Old: All We Know About M. Night Shyamalan’s New Movie
M. Night Shyamalan has a new movie coming out and it looks like it returns to the thrills of his early work. Here's what we know about Old
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M. Night Shyamalan coming out with a new movie might not carry with it the same kind of movie-lover cache it used to back in the day. But it sure looks like the guy can still dial it up in terms of suspense when the project is right. That very much looks like the case with his next movie. He has a film coming out this year that appears to bring back the M. Night of old. That includes plenty of edge-of-your-seat scares and head-scratching twists and turns that will leave you guessing. Let’s take a look at what we know about M. Night Shyamalan’s next film, Old.
What Is Old About?
Based on the graphic novel Sandcastle, Old looks like it follows an unassuming family as they make their way out on a day trip to a secluded beach looking for a little rest and relaxation. All pretty innocent, right? Well because M. Night Shyamalan is involved you know this thing is about to go completely sideways. The family’s trip apparently turns into a nightmare when they realize the island they are visiting is anything but normal. From the trailer, we can tell that those staying here have some adverse side effects to staying on this particular beach.
It seems that if you are staying on the island there’s more to worry about than checking your SPF on the suntan lotion or watching out for jellyfish. On this beach, you are going to start aging rapidly, condensing your entire life down to a single day. The effects on the characters are jarring and shocking as they deal with the horror of a move at warp speed through their own lives. Here, see what I mean in the trailer for the next M. Night Shyamalan movie, Old.
The Cast Of Old
Old stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Vicky Krieps as the parents who’ve decided to take their family on the getaway from hell. Bernal is a Mexican actor, best known for his starring role in Amazon’s Mozart in the Jungle. He also started coming on the scene with The Motorcycle Diaries as Che Guevara on the trip that helped round out some of his extreme political leanings.
Meanwhile, Krieps is likely best known for her role in The Phantom Thread and has taken part in a number of different foreign-language films. Her star is on the rise though with at least four movies in the post-production pipeline right now.
The cast is rounded out with a number of different talents, some of whom are cast in the same “roles” to showcase how the island ages people. Because the family’s two young kids grow out of their youth pretty damn quickly, we are left with a large cast even for what appears to be a bottle movie. Some other notables include Eliza Scanlen (Sharp Objects), Rufus Sewell (The Man in the High Castle) and Ken Leung (The Night Shift).
Where Was Old Filmed?
Some of M. Night Shyamalan’s best movies are insular, eschewing large set piece changes in favor of just a simple place with the story driving almost all of the plot rather than the backdrop. Here, it’s apparent he uses the beach to its full potential with the idyllic and gorgeous backdrop juxtaposed against the evil and horror of the proceedings. Unlike his other films, this one isn’t going down in the Philadelphia area but rather was shot in the Dominican Republic.
Old Versus Other M. Night Shyamalan Movies
M. Night Shyamalan has been in the game making thriller flicks for the better part of two decades now. There have been starts and stops along this career timeline though. After breaking onto the scene seeing dead people in The Sixth Sense, he became one of the bigger draws around with follow up movies like Unbreakable, Signs, and The Village. All offered some standard M. Night twists and turns following somewhat similar pacing and mystery only to have things pivot near the end.
But there was some fatigue for M. Night Shyamalan and his techniques as he continued to put out films in the mid 2000’s. Lady in the Water was universally panned with critics feeling it stood as simply too derivative of his earlier work.
Then things really fell off a cliff in the early parts of the 2010s. He had a string of flicks that were just complete bombs. The Happening, Devil, The Last Airbender, and After Earth totaled just 83% on the Tomatometer (average 21%) earning fewer than $300 in all at the box office.
But M. Night Shyamalan is on an upswing now. 2015’s The Visit showed the filmmaker still had it in a story about two teenager’s ill-fated trip to their grandparents’ farm. And he continued his Unbreakable franchise with Split and Glass. Old very much looks like a return to what put M. Night on the map, to begin with, keeping things relatively contained while also offering a disturbing set of circumstances.
When Will Old Hit Theaters?
Old was originally slated to hit theaters at the end of February but pandemic-related closings have pushed that back to the summer. Now we are planning on getting M. Night Shyamalan back in the mix on July 23, 2021. Unlike some other popular and anticipated movies, Old doesn’t look like it will hit a streaming service at the same time as the theater release. Though that could change. Peacock is apparently going to have some control over Universal Picture’s movie slate so there’s some chance it releases on that streaming app over the summer.
We are very much in the third act of M. Night Shyamalan’s career and it could be his best yet. This summer’s Old may have you rethinking secluded beaches forever.
