A lost hiker stumbles on a shack in the middle of the Smoky Mountains only to find a strange old man in red long johns pointing a shotgun in his face in this tense two-hander directed by Lucky McKee.
Lucky McKee is a director I have long admired from his subversively creepy May to his adaptations of splatterpunk great Jack Ketchum like The Woman and Red.
The old man (Stephen Lang) threatens the terrified hiker named Joe (Marc Senter), “I’ll blow a hole in you like a buffalo’s asshole,” and heavily questions the stranger. “How do I know you’re not some psycho killer?” he puts to Joe, who answers, “Do I look like a psycho killer?” “Yes, you do,” replies the old man. Eventually the old man lowers the shotgun and offers Joe some moonshine and they begin to sit around the stove and talk, but there’s always this cloud of menace that hovers over the two. Something feels off about both men. Like you’re not getting the whole story. And trust me, if you think you figured out how this will play out, you’ll be wrong.
Stephen Lang (Don’t Breathe) is just great as the weird codger- every movement, gesture and the way he tells a story- like his encounter with a traveling Bible salesman- is amusing but disarmingly threatening at the same time. Joe (Marc Senter) looks like a scared rabbit listening to him, and with good reason. He even tries to bolt from the cabin but an encroaching storm and the ever-present shotgun prevents him. “Nobody leaves me!” states the old man.
Marc Senter is such a fine actor- if you ever saw him in the brilliant, nightmarish film The Lost, you were blown away by his fearlessly unhinged performance (why hasn’t Ryan Murphy snagged him for a season of American Horror Story? He’s a natural). Here he’s incredibly understated, but as layers are shed and more is revealed, he becomes uncomfortably more mysterious. Much like this haunting little film.
(Old Man opens October 14 in theaters and on Apple+).
