old man movie review

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Old Man offers a compelling performance from Stephen Lang, but not much else

Stephen lang is deliriously creepy in the disappointing cat-and-mouse thriller old man.

Old Man is a film that feels like it should work a lot better than it does. It’s an example of filmmaking that makes use of its minimal resources to great effect, a testament to the power of budget productions to create an entertaining experience as marshaled by director Lucky McKee. Writer Joel Veach has crafted a scenario that is both mysterious and engaging, and Stephen Lang’s titular performance is a tightrope walk of hilarity and menace. So why does Old Man still feel like a disappointment when the credits roll?

In the single-room cabin that comprises the entirety of the film’s setting, an unnamed old man (Stephen Lang) wakes up in a disoriented fog, grumbling to himself about how that dastardly dog Rascal has pissed on his floor and left him alone yet again. A knock at the door pulls him out of his angry ruminations, as the mild-mannered Joe (Marc Senter) comes calling, having stumbled upon the old man’s cabin while lost hiking in the woods. The old man invites Joe inside at the barrel of a shotgun, expressing a paranoid reluctance to let the younger man into his home without assurances of safety that gives way to a blatant desire for company. But the old man’s erratic and unpredictable behavior begs the question of whether Joe will survive the encounter.

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The moment-to-moment draw of the film is the cat-and-mouse interplay between the old man and Joe, with Lang serving as the mood-swinging, storytelling madman to Senter’s combination of mollifying victim and comedic straight man. Lang’s performance is a joy to behold, one moment away from violence at all times, but also lonely, tortured, and shockingly funny as fitful bouts of hospitality overtake his overeager instincts for self-preservation. It’s a feat for Lang to come across as terrifying and affable in the same breath, with his character acting as a livewire that jolts life into the film whenever it threatens to slip into tedium, and the commitment to not turning the character’s eccentricities into an arch caricature is an achievement when his personality is written to be so much larger than his meager frame.

Senter is less up to the task of extensive monologuing than Lang, delivering his lines with a slow and drawling cadence that sounds less thoughtful than painstakingly memorized from the film’s script, and if this is a conscious acting choice, it certainly doesn’t come across as such in the moment. Thankfully, Lang is compelling enough for both of them, even making up for the camera’s occasional lack of dynamism. Granted, there isn’t much space within this tiny set for the camera to move with the characters—and an occasional shot does highlight important production details through careful framing—but overall the cinematography focuses on the conversation with simple reaction shots and uninteresting compositions that don’t place the characters in frame with much care. This gives the film a rather stagey quality, raising the question of whether live theater is a better venue for this story than a feature film.

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And it’s that feature length that most greatly diminishes the impact of the film, both in terms of pacing and in having sufficient substance to fill the time. Even running at a meager 97 minutes, Old Man spends over an hour being frustratingly coy with its story, focusing on Lang’s rambling diatribes while drawing out the mysteries central to its premise with few bones thrown to the audience in the interim. The respective identities and motivations of the old man and Joe, the missing Rascal, and the questionable reality outside the old man’s cabin are interesting mysteries in a vacuum—worthy of an episode of The Twilight Zone if not a feature film—but their resolution is simultaneously too simplistic and too suddenly revealed to make the journey to the climax retroactively satisfying. It’s not that the pieces of a puzzle slot together with satisfying revelation, but more that the most obvious solution is sledgehammered home with excessive force and an unearned turn into surreality.

This makes Old Man hypnotic in the moment, but deflating in the aftermath, as the climax will most certainly invite discussion but little insight into the old man’s character beyond the most superficial observations. It’s not a bad ending, per se, but it is underwhelming for all the preceding build-up. While still recommendable for Stephen Lang’s compelling eccentricities, Old Man bears that endorsement with a major caveat for surviving almost solely on that offbeat charisma.

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The Ending Of Old Man (2022) Explained

There's something otherworldly, and if we're honest, a bit unnerving about an old log cabin in the woods with smoke coming from its chimney. What should be seen as a quaint and comforting retreat from the madness of crowds and ills of civilization is all too often the domain of a witch or a killer — or even a portal into a realm of neverending horror. At least it is in fairytales and films. Director Lucky McKee uses the trope of an unhinged outsider living in a remote cabin to great effect in his 2022 movie "Old Man." Stephen Lang is on fire as the title character, who keeps both the hapless hiker Joe (Marc Senter) and the audience on the edge of their seats with his paranoid, psychotic, and powerhouse performance.

"Old Man" has no star-studded cast, special effects, or stunning locations to keep the audience sidetracked or engaged for the duration. What it does have is two actors on top of their game, some cracking dialogue, and a director looking to do something different. As McKee explained to ComingSoon.net , working within the confines of a small space excited him because he wondered if the interaction between two characters and their constant probing of each other could grab and hold the audience's attention.

"Old Man" not only keeps the audience guessing but pays off their commitment with a tasty little twist that makes you want to rewind to the beginning and go again. Let's take another trip to the cabin and uncover what the ending of "Old Man is really all about.

What you need to remember about the plot of Old Man

"Old Man" begins with the title character waking from a nightmare and angrily lurching around his cabin looking for what we presume is his dog, Rascal, who has gone walkabout. Stephen Lang's character is unnerving from the get-go, not just because he's dressed in an outfit that resembles a red prison jumpsuit from the Depression era, but because of the threats he begins to mutter about his pet dog. As he paces, the old man rants that the penalty for leaving him is death. He barks that when Rascal returns he'll throw him in the fire, pick his bones clean, and wash it down with a little hooch before peeing on his ashes. It's clear he's not well, and has abandonment issues.

Into this cauldron of simmering menace walks Joe, a hiker who has lost his way and come to the cabin seeking help. What he gets is a shotgun in his face and accusations that he is either a serial killer or has been sent by the old man's wife on a mission of ill intent. After being soundly interrogated by the old man, Joe reveals marital and employment troubles led him back to the wild country where he used to feel safe as a boy — yet he has no real recollection of how he came to find the cabin. The two characters settle into easy conversation but the old man continues to alarm Joe with his erratic behavior and stories until he finally flees the cabin and Rascal, who is not a dog but a kind of grizzly outlaw figure, returns. It's at this point things get really interesting.

What happened at the end of Old Man

When Rascal (also played by Marc Senter) enters proceedings, looking like a character dragged screaming from the darkest bowels of the Old West, the old man's persona changes from alpha male to a beaten and broken beta in the blink of an eye. Rascal is far from a scolded dog, but instead a vicious bully who has been out hunting for food. Whimpering like a wounded animal, the old man asks Rascal what he's done with Joe. When the old man threatens to shoot Rascal unless he tells him, the cowboy challenges his strength before snatching the gun. He then calls the old man weak, and says "It's no wonder she left you." Rascal then says he's tired of reminding the old man what really happened and offers him a bottle containing water from the fabled purple lake.

The old man drinks and a box in the room opens by the interior push of a woman's hand. Rascal forces him to enter the box, and the old man steps into a past he has been running frantically from. It's revealed that Joe was simply a younger version of the old man who killed his wife (Liana Wright-Mark) and her lover, a Bible salesman ( Patch Darragh ). Upon returning to the present, the old man sees the ghost of his butchered wife standing in the box and begs her forgiveness, to which she replies, "It don't work that way."

