Old
Universal Pictures | Release Date: July 23, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 53 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
26
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeJul 23, 2021
For all the mad adventure, it feels like a Twilight Zone episode stretched out thinly to feature length. Read full review
60
The New York TimesGlenn KennyJul 22, 2021
Shyamalan’s fluid filmmaking style, outstanding features of which are an almost ever-mobile camera and a bag of focus tricks, serves him especially well here. Read full review
60
EmpireJoshua RothkopfJul 22, 2021
A Twilight Zone–worthy premise, subtly sold by ace make-up effects, makes for a decent-enough thriller, intriguing in the moment but ultimately too timid to say anything meaningful about ageing. Read full review
60
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiJul 22, 2021
While Old is certainly a different kind of thriller, with plenty of elements that work to create a sense of tranquility and desperation in equal measure, it grows wearisome as it evades its deeper themes for the thrill of that final discovery. Read full review
58
CNETRichard TrenholmOct 8, 2021
Life's a beach and then you die. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattJul 23, 2021
Old comes close to seeing its metaphysical mystery through. In the end, though, it settles for something more like supernatural camp, with telegraphed twists and jump scares. Read full review
58
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJul 22, 2021
By the time “Old” is over, the strongest feeling it leaves us with is that it just got 108 minutes shorter. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreJul 23, 2021
Shyamalan . . . feels caught between the more emotionally considered movies he used to make, and the leaner, meaner ones he’s done more recently. His filmmaking can’t make up for the fact that Old is hovering indecisively between the two halves of his career, unable to commit to either direction. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 23, 2021
Old is as wrinkled and decrepit as the title makes it sound. Read full review
50
Original-CinKim HughesJul 23, 2021
I have not read the graphic novel Sandcastle upon which Old is based so I can’t vouch for its faithfulness to the source material. But it’s hard to believe anyone would call this a winner. Read full review
50
The Associated PressJocelyn NoveckJul 22, 2021
Of course, it all comes down to a Shyamalan-style final twist — the most entertaining part of the film, but it comes way, way too late. Listen, we’re all up for some summer fun on the beach. But by the time we’re allowed in on the secret here, we’re feeling a bit tired. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJul 22, 2021
Despite an intriguing premise, some Hitchcockian camerawork and a few effective shock scares, this is a thudding disappointment with surprisingly wooden performances from fine actors, and some of the most excruciatingly awful dialogue in any movie this year. Read full review
50
TheWrapTodd GilchristJul 22, 2021
The filmmaker’s diminishing capacity for recognizing naturalistic human behavior once again presents a problem when the time comes for audiences to relate to, much less care about, characters put through the paces of another elevator pitch that he never develops into a compelling story. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangJul 22, 2021
Old grabs you right away, starts losing you at the half-hour mark, pulls you back in with some agreeably bonkers set-pieces, drags you through a tedious closing stretch and finally leaves you in an oddly charitable mood: Say, that wasn’t so bad, except when it was terrible. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonJul 22, 2021
More frustrating than nerve-wracking, Old is hampered by its one-dimensional characterisations within an intriguing set-up. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJul 22, 2021
Viewers who can take it at face value may find a chill or two here, but ultimately Old can’t escape the goofiness of its premise long enough to put its more poetic possibilities across successfully. Read full review
50
VarietyOwen GleibermanJul 22, 2021
Old, like most Shyamalan movies, has a catchy hook along with some elegant filmmaking gambits. But instead of developing his premise in an insidious and powerful way, the writer-director just keeps throwing a lot of things at you. Read full review
50
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonJul 22, 2021
Old, for its part, is quintessential Shyamalan of The Happening mold, a slick, amped-up B movie that hardly ever gives away that it’s in on the joke. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 22, 2021
The most laughably ludicrous and clumsy “explainer” of a third act that Shyamalan has ever served up. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeAug 1, 2021
If we can’t believe the characters, how are we meant to accept the film’s central premise? Read full review
40
ABC NewsPeter TraversJul 23, 2021
Shot with a poet's eye and a tin ear for dialogue, this tricked-up thriller about the horror of getting old too fast brings out the best and worst in M. Knight Shyamalan by throwing a wet beach blanket on a Covid-resonant premise about sudden death and the collapse of time. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyJul 22, 2021
This supernatural thriller has a wild conceit about a time-bending beach, and every creaky device to hand gets thrown in to keep it going. Read full review
40
TimeStephanie ZacharekJul 22, 2021
The possibilities are rich. But Old is just dumb. Read full review
40
CNNBrian LowryJul 22, 2021
M. Night Shyamalan is up to his old tricks in "Old," but after his heralded breakthrough with "Split," he's back on a downward trajectory. While the premise again has an eerie "Twilight Zone"-type quality, the long journey to a payoff -- littered with pretty awful dialogue -- might be picturesque, but it's no walk on the beach. Read full review
40
Time OutStephen A. RussellJul 22, 2021
Shyamalan has never excelled at dialogue, but the mangling here is gobsmacking Read full review
40
Total FilmMatt MaytumJul 22, 2021
An intriguing concept is executed frustratingly poorly. On the Shyamalan spectrum, it’s more The Happening than Unbreakable. Read full review
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