Old Man (2022)

"Old Man" is psychological horror as a two-man show, in which Stephen Lang takes the lead as the titular senior, who takes Mac Senter's Joe hostage when the latter makes the unwise decision to knock on the door of his cabin. What follows is a chamber piece of a movie in which Lang's clearly unstable character interrogates and menaces Senter's over the course of the runtime, although Joel Veach's script not so subtly hints that Senter himself may be harboring his own dark secrets.

Directed by Lucky McKee with less style than he usually brings to the table, "Old Man" is a limited but relatively engrossing flick that keeps you invested even after it reveals its underwhelming hand in a final act that brings together the stories of Old Man and Joe in a bloody but unspectacular way. In a way it has the vibe of a Stephen King short story adaptation, and boasts some of the shortcomings you might expect of a movie like that too.

Made six years after "Don't Breathe" (and a year after the awful "Don't Breathe 2"), the movie may be a little uninspired for having Stephen Lang play Old Man, but there's no denying that he plays the role. Indeed, he carries the movie over its hurdles and keeps it interesting when a lesser actor might have gotten lost in the material. As his co-lead, Marc Senter is given less to work with and can't really compare to Lang's performance, but I guess he does okay. Ultimately, Lang and Senter don't form the powerhouse double act that Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson did in "The Lighthouse", although I do prefer "Old Man" to that film. It's a bit conventional and predictable, but it has just enough to get a passing grade. You won't be blown away by this lesser McKee entry, but it's not a bad way to spend 97 minutes.