The movie ends with Rascal saying, "You're looking tired old man. You need to rest now." The beaten old man climbs into bed and Rascal says, "I'll come back later, I always do." The final shot sees the old man falling asleep, waking from a nightmare, and crying out for Rascal — and the cycle begins again.

What the end of Old Man means

In a bid to find some sort of salvation and forgiveness for killing his wife and her lover, the old man has conjured up a younger version of himself from his imagination. Joe the hiker is simply a projection of the old man in a more idealized and innocent form. The old man holds conversations and asks questions of Joe in a search for understanding and atonement of his crimes. He congratulates Joe on working for a living and doing the right thing, because he is enhancing the positives he believes can be found in his own character. However, the old man is still unable to face the full weight of his actions and hides from them in half-truths, fairytales, imaginary scenarios, and bravado.

The old man will stay perpetually trapped in the cabin in the woods, which is a metaphor for a mental prison of his own making, as long as he continues to run from his actions. The ending symbolizes how the power of denial can shape reality and how the worst hells are the ones we create for ourselves. When the old man's torment is over at the end of the film, in a sense it is just beginning. He goes to sleep unforgiven and unredeemed with the terrible knowledge of the full magnitude of his crimes. Plagued by nightmares, the film ends at the beginning with the old man waking up, alone, confused, and oblivious to the neverending horror that is his existence.

Another possible explanation of the ending

Although the old man could have fled to the cabin straight after killing his wife and lived there for years, it could also be seen as a kind of purgatory or hell. Is the old man destined to live the same day over and over again until he atones for his sins? It's not explained exactly what the old man did in the aftermath of killing his wife and the Bible salesman. He could have fled the scene and returned to an area where Joe confesses he always felt safe as a child. Did he live there alone in the wilderness slowly going insane with guilt and remorse? Or did he kill himself in the immediate aftermath of his crimes and the cabin is merely a drawn-out and tormenting afterlife?

The moans both the old man and Joe said lured them to the cabin are those of their wife making love to the salesman, but after that, they can recall nothing but the fairytale appearance of a cabin in the woods with smoke coming from the chimney. Is the old man rotting inside a psychiatric prison somewhere, whilst living a vivid fantasy life inside his mind because he is unable to acknowledge the enormity of the act he's committed? Did his imagination transform an all-too-human crime into the stuff of myth? The cabin is both a sanctuary and a prison. It is a place where all time folds in upon itself and defies reason or rhyme. Did Joe commit the murders, flee to the cabin, and imagine an older version of himself crazed with time and guilt talking to him before the passing of days made that nightmare a reality?

What is the significance of Rascal?

For a large portion of the film, the viewer is left believing Rascal is the old man's badly mistreated dog. However, in the end, we see Rascal is a high plains drifter and domineering type of figure who the old man is terrified of. His sole purpose seems to be tormenting and abusing the old man, and it is telling that he is played by the same actor who also plays Joe. Rascal is a sort of rugged cowboy who lives by his wits and shoots from the hip. He's the male figure that the old man always aspired to be in his younger years and who he pretends to be to Joe. It's his macho and misogynistic side that makes him unable to let go of the anger that fueled the murders. He tells Joe that the trouble with the younger generation is that they have no taste for violence and refers to himself as a spartan.

There is also a part of the old man who desperately seeks salvation, as he tells Joe, "It's nice when you're lost and someone can help you find your way." Although Joe is at face value the polar opposite of the old man, you can see the anger that will fuel his transformation when he laments how he can't understand why everything has gone so wrong when he's done everything right. He feels the world is weighing heavy on his shoulders and life is conspiring against him but he's powerless to act. Rascal is the character he must become to commit murder and also the one he needs to scapegoat his crimes as an old man.

Why does the old man pretend he tortured the Bible salesman before letting him go?

When the old man recounts to Joe his hatred for salesmen and gleefully explains how he drugged and tortured a Bible peddler before letting him go, it suggests a wilful rewriting of the past. The old man knows in reality he shouldn't have gone as far as killing his wife's lover but is unable to let go of the hatred he feels for him, along with his burning desire for vengeance. And so he invents graphically detailed stories that feature him as a wisecracking protagonist who is always in the driving seat. In the old man's tale, the Bible salesman is a bumbling and odious fool who is easily outsmarted and outwitted by the superior and cooler old dude. In reality, he was bedding the old man's wife behind his back.

The conflicted emotions that the old man has regarding the Bible salesman become evident when Joe is visibly aghast at the old man's brutality towards him. He asks, "What did you do?" and is obviously alarmed. The old man just snickers and in one of his most callous moments does a gross caricature of the Bible merchant by reciting "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death." This savage impersonation takes on a much darker tone at the film's end when the viewer realizes that in reality, the Bible salesman frantically repeats the Hail Mary before Joe shoots him. The old man never tortured him, never taught him a lesson, never forgave him, and never showed mercy — he just shot him in cold blood. As long as he tells the story with such savage glee he remains in denial.

What do the purple lake and wooden chest symbolize?

As someone trapped in a cabin in the woods after killing his wife and her lover, the old man's plight is like the fairytale the Brothers Grimm never wrote, rich with symbolism. It has the cabin with smoke coming from the chimney, the old hermit of the woods, the innocent traveler who may not be all he seems, and the sense of something unspoken and hidden. The supernatural aspect of the story develops further when the old man reveals to Joe that it was the quest for the fabled purple lake that led him to the cabin. He recalls that along the way, he encountered an angry leopard whom he had to kill heroically. The head of the leopard with the eyes of his dead wife hangs on his wall as a trophy and tribute to a man who won't be messed with. Its symbolism is evident, but what about the wooden chest and the purple lake?

In his story, the old man mentions the purple lake as a place where wounded animals go to restore their health and vitality. He doesn't mention the wooden chest, but the camera tracks it constantly when he's talking about his wife and it's the place he enters to revisit the past. It's likely that after killing his wife he placed her in the box and then took it to some high and lonely lake in the smoky mountains where he disposed of the body. Her blood may have turned the water in the immediate vicinity a strange shade of purple. Hence, the purple lake — a place in reality where bloated corpses float obscenely, but in the old man's warped mind, a fabled place where noble creatures go to lick their wounds.

What has Stephen Lang said about the ending?

When actor Stephen Lang was asked by Screen Rant how he viewed the big reveal at the ending of "Old Man," he explained that, "The entire film can take place within the blink of an eye behind the eyeball of the man who's kind of within this fevered dream." In other words, the ending of "Old Man" is open to interpretation. Lang added that he doesn't feel it matters how real the events are in the movie, because the character is like a gerbil on a treadmill with no end in sight and his descent into madness is the driving motivation behind everything. He described the ending as both creepy and sad and called the atmosphere in the film paramount.

In an interview with ComingSoon.net , Lang also confessed that when he first read the script he was scratching his head in puzzlement and asking, "What the hell is going on here? What's happening here exactly?" However, he admitted that the same confusion was what intrigued him and convinced him to play the part. He said, "I found it very, very difficult to put my finger on exactly what was going on. It was like trying to capture mercury in your hand, this thing."

