Movie review: Old - ridiculous thriller about acute aging on a mysterious beach

M. Night Shyamalan's

films often hang on the closing scenes. The big finale, where the veil is pulled away and shows what is

happening, is what ultimately makes the film a wow experience or just a "meh". As the change of perspective in the debut Sixth Mind (1999), the most famous of his 14 films.

In Old, the twist is less dramatic, rather it resembles an Agatha Christie novel: a group of people end up in an isolated place and lose their lives one by one. No, it's not a spoiler for the film's plot is a clear, rolled out carpet right down to the gates of hell. The tension is not in what is going to happen but who is going to die next (and some do it in explicitly violent ways).

be uneven to say the least. At best, he is a surprising storyteller. At worst, he serves up a kitschy headache of supernatural threats and confusing side tracks. But he is good at creating excitement and this is what prevents the grade from sinking to the absolute bottom.

The excitement kicks in already when the married couple Guy (Gael García Bernal) and Prisca (Vicky Krieps) arrive in a holiday paradise with their two children, 11-year-old Maddox and 6-year-old Trent. Marriage is cracking and Prisca's diagnosis has added stress. They need to speak out properly and therefore jump on the whimsical hotel manager's (Gustaf Hammarsten)'s proposal for a secret beach for only "special guests".

But it is not very secret, there are also a couple of other guests from the hotel. Then it does not take many minutes before the horrors begin. Everyone on the beach seems to be aging at an alarming rate, about two years an hour. Not only that - you can not get out of there. They are fixed in fast forward mode.

on a graphic novel (Sandcastle ”by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters) and not Shyamalan's own idea can explain the straightforward narrative, freed from unnecessary narrative ramifications. However, it does not explain annoying details such as why the doctor Charles (Rufus Sewell) is raving about an old movie with Marlon Brando or why some of the guests age dramatically while others barely get a wrinkle.

But but. It's still small things compared to the overwhelming ridiculousness of it all. This is a soap opera, complete with exaggerated acting, unnatural lines, irrational acting and a clear villain.

And just like a soap, it lasts far too long.