This Old Man (Blu-ray Review)
Director
Francesco LucenteRelease Date(s)
2025 (October 13, 2026)Studio(s)
Lucente Filmed Entertainment (Ruby Max Entertainment)- Film/Program Grade: C+
- Video Grade: B
- Audio Grade: A-
- Extras Grade: C
Review
This Old Man, a 24-minute short, is an atmospheric ghost story set mostly in a forest in the winter.
A lone drifter (Alf Lamers) hikes through a silent forest. The only sounds are those of the woods and the occasional clanking together of objects on his back pack. As he makes his way, the ground sometimes has traces of snow and other times the layer of snow is thicker. Eventually, he comes upon a startling sight—an elderly man (Mario Lucente) sitting in a rocking chair beneath some pine trees. The old man says nothing but stands up and beckons the traveler to follow him.
The eerie guide leads the hiker into the lobby of a rundown, vine-covered hotel hidden among trees and disappears into a dark corner. Confused and freezing, the drifter looks around and notices that a section of a wall has been concealed with rotting planks. Curious, he pulls off the boards and discovers a dark crawlspace. A series of charcoal sketches in the building chronicles what happened there.
Writer/Director Francesco Lucente created a highly atmospheric film that suggests episodes of anthology TV programs like The Twilight Zone, Tales from the Darkside and Masters of Horror. It has no dialogue, just sound effects and a creepy score by Alf Lamers. It reminded me of the 1961 French short film, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Both films use visuals to tell the story. In This Old Man The pace is slow. The level of the snow changes from scene to scene, failing to create a consistent feeling of bitter cold. The make-up on the old man is so heavy that it looks as if actor Mario Lecente had it plastered on with a trowel. Lucente does create some weird images, such as the old man rocking in the snow, unbothered by the weather. As the hiker plods through the wintry landscape, a sense of foreboding grows. Is the old man real, does he mean to harm the drifter, why does he want the young man to follow him? Suspense builds and the silence of the surroundings and the lack of dialogue give the film an otherworldly quality.
This Old Man was shot by director of photography Morris Hall on Super 16mm film with Arriflex cameras with spherical lenses, processed Local Lab Services, Ltd, and presented in the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The film was shot when writer/director Francesco Lucente was just 15 years old and has been restored in 4K from its original 16mm negative and audio elements for this release. The forest is practically a character. It’s far from civilization, cold, and ominous. But the director should have found a better location or waited for a heavier snow, which would have made for continuity and amplified atmosphere considerably. In its present form, it sometimes looks as if the hiker is taking a casual walk through a dusting of snow in late fall/early winter. At other times, he’s trudging through deep snow. Perhaps the discontinuity was intended, since the story is supernatural. The inside of the hotel is dark with shadows obscuring many parts of the room. Lucente films the hiker entering the crawlspace from the hiker’s point of view, which increases suspense. We see what he’s seeing at the same time.
There are two soundtrack options, 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio. The wordless film relies almost exclusively on the score by Alf Lamers to build and sustain mood. The music does its job, often introducing tension into routine shots and sequences.
Bonus materials on the 2-Disc Blu-ray and CD release from Ruby Max Entertainment include the following:
- Trailer (1:37)
A CD packaged in with the Blu-ray contains five tracks from the score:
- This Old Man (2:44)
- Forest (1:57)
- Dam (:57)
- Chase (:35)
- Ghost (3:08)
This Old Man tells a supernatural story using natural locations and a limited budget. The lack of continuity and the overdone make-up give the film an amateurish feel. The youth and inexperience of the director would account for this. The later scenes have suspense but the resolution might not be completely clear as puzzle pieces of the mystery are assembled entirely through visuals. The fact that a company decided to release a single short film on Blu-ray is unusual.
- Dennis Seuling