What director Lucky McKee said about the ending of Old Man

When a twist at the end of a movie works well, it's almost compulsory to give it a repeat viewing just to watch everything that preceded it in a different light. It's something that director Lucky McKee had in the back of his mind when making "Old Man." In an interview with ComingSoon.net , he explained, "I think that any movie that hinges on a twist being the thing that gives it success is doomed to failure." However, McKee believes the twist at the end of "Old Man" works because it's the film's mystery and tension that drives its momentum upon first viewing.

However, its twist invites the viewer back in for a second watch because, "When you do watch it again, you start to see all of this layering and all of this subconscious stuff that we were putting in there that ultimately all makes sense with the way the thing turns out." Mckee revealed that the thing in Joel Veach's script that made an immediate impression upon him was how familiar he was with the type of character "Old Man" featured and the unjudgmental nature of the story. Mckee said, "I'd grown up in very rural kind of country environments. I knew those characters." He also added, "I don't want to be imposing my view of right and wrong and put this moral stamp over it."

Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

Movie Review – Old Man (2022)

June 7, 2023 by Robert Kojder

Old Man , 2022.

Directed by Lucky McKee. Starring Stephen Lang, Marc Senter, Patch Darragh, and Liana Wright-Mark.

When a lost hiker stumbles upon an erratic old man living in the woods, he could never have imagined the nightmare that awaits.

An old man is jolted awake agape, presumably by a nightmare. That’s how director Lucky McKee opens Old Man , which benefits from a scenery-chewing gonzo performance from Stephen Lang.

Living in an isolated cabin cooped up in the mountains, the nameless titular old man frantically scrambles about, searching for his dog that must have run off in the night. It’s an extended sequence that allows Stephen Lang to establish the unhinged kookiness of the character while viewers survey the cramped, dusty, and dirty surroundings filled with shelves and bottles.

The above goes on for nearly 10 minutes but, like most of Old Man , remains engaging only because Stephen Lang is aware giving an unapologetically nutty performance that plays into senility, paranoia, and crazed menace is the only possible way to save Joel Veach’s transparent script.

A lost hiker named Joe (Marc Senter) arrives, with the old man putting up his guard and retrieving his shotgun to question him on various topics. Even though Joe is confused and scared, there’s also something unmistakably off about him as he is forced to continue listening and interacting with the old man.

For the first 30 minutes, these conversations are relatively compelling, touching on whether or not the old man intends to hurt Joe and a vague summary of what brought Joe out here. After a small level of trust is established, Joe believes the old man that a nasty storm is coming and that there is no choice but to stay the night.

Director Lucky McKee is coaching these actors to get the most cinematic turns possible for all of the material, but Joel Veach’s script is so talky that once the two characters get into a deep discussion or to, it’s laughably obvious what game the movie is playing here. Then it becomes painful, considering there are no intentions to reveal those cards until the final 20 minutes.

Old Man is a 97-minute movie that drastically needs to be cut down into a lean 70 minutes that ramps up the intensity of these dialogue exchanges so that the plot twist is masked. The twist is unquestionably telegraphed and easy to pick up, doubly so what the film’s lethargic pacing. There’s also a case to be made that this would work better as a stage play, albeit with a serious writing overhaul.

Without saying too much, there is a turn into mysticism that feels hollow and barely developed. It’s one thing for the big picture of this story to be picked up on relatively early, but other elements of Old Man feel as if everyone is making things up as they go. An attempted message about spiritual healing falls flat, as does commentary on religion.

Stephen Lang and Marc Senter have some tense chemistry together, but Old Man is primarily a slog that leaves you feeling like an old man when you come out the other side.

Flickering Myth Rating  – Film: ★ ★  / Movie: ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check  here  for new reviews, follow my  Twitter  or  Letterboxd , or email me at [email protected]

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• FX Thriller <em>The Old Man</em> Is an Ideal Showcase for Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow

FX Thriller The Old Man Is an Ideal Showcase for Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow

L ive long enough, and circumstances will force you to take stock of the big decisions you’ve made. Did they turn out how you’d expected? What did you sacrifice? Whom did you hurt, and was the pain you inflicted on others, or the pain you caused yourself, worth it?

For the title character of FX’s The Old Man , known as Dan Chase (among other aliases) and played by a weathered to perfection Jeff Bridges , that overdue moment of reckoning has finally come. A rogue CIA agent who has been hiding off-grid but in plain sight for decades, he is haunted by nightmare visions of his late wife—and by his paranoid conviction that he’s suffering from a cognitive decline similar to the one she experienced. It turns out that the real threat to his life is external, emerging without warning from his past to put him back on the run and endanger his connection with his adult daughter. But what makes this adaptation of Thomas Perry’s 2017 best seller, premiering June 16, more than just another boomer action-adventure epic is its interrogation of the selfish, destructive, and self-righteous Chase’s claim to heroism.

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His survival has come at a high cost to the people around him. One such person is Harold Harper (John Lithgow), a former colleague turned adversary at the agency who has ascended to a top position at the FBI and is called in to lead a manhunt for the fugitive Chase. Lithgow, portraying an erudite company man with an adoring protégé ( Alia Shawkat ), makes the ideal foil for Bridges, whose all but feral Chase can still switch on the rugged charm when necessary. Harold’s ambivalence about capturing his old cohort adds pathos to the beautifully shot show’s many imaginative action scenes. In cozy homes as well as in dark, deserted stretches of road, Bridges—who in real life is a 72-year-old lymphoma survivor —believably vanquishes, or at least evades, pursuers half his age.

As exciting as The Old Man generally is in the four episodes provided for review (out of seven total), it’s also too sloppy to be a great political thriller. There are plot twists that create plot holes big enough to pilot a C-5 through. It takes a frustratingly long time to get a sense, via flashbacks to his CIA tenure, of who Chase is, what matters to him, and what he did to blow up his life all those years ago—suspense that doesn’t serve much of a thematic purpose.

The show flirts with sexism. In the course of his journey, the widower meets a divorced woman, Amy Brenneman’s Zoe, who seems desperate for companionship and can’t stop talking about her ex. Yet as she becomes entangled in Chase’s crisis, the character deepens, and what initially comes across as a thoughtless, one-dimensional depiction from creators Jonathan E. Steinberg and Robert Levine gains purpose. Zoe becomes an avatar for everyone Chase has endangered to serve his own aims. During one tense sequence, he envisions how he might escape apprehension by killing her and fleeing the scene.

The question that coalesces, midway through the season, applies to so many stories about the lone action heroes whom viewers never stop rooting for, even when their crusades leave an enormous body count: Why should one troubled man’s continued survival justify so much suffering? It takes on extra urgency in the case of Chase, who has already lived a full life, made some catastrophic choices, and whose motivations may turn out to be more personal than political. Maybe, The Old Man suggests, there are more important things than survival.

