Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan is back again with Old, a mystery-thriller that sees its protagonists aging rapidly and unnaturally, but how scary and violent is the film? When it comes to a Shyamalan movie, viewers have come to expect quite a few horror elements, some chills and thrills. Old is different from the director’s previous movies, however, which changes the amount (and levels) of scare tactics involved.
The film begins with Guy (Gael García Bernal), Prisca (Vicky Krieps), and their family headed to a remote resort for some much-needed vacation time. Things are going well for them at first (despite the tension in the couple’s marriage), but it isn’t long before things go sideways. After being chosen to spend time at a beach cove, the family, along with several other characters, discover they can’t leave the area as they begin to age rapidly, living an entire lifetime in one day.
Old is rated PG-13 primarily due to strong violence and disturbing images. To that end, the film does include scenes where one character stabs and slices at another with a pocket knife, with some of the viciousness of the scenes coming directly from the character’s increasing aggression. There is some blood, but it’s nothing too gory per se (it's not dripping and dries up quickly). As far as disturbing images go, Shyamalan’s film contains a few scenes that include grotesque body horror — one character’s bones are shown snapping and reforming in contorted, gruesome ways, while a couple more scenes depict bodily death. However, the film doesn’t linger on any of these horrific elements, often panning the camera away as physical transitions occur. Even a scene showing a person falling is filmed largely from the perspective of a spectator. The impression one gets here is that the horror of seeing the fall is more brutal than the outcome.
These moments can be scary, but they’re more shocking and perverse than frightening in the traditional horror sense. There are also no jump scares in Old, with Shyamalan imbuing the story with tragedy rather than outright terror. In this instance, losing time and rapid physical and mental deterioration is the devastating part. Plus, most of the action happens in daylight so it lessens the impact of the story's more severe aspects. The film is also given its rating for partial nudity, with a completely naked backside appearing early on in the film. The brief strong language is mild at best, though Old’s scary and somewhat violent enough to deter many from bringing any children to see it in theaters.
Shyamalan has several horror movies under his belt now, but Old is much milder when it comes to its use of the same elements he’s employed in the past. Rather, the director’s latest film is more thriller than horror. And while certain aspects of the story and images can be considered violent and scary, Old is pretty tame in both respects. Several scenes are filmed using close-up shots, limiting the amount of gruesome images shown, with a large part of the narrative relying on the insinuations of something terrifying happening rather than on showing it. The film is scary enough without overstepping its own boundaries.