Certainly not the first time and presumably not the last appearance of Stephen Lang in this thriller genre he appears to have carved out for himself. Don’t Breathe and its inspired sequel, Don’t Breathe 2, have paved the way to something as dull and reclusive as Old Man. It is, more-or-less, the same premise, just the interest of a blind character charting real horrors to people who broke into his home is replaced with a seeing man set on eerie secrecy. Unfavourable a comparison that may be to the mediocre double bill that set out a slight rave for Lang’s work, the Lucky McKee-directed piece here is nothing of real note. It is there, it is present, and it is as languishing and dull as its title would stereotypically suggest.
Shuffling through its plot as aimlessly and poorly as an elderly relative regaling stories of old, Old Man tries to shelter itself in the comfort of its simplicity. At least that simplicity brings about a cabin that sets off a great deal of envy. Brush it up a bit, give it a bit of the old gentrified appeal with some new rugs and a working toilet and there it is, a liveable, isolated habitat. Until then, though Old Man will represent a very strange piece. It is a strange feature not because it holds much intrigue but because it opens with Lang muttering to himself, stumbling around the place in a nightgown equivalent to that of Ebeneezer Scrooge. He has, clearly, lost the plot. But that is the point of Old Man, a bloke who has lost his way trying to gain the trust of someone that comes into his home.
It does little. Marc Senter, Patch Darragh and Liana Wright-Mark all come and go to coax out dialogue and backstory in a character that is not named. As prophetic as his labelling as an old man may be, Old Man fails to link its reasoning for that with the core of its moral fibre. There is little to it beyond that of tender isolation which comes with the inevitabilities of age. Deception of the self and others is a strong moral, but it does not feel well-tended when most of it is static camera work and very reliant on Lang coaxing interest out of a script that relies on performance alone. Only so much can be done with this piece, the flashes of background horror do very little. Lang is solid, but the isolated insanity is a little too far-flung in its performance.
Still, production companies and streaming services are looking to wrap up those COVID isolation movies. Those that featured few people, fewer elements and even less in the way of quality. A barebones structure to allow people the chance to is not a structure that has to apply to ideas also, just physical space. Yet within that emptiness is a complete dull knock of psychological horror. A plot as thin as the grease paper it was likely scribbled on, trying to revolve around the tricks of the mind and the horrors of isolation. There are fantastical elements that feel so dirty and out of place. Old Man realises it does not have the mettle to make much tension, relying on neck-bound eyes and horrid apparitions that toy with the senses, but not with the mind.