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FX on Hulu’s The Old Man is a Bold, Wise Vehicle for Jeff Bridges

Becoming a well-trained, wise assassin is a popular look for the aging movie star, and in its most successful cases, it has helped redefine how we see different actors. It’s been custom-tailored for the likes of Liam Neeson , Denzel Washington , Tom Cruise , Bob Odenkirk , Sean Penn , and now, Jeff Bridges . Bridges continues to be one of the most organic actors out there, even in the role of ass-kicker: you believe Bridges in “The Old Man” cooking eggs and listening to someone share a sad life story, just as much as you do watching him scuffle for his life against a younger, bigger assassin in a flipped-over SUV. As a vehicle for Bridges himself, “The Old Man” becomes an expansion of his gentle nature, his wisdom. And in a larger sense, the greatness of Jonathan E. Steinberg and Robert Levine’s “The Old Man” reminds us of the appeal of such a project—to see an actor test their limits across the board, especially when the storytelling itself plays everything so close to the chest.  

Bridges’ character is a man of mystery known by many names, but he most famously goes by Dan Chase. When we first meet him, Chase is living in a quiet town with his two very obedient Rottweilers, taking worried phone calls from his daughter about his lessening condition. Chase’s harmonious life is disrupted when someone comes to his house and tries to shoot him with a silencer—it’s no ordinary break-in, and the attention from local police to the crime scene has him packing. Chase gets a call from an old friend, a CIA figurehead named Harold Harper (a somber, aching John Lithgow ), who we see standing in front of a giant jet with numerous agents ready to disperse. Harper gives Chase a head’s up, that Chase is currently being hunted to be captured. Harper offers him one last chance: disappear forever, and this phone call can be their last, and their secret. But if he resists, Harper and the CIA will go after his daughter, the one human connection that Chase has after his wife passed.  

Chase doesn’t take Harper’s offer, which breaks his friend’s heart, and kicks off a present-day hunt inspired by actions of the past. Chase and Harper go farther back than they want to remember, to a messy deal in the Middle East and the killing of Russians, but for “the wrong side.” The details can initially be confusing, and they’re always complicated. It’s about ugly political optics, a warlord, and the woman who became Chase’s wife, all mixed with the air of being anti-glory days. These flashbacks also display the series’ commitment to its characters—both are played to a tee by younger actors, with Bill Heck getting Bridges’ contemplative lip-smacking, and Christopher Redman nailing Lithgow’s cadences.  

Based on the book by Thomas Perry, “The Old Man” displays its awareness that life is a story. It’s not just about the paintings that introduce the episode, but how the characters talk about these twisty as a story, as a game that may not make sense to people outside of it, one that has been ongoing and lays dormant. Among the shadowy, sterile boardrooms at the CIA office, Harper holds secrets about Chase while being pushed by a new guy in the office, Raymond (E.J. Bonilla). Raymond has no idea what’s motivating his hunt for Chase; no one does. Relationships are their own stories, and this series has many that are shrouded in secrecy, so much so that they are used for twists that only heighten just how personal this is for everyone.  

Unfolding these events with strong pacing, “The Old Man” proves to be a confidently constructed observation of this uncertain future and revisiting of the past. But with its focus on making this spy game as real as possible, a few narrative twists stand out as being overzealous; there are some close-calls made just to keep certain pieces on the chessboard. And at least in the first four episodes provided for review, “The Old Man” can get a little tangled when Chase has horror-lite nightmares about his wife’s degenerative mental condition.  

It’s a lot to take in, and the journey gives us a surrogate with Amy Brenneman ’s performance. She enters into the picture later, as someone who learns what it feels like inside Chase’s bubble of secrets. Her work is at times incredibly tender, while in other moments she’s silently freaked out about the casual chaos of Chase’s world. She helps color the different feelings that play a major part in this story, of isolation, of alternate warmth, and the helplessness when you don’t have a choice between the two.  

The first two stunning episodes are directed by Jon Watts , most known for the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies, and this story takes him back to the more brutal and restrained work like his pre-Marvel film “ Cop Car .” Watts can still conjure some uncomfortable violence, with a creeping dread accompanying our uncertainty of how a brutal fight will end. The first episode has a great example of the power that can be created by depicting action with careful, minimalist elements—a dark road at night, lit only by headlights—and the camera slowly moves from one distinct framing to the next, creating tension. One doesn’t normally associate a tip-toeing camera and quiet long takes with thrills, but that’s just part of the magic of “The Old Man.” As Lithgow’s character says to his grandchild in the very beginning, “Space is the breath of art,” and the filmmaking of “The Old Man” respects that beautifully.  

Often at the center, Bridges is a lot of fun to watch in this role, negotiating his sensitive side with a physical savviness. It’s not about martial arts but watching him wrestle with another killer in cramped spaces for long shots, while the camera’s held gaze still tells us we are not looking at a stuntman. (When Chase got his head slammed against a kitchen cabinet, I audibly responded with a big “Damn,” fully caught up in the series’ body-slamming action.) His physicality is reflective of the power within his performance, displaying a rawness we’ve not yet seen before from Bridges.

And yet the emotional power of this series often comes down to its scenes of phone calls, which capture characters hiding away from everyone else, tending to their secrets. Many stories can use scenes of characters talking on the phone to more or less fill in the blanks, but “The Old Man” has many such conversations that ache, that are fused with mystery, and that make the story even bigger than its international scale. It’s because “The Old Man” remains focused on pain—the life-or-death nature of a fight, or the dread of loss that haunts everyone despite violence being a work experience. Everyone has a pressure point in their closest relationships. This is a bold, wise series, with a knockout performance from Bridges leading the way.   

The first four episodes were screened for review. “The Old Man” premieres on FX on Hulu today, June 16.

Nick Allen is the former Senior Editor at RogerEbert.com and a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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When a lost hiker stumbles upon an erratic old man living in the woods, he could never have imagined the nightmare that awaits. When a lost hiker stumbles upon an erratic old man living in the woods, he could never have imagined the nightmare that awaits. When a lost hiker stumbles upon an erratic old man living in the woods, he could never have imagined the nightmare that awaits.

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Review: 'The Old Man' is worth watching for Jeff Bridges' performance

Eric Deggans

FX's The Old Man can be predictable, but the performance by star Jeff Bridges — who plays a retired CIA operative living under a fake name — makes it worthwhile.

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‘The Old Man’ Review: Jeff Bridges Comes to TV and Goes on the Run

An American treasure, from “The Last Picture Show” to the Dude, plays an aging but still lethal operative in a moody thriller on FX.

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By Mike Hale

With the advent of peak TV, and its bidding wars for talent, came a rush of film legends to smaller screens. Within the last decade, performers at the level of Al Pacino , Jane Fonda , Julia Roberts and Christopher Walken suddenly discovered that it wasn’t beneath their dignity to star in a regular old television series.

It may seem as if nearly everyone who matters had already made the move, but this week TV snares another big name: 72-year-old Jeff Bridges , a true member of the aristocracy of American acting. He has made a few guest appearances over the years, including with his father on “Sea Hunt” and “The Lloyd Bridges Show” 60 years ago. But “The Old Man,” a moody, deliberate, seven-episode thriller premiering Thursday on FX, is the first series he can call his own.

