Movie Info
Movie Name: The Visit
Studio: Blinding Edge Pictures
Genre(s): Horror
Release Date(s): September 8, 2015 (Premiere)/September 11, 2015 (US)
MPAA Rating: R
Nana plays the best games
Rebecca Jamison (Olivia DeJonge) and her brother Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) are off to meet their grandparents for the first time after years of a bitter separation from their mother (Kathryn Hahn). Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie) seem like they could be normal people and it is an opportunity for Rebecca and Tyler’s mother to get away for the first time in years. Unfortunately, there is something wrong with Nana and Pop Pop. Pop Pop seems paranoid and Nana behaves crazy when the sun sets. However, it is only a week and what is the worst that could happen?
Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, The Visit is a found footage horror film. The movie was fairly well received by critics and did fairly well at the box-office. The movie also earned M. Night Shyamalan a Razzie nomination for a Razzie Redeemer Award after years of bombs.
How do I know “Oops I Crapped My Pants” works? I’m wearing them right now…and I just did.
Night Shyamalan started out with a bang. He showed a real new voice for movies…then he imploded with some of the worst films. M. Night Shyamalan became a joke, but The Visit does demonstrate more hope for a future. Due to the format of this movie (like most Shyamalan movies), a ******spoiler alert****** is in effect for the rest of the review.
The found-footage format is pretty tired and it is hard to do new things. There are two endings for found footage…either the characters are killed and the movie has been assembled from what was recovered (hence the “found footage” label). The other means is that the footage is completed and therefore the main characters live. I had hoped that the found footage format would have been played for a bit more in the movie, but Shyamalan went for the latter format. At least the film wasn’t too shaky (which is generally a problem).
The found footage combines with a classic horror story that works out almost like When a Stranger Calls where the killer is actually inside the house. It is kind of unbalanced with the grandma and grandpa being pretty much crazy right off the bat. The red flags go up quick with things like “don’t look in the basement whatever you do” and elderly nudity. It is all written off pretty simply…too simply.
You’re not the Yahtzee Master…that takes ten years!
The cast does a good job for the most part. It is rather impressive that both kids in the film are actually Australian and covering their accents. They feel real and they aren’t played down as kids often are in movies. The grandparents are also pretty good. They have the tough job of being crazy in the script but being forced to try to play it down (it cannot be avoided however).
The Visit is a vast improvement over the last few M. Night Shyamalan films, but it still isn’t up to the level of Shyamalan’s early films. I had wished that the whole movie had been a flip on the found footage…in that the girl was making a found footage film the entire time and everyone was in on it. There were many ways they could have gone or done the reveal…it might have had a bit more power if they had.
