Sand Castle: The Aging Body Horror Trope is Getting Old
When we first saw the trailer for Old, M. Night Shyamalan’s latest movie, my husband turned to me with a huge grin and said, “Oh, you’re going to hate this!” He was right, of course. Not because it would be a bad movie (although arguably it wasn’t great), but because it is the epitome of the aging body horror trope. This series isn’t focused on movies, but my curiosity about Old led me to Sand Castle, the graphic novel that inspired the film.
Sand Castle, created by Frederik Peeters and Pierre Oscar Lévy, is a body horror thriller that takes place on a remote, cliff-side beach. Visitors arrive for a fun day in the sun, but things take an abrupt turn when they find a dead body in the water. Their panic escalates when it becomes clear that they’ve been rapidly aging since they arrived that morning and there is no way to escape.
Surprisingly, Lévy’s introduction to the book makes no direct mention of aging and what he was trying to say about it. He does say that he’s interested in his reader’s interpretations of the story though, so here’s mine…
Growing up, growing old
When one family arrives at the beach, they decide to measure their son’s height against a sign at the entrance to see how much he’s grown since the last time they were there. His disappointment in his slow progress is accompanied by a large “WARNING!” message on the sign above his head. Besides providing some obvious foreshadowing, this panel is relatable.
When we’re young, we can’t wait to grow up because every passing birthday brings more exciting milestones. Then, usually at some point in our 30's, another birthday means we’re getting “old,” with all the negative connotations that word carries in Western culture.
Why don’t we celebrate our later years and our continued potential for growth with the same enthusiasm we had when we were kids? The short answer: ageism. For the long answer, keep reading.
The aging body horror trope
The characters in Sand Castle realize that they are aging so rapidly, none of them are likely to survive the night. However, they aren’t just worried about dying, but about the prospect of becoming “old.”
This fear isn’t shared equally among the group, but is distinctly gendered with the women panicking the most. Saying the quiet part loud, one of the men exemplifies the reason for this discrepancy when he confesses he wasn’t sure he’d still love his wife when she started to show physical signs of aging.
In Western cultures, public messaging generally teaches us that youth equals beauty and beauty equals value, especially for women. This gendered ageism doesn’t just impact beauty perceptions, but has serious consequences for older women when it comes to employment opportunities, financial security, and health. The horror genre just capitalizes on this very real fear.
Several characters in Sand Castle consider taking their own lives rather than continuing to age. To make sense of this, we have to recognize that our fear of aging isn’t just about proximity to death, but about our perception that advancing age will mean a loss of dignity, value, and control.
Losing control
One of the men in the group responds to their predicament by trying to take control. He makes various plans, searches for explanations, and assigns blame, but none of it helps. Instead, he just ends up pushing everyone away and spending his remaining time being miserable.
There is some loss of control inherent to aging because over time, we inevitably accumulate a complex array of stressors, exposures to environmental toxins, and genetic mutations that cause our bodies to change in unpredictable ways. This loss of control is part of what we fear about the aging process, but we’re also afraid of how everyone around us will respond to those changes.
While we can’t fully control our aging bodies, there is a $60 billion and growing anti-aging industry that would like to convince you otherwise. From creams, to pills, to diet plans and more, aging is treated as an illness in need of a cure.
But what if we viewed later life as just another phase of life, like childhood? I’ve never seen an expensive cream being sold to “erase the 15 signs of youth” or other such nonsense because we don’t see youth as a problem. It’s all about perspective and who we value, and don’t value, in our society.
Aging body horror only exists as a trope in popular culture due to our fear of aging, and we fear aging largely because of the ageism engrained in Western societies. Sand Castle is a microcosm of these phenomena, hopefully opening readers eyes to the flaws in each.
If we can successfully reduce the prevalence of ageism, media utilizing aging body horror will likely fade into the past as well. Good riddance.