Bridges plays Dan Chase, a former C.I.A. agent who got involved in bad business in Afghanistan during that country’s war with the Soviet Union and had to go underground; he is flushed out of hiding when the series begins, and we watch as he goes on the run and tries to figure out who is after him, so many years down the road.

“The Old Man” offers the reliable entertainment value of seeing a silver-haired professional bring his deadly skills to bear against younger opponents, and the four episodes available for review feature several long, vicious, hand-to-hand battles that will have you squirming with both dread and sympathy.

This is territory that has already been staked out by contemporaries of Bridges’s like Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis and, pre-eminently, Liam Neeson. But the series, based on a novel by Thomas Perry and developed for TV by Jonathan E. Steinberg and Robert Levine (who collaborated on “Black Sails” and “Human Target”), has more on its mind than cheering while the old guy kicks some butt.

Chase is a Cold War true believer who went beyond the bounds of his assignment in Afghanistan, and there are elements of Graham Greene’s Vietnam-era quiet American in his character — the warrior whose naïve idealism and certainty (combined with a weakness for a local woman) makes him dangerous. He also has an artless arrogance that can be charming right up until it turns frightening, a quality showcased in his accidental relationship with Zoe McDonald (Amy Brenneman), a lonely woman he encounters during his flight.

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‘The Old Man’: Jeff Bridges Shows True Grit as an Ex-CIA Agent on the Run

By Alan Sepinwall

Alan Sepinwall

The title of FX’s The Old Man doesn’t really tell you what kind of show it is. It could be a wacky multicamera sitcom about an ill-behaving senior citizen who gets kicked out of his retirement home and has to move in with his hipster grandson. It could be a whimsical dramedy about a retiree figuring out how to fill his days. Or it could be what it actually is: a thriller starring Jeff Bridges as a renegade former CIA operative who has to kill a lot of people when the fugitive identity he’s lived under for decades is discovered. Even the show’s poster image is relatively nondescript, with Bridges’ giant head floating behind the concerned body of co-star John Lithgow as his former handler. It tells you that The Old Man stars two revered, award-winning actors, and not much else.

But even if FX had opted to change the title from that of the Thomas Perry novel on which the show is based — maybe to The Dude Abides Murder ? — The Old Man would still feel somewhat generic. It offers exactly what the poster promises, in two excellent performances from Bridges and Lithgow (plus strong supporting ones from Amy Brenneman, Alia Shawkat, and Gbenga Akinnagbe), and offers a bonus in some gripping close-quarters combat sequences. But the story itself feels like an afterthought, and the energy level tends to droop whenever Bridges is not getting his homicide on.

Bridges plays Dan Chase, who once upon a time was a hotshot agent working in Afghanistan in the Eighties. Then he betrayed both his chief asset and the Agency and disappeared, building a happy and lucrative life, alongside a wife and daughter, under an assumed name. When the series begins, he is a widower whose only remaining family appears to be his two Rottweilers, who seem adorably docile until their master’s life is threatened, at which point they become his cold-blooded, highly-skilled bodyguards. The dogs come in handy, as does Chase’s own rusty but formidable aptitude for violence, when the government catches up to him and dispatches an assassin to his lovely suburban home. Soon, he’s on the run from ex-colleague Harold Harper (Lithgow), now an assistant FBI director, and Harper’s protégé Angela Adams (Shawkat). He poses as the guest-house tenant of lonely divorcée Zoe McDonald (Brenneman) while trying to evade the deadly Julian Carson (Akinnagbe), whom Harper engages on the side because he is better off with his old colleague dead rather than captured.

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This is a perfectly fine thriller setup. And the pragmatic, utterly ruthless Chase is a good showcase role for Bridges at the more taciturn end of his late-career range. (Think Hell or High Water more than True Grit .) The first two episodes are directed by Jon Watts, and the next two by Greg Yaitanes ( Banshee , Quarry ), and all are periodically elevated by bursts of violent combat that are remarkably staged and shot. Watts’ Spider-Man movies with Tom Holland do not feature memorable action, even by the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s oddly lax standards in this area. But those set pieces tend to be huge in scale with lots of special effects, where these work precisely because of how intimate they are. Rather than battling robotic drones atop London Bridge or the Green Goblin on Liberty Island, Dan Chase is often wrestling on kitchen floors with hitmen in dark clothing, and Watts and Yaitanes both do impressive work making the septuagenarian, cancer-surviving Bridges seem like the man who would of course win each of these fights(*).

(*) In general, it’s a great-looking show, with vivid colors and beautiful compositions.

It’s when the knives and dog fangs aren’t flying that The Old Man starts to show the age of its component parts. As adapted from Perry’s book by Jonathan E. Steinberg and Robert Levine, the plot feels warmed-over, the twists — particularly the one the show clearly thinks will drop audience members’ jaws — telegraphed well in advance, the characters brought to life more by those fine actors than by the material they’re given. And the flashbacks to Chase’s earlier years in Afghanistan are extremely nap-inducing, despite featuring a good actor in Bill Heck ( The Ballad of Buster Scruggs ) as the young Chase.

The caliber of the performers and performances is better able to elevate the material in the present day, particularly in scenes pairing Bridges and Brenneman. Their relationship starts out as something of a rehash of her dynamic with Robert De Niro in Heat , where she’s drawn to a charismatic stranger without realizing he’s a wanted man. But the actors’ chemistry is strong, and as the season moves along and Zoe begins to understand more about the situation she is trapped in, her role in things becomes more compelling than the cat-and-mouse games with Harper, or the ongoing threat of Carson.

Anytime you put this many great actors in one show, shoot it this well, and feature action this strong, you’re going to have something interesting. But just as Harold Harper still doesn’t quite understand why his old friend threw his whole career away to go rogue, it’s not hard to look at all the talent assembled for The Old Man and wish that the show lived up to its full potential.

The Old Man premieres June 16 on FX, with episodes releasing weekly and streaming the next day on Hulu. I’ve seen the first four of seven episodes. 

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Old Man (2022) Movie Ending, Explained – Why Did Joe Kill Genie and the Bible Salesman?

American writer-director Lucky McKee, best known for his indie horror classics May  and  The Woman , utilizes the conventions of chamber thriller and psychological horror for his new feature film  Old Man (2022) . The claustrophobic two-hander, written by Joel Veach, tells the story of a lost hiker who stumbles upon the cabin of an erratic and reclusive old man. What commences as a cordial conversation soon becomes dangerous as it becomes clear that one or both of them might be hiding a terrifying secret. This character-driven dialogue-heavy film uses the tropes of ‘two men locked inside a cabin’ and ‘cat-and-mouse game’ to move the story forward.

The film unleashes a very unhinged Stephen Lang, who plays the titular mood-swinging, storytelling old man who may remind you of his menacing character as the “Blind Man” in  Don’t Breathe  (2016). Still, this sinister thriller deals with cycles of violence, guilt, and regret and the way memories can haunt us for a lifetime. McKee’s best films are centered around outcasts and eccentric characters, and  Old Man  continues with that tendency in which he shows ample empathy for them. This mysterious and puzzling story is so elongated and stretched that it becomes tedious and monotonous until it reaches its almost predictable revelation in the climax, when the movie unfolds to release the sense of dread and isolation.

