'Old' Trailer: Terrified Beachgoers Rapidly Age In M. Night Shyamalan's New Thriller

M. Night Shyamalan's comeback hasn't been as glorious as one would hope. After being welcomed back into the moviegoing public's good graces with sleeper hit The Visit and the acclaimed horror film Split, Shyamalan stumbled once again with Glass, a sequel to Unbreakable and Split that failed to stick the landing. But with a well-liked Apple TV+ series Servant going strong and an intriguing new thriller on the way, Shyamalan might pull off that comeback after all.Old is a concisely titled horror film from Shyamalan which boasts a star-studded cast and an intriguing premise: what if a group of beachgoers started rapidly aging for no apparent reason? Watch the Old trailer below.

Inspired by the graphic novel Sandcastle, which was written by Pierre Oscar Levy and illustrated by Frederik Peeters, Old follows a group of beachgoers who discover a perfect secret beach — except for the fact that they seem to be trapped there, and rapidly aging by the minute. Shyamalan once again manages to score an impressive cast, including Gael García Bernal, Eliza Scanlen, Thomasin McKenzie, Aaron Pierre, Alex Wolff, Vicky Krieps, Abbey Lee, Embeth Davidtz, and Rufus Sewell, who all seem game for the somewhat outlandish premise.

The most promising part of the film is the cast, which includes horror vet Alex Wolff (Hereditary), rising stars Thomasin McKenzie (soon to appear in Edgar Wright's Last Night in Soho) and Eliza Scanlen (Sharp Objects), with the always-reliable Gael Garcia Bernal and Vicky Krieps leading. Krieps in particular is a welcome sight after briefly disappearing from Hollywood after her breakout performance in Phantom Thread.

Though the film isn't a straightforward adaptation of the comic, it does seem to follow the events of the book pretty closely. Here is the book's synopsis:

It's a perfect beach day, or so thought the family, young couple, a few tourists, and a refugee who all end up in the same secluded, idyllic cove filled with rock pools and sandy shore, encircled by green, densely vegetated cliffs.But this utopia hides a dark secret.First there is the dead body of a woman found floating in the crystal-clear water.Then there is the odd fact that all the children are aging rapidly. Soon everybody is growing older?every half hour?and there doesn't seem to be any way out of the cove. Levy's dramatic storytelling works seamlessly with Peeters's sinister art to create a profoundly disturbing and fantastical mystery.

And here's the movie's synopsis:

This summer, visionary filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan unveils a chilling, mysterious new thriller about a family on a tropical holiday who discover that the secluded beach where they are relaxing for a few hours is somehow causing them to age rapidly ... reducing their entire lives into a single day.

Old opens on July 23, 2021.