[Film Review] Old Man (2022)

Inhabiting a ramshackle wooden cabin off the beaten path, a cantankerous old man’s day is disrupted with the arrival of Joe, an unsuspecting traveller who has lost his way and is seeking shelter from the impending storm. As their conversation unfolds, both men soon begin to realise they have more in common than they were originally aware of.

Largely a single set location film, Old Man opens with the titular character, played by horror’s favourite creepy old man Stephen Lang, awakening from his slumber in his isolated and rudimentary survivalist style cabin, a close up of the old man’s face as decrepit as his environment. Stumbling around in his bright red long johns, the old man is calling out for Rascal, a creature we can only initially assume as some sort of companion, who the old man rages at for being “disloyal” and who’s punishment for leaving him will be death. Interrupting the old man’s rant is the introduction of Joe, played by an unassuming Marc Senter, a hiker who has wandered off the path and cannot find his way home. Welcoming him in, shotgun in hand, the old man initiates a conversation to determine where Joe has come from, whether he’s a psycho killer cannibal as well as regaling his visitor with his own stories. As the two men warm to each other, the power dynamic shifts and who the old man has invited into his abode isn’t exactly as innocent as first impressions would have him believe.

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Directed by Lucky McKee, who horror audiences are more used to seeing direct punchy and offbeat female-focused horrors such as May (2002) and The Woman (2011), Old Man is an exploration of the effects on the mind due to self-imposed isolation both environmental and psychological. Stephen Lang’s old man’s character is erratic, unpredictable, associated with red, the colour of danger and anger as well as prone to unrelenting bouts of monologuing, not entirely unlike a drunken auld lad you get stuck talking to at a pub on a quiet Sunday. This is in stark contrast to Marc Senter’s seemingly demure and wide-eyed Joe, although the fact that Joe is dressed all in yellow should alert audiences to the character’s possible association with betrayal, deceit and jealousy. 

Directed by Lucky McKee, who horror audiences are more used to seeing direct punchy and offbeat female-focused horrors such as May (2002) and The Woman (2011), Old Man is an exploration of the effects on the mind due to self-imposed isolation both environmental and psychological. Stephen Lang’s old man’s character is erratic, unpredictable, associated with red, the colour of danger and anger as well as prone to unrelenting bouts of monologuing, not entirely unlike a drunken auld lad you get stuck talking to at a pub on a quiet Sunday. This is in stark contrast to Marc Senter’s seemingly demure and wide-eyed Joe, although the fact that Joe is dressed all in yellow should alert audiences to the character’s possible association with betrayal, deceit and jealousy. 

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