Shot in fifteen days with a minimal crew, limited resources, and a simple setup, this is a noble attempt at a true indie film. This write-up provides an overall understanding of the film as it ventures into explaining the minute and intricate details. Refrain from reading the article if you haven’t watched the movie, as the article may contain major spoilers.

OLD MAN SYNOPSIS & SUMMARY

Exposition – the reclusive old man.

Old Man  begins with a title sequence accompanied by dramatic and somber music playing in the background that establishes the setting and tone of the film. In the background of the titles, the camera zooms into the landscape painting of an isolated log cabin tucked far away in the woods with a smoking chimney and lighted windows. The scene shifts to a single-room cabin that comprises the entirety of the film’s setting and focuses on an unnamed old man (Stephen Lang) lying in bed wearing red overalls. He is jolted awake agape, presumably from a nightmare, and the camera lingers in extreme close-up to capture his disoriented and perplexed state.

He gets out of bed and frantically scrambles about while the camera tracks him across the length of the single room. It is transparent that something isn’t quite right about the reclusive old man when he says nobody leaves him. He begins fussing around the cabin, muttering to himself, and searches for his dog Rascal, whom he calls “disloyal” and ungrateful, which must have run off in the night. He goes on grumbling about the dastardly dog that has pissed on his floor and left him alone yet again. He cleans up the piss and issues a threat to the dog while occasionally stopping to take swigs of moonshine. He is wildly irresolute and erratic as he laments the pet’s absence in one instance and then suddenly threatens to kill it by throwing the dog over the fireplace or stuffing and sticking its head on the wall as soon as he lays hands on it.

WHO TURNS UP AT THE OLD MAN’S CABIN OUT OF THE BLUE?

A hapless hiker named Joe (Marc Senter), who had gotten himself lost in the woods, picked the wrong place to ask for help. All of a sudden, he hears a knock at the door, and it pulls him out of his angry ruminations. He grabs his shotgun, jolts out of his stupor, and approaches the door. The deranged old man threatens Joe with the gun and pins him against the window while demanding to know where his dog is, who he is, why he’s here, and if his wife had sent him. The raining series of questions leaves Joe understandably confused and terror-stricken, and he tries his best to calm the old man by assuring him that he is lost and has no ulterior motive.

The old man reluctantly invites Joe inside the cabin with the barrel of a shotgun, showing his overly suspicious and distrustful nature about the unexpected visitor. Joe tries to get into the old man’s good books by appreciating his taxidermy and what he has done with his well-kept cabin. The stuffed animals may be an allusion to Hitchcock’s  Psycho  (1960), in which he utilized stuffed birds to artfully foreshadow events and reveal deeper truths about characters. Their interactions are tense at first as the old man is not convinced about the mild-mannered stranger’s stumble into the cabin out of the blue. He reveals that it is not a holiday inn, and he is paranoid and extra cautious regarding strangers. The old man set up some rules for Joe to sit where he is seated and only respond to him when he asks a question unless he wants to end up as one of the stuffed animals.

On questioning, a tense Joe tells the hard isolated old man that he came alone and he wouldn’t believe him if he told him why he went into the woods. The old man counters by saying that the cabin is built way off the beaten path so that he wouldn’t be bothered and asks how he found the cabin. When Joe mentions that he lost his way and saw the smoke from the chimney, the old man retorts and says, “I ain’t too convinced that what you’re saying ain’t a heaping pile of shit?” He goes further to ask, “How do I know you’re not some kinda goddamned psycho killer? How do I know you’re not some maniac madman on the loose?” Joe is flustered but manages to keep up with his accusations of ordinary-looking people like him, harmless on the inside but crazy inside, turning evil and cannibalistic. Joe swears that he is not and that he is not going to kill or eat him. The reason he gives is, “It’s against the law.”

WHY DID JOE TRY TO RUN OFF THE CABIN?

Getting agitated out of not getting any clue about Joe, the old man asks him whether he is a salesman and then moves to search his bag. He finds toiletries, a first-aid kid, some trail mix, and a knife. Joe assures that he was carrying it for protection before coming out to the woods. The younger fellow tells the old man that he used to visit these woods when he was a child whenever his grandfather took him to fly-fish the Little River. And he relays how his grandfather taught him to be precautious as the woods can be beautiful as well as dangerous. When Joe asks for the knife back, the old man holds on to it and remarks, “You ain’t out of the woods yet.”

Felling scared and afraid for his life, Joe tries to run off from the cabin, but the old loner shoots, putting a hole in the floor near where Joe is standing. Joe confesses that he might be better off on his way and wants to leave as he believes the old man to be “a little crazy.” The loner agrees that they will not hurt each other, offering the olive branch. A visibly shaken Joe is so alarmed that he feels like he will piss himself. The old man shows him the pissoir and muses, “That’s the trouble with you young people these days. You got no fight in you, no taste for violence. Your blood doesn’t boil lie those who come before.” He talks about his generation, who was brought up like ancient Greek warriors who had no room for weakness, and mocks Joe for being meek and cowardly.

WHAT DID THE OLD MAN REVEAL ABOUT HIS PAST?

It is now revealed that they are somewhere in the Great Smoky Mountains along the Tennessee-North Carolina border, “about 180,000-plus acres of rocks and trees and dark danger.” Joe is not disclosing how he got there and said it is “a little fussy” and vague in his memory . The old man asks Joe to stay put and be warm and head out first thing in the morning as there is going to be a storm soon. When asked whether he knew the woods, the old man laughingly says that nobody knew it better than him except for his dog Rascal. They spit-shake and agree to be civil to each other. He also discloses his blatant desire for company, somebody new to talk to for a change.

Now, the old man is a welcoming host offering him coffee. He talks about salesmen and how he distrusts the lot who have forking tongues and only care about making their monthly. The old man reveals that he had the unfortunate experience of dabbling in sales when he was younger. He quit the job because he was tired of deceiving people and himself. For him, it was a burden, a waking nightmare going door to door selling things just to satisfy his wife with some new appliance. He becomes upset when asked about his wife and, as if to distract himself, starts to tell what is supposed to be a funny story.

WHAT DID THE OLD MAN DO TO THE BIBLE SALESMAN?

The story is about a Bible salesman (Patch Darragh) who came all the way to Smoky Mountain to sell the Good Book. The old man disgustingly talks about his fat face, the leather briefcase, and how he tried to sell God’s word. Flashback reveals the salesman showing up at the old man’s door. Just like Joe, the old man invited the salesman inside the cabin and treated him to coffee and carrot cake. To the old man, the salesman seemed really pious and self-righteous and someone who followed the ten commandments. The old loner wanted to find out whether he was a true believer or not. He asked the salesman questions about whether God loves him and why God wanted him to sell Bibles instead of living in a mansion with a million dollars. When the salesman tells him that God has a plan and he is exactly where he wants to be, he menacingly asks the salesman whether he would still believe in his God if the old man turned out to be a dangerous person and wouldn’t hesitate to hurt him.

