether it’s the familiar masterpiece “The Sixth Sense”. Or a few years ago, the acclaimed “split”. He is always able to blend those treacherous and strange ideas together to make a work that we are not expecting. The new film we are going to talk about today is said to be inspired by the graphic novel “Sandcastle” written by French artists Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters.

The story takes place in a scenic uninhabited beach. A group of tourists were invited to this beach vacation because of the winning invoice. Among this group of tourists. There is a family of four, Mr. and Mrs. Kappa and their daughter Mads, son Trent. There was also the Charles family, a doctor, and the young black rapper and Chinese Jay couple. They were supposed to be thinking about how to spend their perfect vacation. Until the next scene, completely unexpected for them. The brother of the family of four, Trent, was swimming when he ran into a white faced female body. They would not know that this was the beginning of all the tragedy. Where did the dead woman come from? It turned out that she was none other than the rapper’s companion. The two came together to meditate on this beach with the aim of curing their mental illness. When the girl insisted to go out on the beach by herself. The rapper said he couldn’t stop her, and then after that she was never seen.

It so happened that Trent found her, but had turned into a corpse. The rapper saw the same look of disbelief and horror. But even so, everyone still could not rule out the suspicion of him. Just then, the doctor Charles tried to go through the cave to find the driver who sent them. As a result, when he reached the cave cavern, he himself inexplicably fainted. The Chinese Jay, who was manic on the beach, also inexplicably drowned while trying to swim across the shore. His death was identical to that of the rapper’s female companion. Even more bizarre is the current state of the Capas’ son and daughter and Charles’ daughter Kayla. These three children, who were clearly five years old when they arrived at the beach, magically grew up in an instant. Whether it is height, size, or appearance, not at all like a five-year-old child should look like. Of course, Mr. and Mrs. Kappa and Mr. and Mrs. Charles are also rapidly growing older. Charles’s elderly mother had a sudden cardiac arrest. Things were getting more and more out of control.

After some speculation, we finally found a “Chinese point” – No one on the beach time is obviously a problem, here half an hour is equivalent to a year in the normal world!

No doubt, everyone present, stay less than a day, will instantly become 50 years old. And in less than two days, they might die of old age! Time is of the essence, if they still sit on the sidelines and do not think of a way out, they will have to wait here to die! Although everyone has to grow old one day, but who would have thought that one day they would grow old in such a way? It is estimated that no one else would have been able to accept it.

But never thought that the bad situation continues. The physically mature Trent and Charles’s daughter, Kayla, actually accidentally had sex. Just a few minutes after the relationship, Kayla immediately big belly. That’s right, Kayla was pregnant. What’s more, she also gave birth within an hour …… Unfortunately, there was no medical care available on the beach. This poor newborn baby was not breathing just minutes after birth. Already on edge, everyone was now even more anxious and upset. Strangely enough, that’s when Dr. Charles also appeared different. He began to become more and more cranky and strange after the mother died of cardiac arrest, and kept mumbling to himself. It turns out that the only doctor on the beach, himself sick, suffering from a hidden psychosis. A series of strange events around him caused him to suddenly have a psychotic episode and stab the rapper to death. He also tried to stab the Kappa family when he lost control.

As a result, he was not paying attention, but Kappa’s wife killed back with a knife. Charles’s daughter Kayla also escaped, when she tried to climb up the cliff to the high place. A center of gravity is not stable, it was severely fallen to death. If Charles and his daughter’s death has been tragic enough, then his wife can be said to be more tragic. She did too much plastic surgery in her youth, and in this place of rapid aging, the cells in her body were reversed by time and accelerated mutation. In the end, she died of bone fracture all over her body ……

Everything is like a nightmare that cannot be stopped. Poor Mr. and Mrs. Kappa eventually also because of the acceleration of time, slowly die of old age. Until finally the beach was left with only two siblings Kappa. They watched their parents fall alive and not breathing. Watching their companions fall to their deaths, watching the elders who had been swimming with them all the way died violently one after another. Trent and Mads were frightened and scared, clinging to each other while their desire for life intensified. They decided to calm down and think about it all, and try to find the clues to escape from this horrible beach. Finally, the siblings remembered before they came to the beach. They had met a child at the beach resort, the nephew of the beach resort manager. The boy had enthusiastically played a word game with the siblings, but because they were in a hurry to leave, the word game was only half played.

Little did he know that this word game was a “life-saving charm”! Trent hurriedly took out the paper of the crossword puzzle, and according to the symbols, solved the meaning of the words on the chart. “My uncle doesn’t like coral”, the answer hidden in the word game, so the two siblings finally saw hope! Trent and Mads swam out along the coral clumps at the far end of the coast. And they did manage to escape! After all the absurdities. They returned to the normal world is already fifty years old look. So what was it that made them go through all this hell? It turned out to be a huge conspiracy about the Warren Pharmaceuticals. This abominable pharmaceutical company lured people to this horrible beach to study the changes of time acceleration for people’s bodies.

Let these people invariably become their experiments! As a thriller with sci-fi medical elements, Shyamalan once again brings everyone the same surprise and excitement as dismantling a blind box. But at the same time, Shyamalan is still the same director who has been polarized by the outside world. The reputation of the film was mixed. But for Shyamalan, he has once again experimented with his brainstorming ideas to make people feel the fear and powerlessness brought by aging. Even though everyone will grow old sooner or later.

But life is suddenly condensed and has to be exhausted in a single day. Who would be willing to accept such helplessness and despair.