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Joe asks the old man whether he hurt the salesman. The old man speaks of drugging the Bible seller by putting “a little something something” in his coffee. The sedative made him sleepy, and he nodded off. The old man then tied him to the front of a burning stove, took the necktie, and tied that around his eyes like a blindfold. He kept the salesman there for a couple of hours while he burned. He intended to scare him because when one is scared, one tends to be honest. He found it entertaining when the salesman started saying gibberish in pain and then proceeded to pray for God’s mercy and kept repeating, “Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners.”

Joe is shocked that he dared to do this to a poor salesman, but the old man wanted to show the salesman who was selling God that when people endure pain and suffering, no old man is sitting somewhere in a cloud caring about anyone down here. When Joe enquires about what happened to the salesman afterward, the old loner tells him that he cut him loose, pointed in the right direction, and sent him on his way. The old man takes out two bottles of hooch from his hidden stash that he calls “the mule” and drinks to “all that death and beauty.” the old man offers him moonshine, but Joe is skeptical about drinking as he fears that he will drug him too. But the old man assures wholeheartedly that he won’t hurt him as he wouldn’t go back on his word.

WHAT DOES JOE TELL ABOUT HIS LIFE AND GENIE?

When the old man asks Joe about his life, he divulges that he is from New Albany, Indiana, grew up in Chattanooga in Tennessee when he was eight years old, got married to Eugenia, aka Genie (Liana Wright-Mark), a second-grade school teacher, and shifted to Knoxville a few years back when he got a job working for her family’s moving company. Genie procured a job at a primary school. Joe, in an impulse, opens up about his anguish over the feeling that sometimes life is conspiring against him. Joe continues to tell him that he feels like standing in wet cement with nothing else around him, feels the cement tightening and hardening around the ankles, and finds it set and unable to move. The slow suffocation starts at his feet, moves up the leg and the back of his spine, and settles at the back of his throat, cutting off his air. He believes that this weight, the paralyzing and choking feeling is the result of his compliant and acquiescent nature, as he has never rebelled or opposed anything.

While trying to cheer him up, the camera slowly moves and focuses on a chest made of wood. He reveals that Genie and he comes from different places, mainly because she grew up with money and he with nothing. Joe also adds that his relationship was also struggling as his wife is distant these days. Joe is also embarrassed because they have been having a hard time trying to have a baby and his wife is convinced that Joe is infertile. The old man could relate to Joe’s problems and felt sympathetic toward him. He asks Joe to be proud of himself as he is a hard-working man trying to make ends meet. The old man calls his own wife ungrateful as she drives him to the brink of insanity by figuring out how to hurt a man.

OLD MAN ENDING EXPLAINED

How did joe reach the cabin.

The old man asks Joe to retrace the steps to comprehend why he came into the woods. He came to the woods because he wanted to take a hike along the Little River. It has always been his favorite place, and he associates it with the fond memories he had at one point in his life. Since he wanted to get his mind right, he started walking and heard something, a moan, deep breaths coming from somewhere. When he started walking deeper and deeper into the woods, the moan got louder, so he ran until everything went black. He lost consciousness, and when he awoke, he started walking and came across a waterfall and a clearing and then the cabin and the smoke coming from the chimney.

The old man, in turn, tells Joe about the story of Purple Lake, hidden deep in the Smokies, that had special healing powers and how the animals kept the location a secret because they could get healed from any injury by drinking the water from Purple Lake. The old man searched the woods for the lake when he got damaged, but he couldn’t find it. And suddenly, he also heard a moan similar to that of Joe. He followed it, it got louder, and when he woke up, he came face to face with a leopard looking at him with death in her eyes. He watched as the light went out of its eyes, and then the moan stopped. He fought and killed it by stabbing it in the neck with a jagged, sharp stone.

WHY DID JOE KILL GENIE AND THE BIBLE SALESMAN?

When the old man goes to prepare dinner, Joe takes his knife and opens it to find it covered in blood. He runs away from the cabin, but Rascal returns soon after that. Rascal is not a dog but a person, the old man, is terrified of. Rascal has come back from hunting with food for both of them. When the old man asks Rascal about Joe, Rascal tells him that nobody else is in the cabin except for them. Petrified of Rascal, the old man pisses himself. When Rascal remarks that there is no wonder his wife left him, the old man asks Rascal to remind him about what happened. Rascal gives him water from Purple Lake, asks him to drink it, and commands him to enter the wooden chest.

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When he opens the chest again, he finds himself in a home, and the old man finds out that Joe is just a younger version of himself. He becomes a witness to his wife, Genie, getting intimate with her best friend, the Bible salesman, with whom he had started selling Bibles to make ends meet. The moans and the loud breathing from their sexual pleasure made him so angry that he couldn’t control his rage. He killed them both, shooting the Bible salesman in his head while he was praying on his knees and stabbing his wife in her neck with his knife. Genie’s ghost still comes to haunt him in his dreams, and he rarely sleeps because all he can think about are the ghosts of his past. When Joe begs Genie to forgive him, just like the Bible salesman, she says, “It doesn’t work that way.” Rascal turns out to be the Bible salesman with whom his wife had an affair, as they both share a resemblance in their appearance.

WHAT DO THE WOODEN CHEST AND THE PURPLE LAKE SYMBOLISE?

In the climax, the ghost of Joe’s wife, Genie, appears standing in the wooden box with her stabbed neck. The box is significant as it has a connection with the murder of his wife. He might have either stored his wife’s belongings in that chest or used the box to dispose of her body, which is why the old man sees Genie standing in it. There is a picture of a red-haired woman with penetrating eyes in the box. The box function like a portal or a gateway through which he visits and understands what happened in the past. When Rascal makes him enter the box forcefully, he relives the past and remembers killing his wife all over again.

When the old man told the story of the salesman, he said that he let the Bible salesman go after giving him a lot of pain, but in fact, he had killed him when he realized that he was having an affair with his wife. We conclude that the old man makes up stories about people from his past to escape the guilt, regret, and desperation he feels for his actions. He made the story of killing a leopard with a rock, but it alludes to his killing of his wife. Rascal accuses him of getting lost in the woods the next day after committing the brutal murders. Rascal is hell personified for Joe as he is entrusted with the duty of reminding Joe about his past crimes.

After the murders, Joe might have got rid of the bodies in the woods; maybe in the Little River, he used to visit with his grandfather. Since his brain was hardwired to make distorted stories to do away with guilt, he made up a Purple Lake with healing properties. He searched for it to atone for his sins but couldn’t find it. When Rascal gives him the water from Purple Lake, it puts him back into the hellish cycle of violence and guilt instead of casting it aside. He is still carrying the heavy burden of his actions, reliving the memories so often that he has descended into a state of madness and oblivion. Now, Joe is under the control of the ghosts of his past, which seems to make him feel guilty and regretful as often as they please.

The film’s final sequence is a sheer repetition of the opening sequence. After Rascal leaves him, he goes to bed and lies down, as walking down memory lane takes a toll on him. Rascal promises to come back later, as he always does. We see him lying in his red overalls, and suddenly, he is jolted awake agape, to relive his past once again, to see his younger self, and to beg mercy from his wife.

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Old man (2022) external links: imdb , rotten tomatoes, where to watch old man (2022).

An unapologetic feminist and vocal critic of sexism. A moody, caffeine-dependant, procrastinating disaster striving for perfection. Believes in the transformative power of any art, especially Cinema and Books.

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Home » Horror News » Old Man Review

Old Man Review

Last Updated on October 15, 2022

PLOT : An old hermit living far off in the woods gets his simple life interrupted when a lost hiker shows up.

REVIEW : I have always enjoyed Lucky McKee as a director.  May  and  The Women   were defining movies of their decade, and he has a way of presenting stories with a unique and intense approach. And though I prefer him as a writer and director on his projects, his eye and style are sometimes enough to shine through, with 2006’s  The Woods  as a solid example. Now he is back as a director only with his new movie  Old Man .

Setting a story in one location is difficult to keep a film engaging and usually falls on whomever the lead is to carry the project.  Old Man  doesn’t quite nail the landing in terms of a flawless, thought-out script but nails the characters and tone. McKee works well with his razor-tight directing and helped with Stephen Lang chewing the scenery for ninety minutes, making this thriller quite the odd yet enjoyable experience. It isn’t much in terms of story, and the overall idea is pretty tried and true, but the real magic here is Lang and his dedication to the character.

In terms of character, Lang steals the show as the old man. Playing the role quite quirky and, at times, insane, Lang channels a bit of that late ’90s peak Nicolas Cage. Between the accent and overall sporadic jitters, his portrayal of the character feels uniquely his own and is captivating from the moment we meet him till the credits role. Marc Senter’s Joe is a wholesome, nice guy that has seemingly walked into the life of a crazy man and needs to play his cards right if he has any chance of walking out alive.

Seter does well with what he has script-wise and has a sort of boyish charm that fits with Joe’s innocent demeanor and plays well off of Lang. An issue I have with Joe is that he is almost too wholesome. The old man’s character is intense and threatening, yet Joe rolls over constantly and in situations where a bit of courage and conflict dialogue could have been a great war of words. But Seter does what he can with the part, opting for his natural charisma; see  The Devil’s Carniva l for his best role, and we get a couple of dramatic shifts that keep the pace up and tension constantly simmering between the two.

Lucky McKee adds a lot here as a director, utilizing the one location for everything it offers, even if there isn’t enough story to stretch the whole runtime. There are one-takes, unique blocking, and enough movement to keep even the most simple scenes engaging. He and Lang clearly understand each other, and the film feels at home when he lets Lang go off on his pacing tangents. The underlying mystery is about who can be trusted to be a reliable narrator, which doesn’t always work here. It’s too short of a story for the central point and not developed enough to elevate this to the level needed for a single-location mystery.

The issue that kept coming up during my initial watch was that this felt like a short story with a minimum feature-length agreement. Besides a flashback, we only get Seter and Lang to focus on, and the entire story seems anticlimactic when we get to the end of the tale and find out the truth. I must give credit for subverting my expectations, as I predicted a particular horror trope yet got a different trope instead. But because this doesn’t aim for anything new or groundbreaking, it could have easily fit into a forty-five-minute or shorter format. No fault of McKee as he steps up to the challenge, but the story could have used a bit of polish as I was far more captivated by the dialogue banter than where things ended up.

I had a really good time with  Old Man.  Stephen Lang gives an excellent, unhinged performance alongside some sharp directing courtesy of McKee, who is quite capable of shaping a great character alongside a simple yet effective setting. The story itself wasn’t anything special and hit some very basic story beats but overall, I ended up having fun. If you can focus more on the journey and less on the destination, you’ll dig Old  Man , a unique and peculiar isolation thriller.

OLD MAN will be in Theaters, On Demand and Digital on October 14th!

About the Author

Lance Vlcek was raised in the aisles of Family Video in the south suburbs of Chicago. He's a fan of fun schlock like Friday The 13th Part 7 and Full Moon Entertainment but also loves genre classics like Evil Dead and Big Trouble In Little China. Lance does many things outside of genre consumption, with his favorites being his homemade Chicago pizza recipe, homemade rum, and video editing. He has four Sugar Gliders, a love for beach bars, and claims Brett Morgen's favorite Bowie album must be Changesonebowie based on his soulless documentary!

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Stephen Lang-Led Horror Movie 'Old Man' Sets Fall Release Date

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A patchwork of artists with their hands in horror have come together on a film titled Old Man . This brand-new horror thriller, starring Don't Breathe 's Stephen Lang , has been acquired by AMC's RLJE Films, and is set to premiere in October, just in time for Halloween.

From Tim Burton 's return to his classic aesthetics in Netflix's upcoming series Wednesday , to Laurie Strode's ( Jamie Lee Curtis ) final stand in Halloween Ends , horror fans are feasting well in 2022. Now, RLJE Films is bringing back a genre favorite, Lang, who portrayed the misguided blind veteran in 2016's Don't Breathe . Lang is tapped to portray the titular "old man" in Lucky McKee 's ( May ) return to the director's chair, Old Man . The movie is said to follow a hiker who finds himself off the beaten path. Lost, the hiker stumbles onto the isolated property of an erratic old man. When the two strike up a conversation the man reveals a terrifying secret, and the hiker finds himself in a living nightmare.

Chief Acquisitions Officer for RLJE Films, Mark Ward , said:

"We’re excited to work with Lucky McKee, Stephen Lang and the film’s producing team on another project that is certain to thrill audiences. The incredibly talented team behind this film has entertained genre film enthusiasts over the years and Old Man is no exception."

RELATED: New 'Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities' Images Show Off Practical FX and Haunting Horrors

Lang has a penchant for playing villainous characters. While he's been in a number of films and television shows throughout his career since the early '80s, Lang is most recently known for his portrayal of the one-track minded military antagonist Colonel Miles Quaritch in James Cameron 's Avatar . Other notable credits include his recurring role as Norman Nordstrom in Don't Breathe and Don't Breathe 2 , Freddy Lounds in Manhunter and Cowboy's member Ike Clanton in Tombstone , opposite Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer .

Joining Lang are Marc Senter ( Starry Eyes ) possibly starring as the hiker, though his role has yet to be specified, Liana Wright-Mark ( Ocean's 8 ) as Genie, and Patch Darragh ( Succession ) as Bible Salesman.

Old Man is writer Joel Veach 's screenwriting debut, and is directed by McKee who's known for genre films like 2002's ode to Frankenstein, May , about a socially awkward girl, played by Angela Bettis , who pieces together her own friend; as well as The Woman which reunited the director with Bettis; and black comedy All Cheerleaders Die . Paper Street Pictures' Aaron B. Koontz , Cameron Burns and Ashleigh Snead and Senter produce.

RLJE Films have produced a number of films within the genre including McKee's All Cheerleaders Die , The Tall Man , Wolf Creek 2 and Fangoria 's Satanic Panic , based on the screenplay by My Best Friend's Exorcism author Grady Hendrix .

Old Man is set to be released in theaters on October 14 this year, as well as on Digital and Demand.

• Stephen Lang