To say it’s been a while since M. Night Shyamalan released a good film is an understatement. His name has become synonymous with the word disappointment. The incredibly nice and highly ambitious director launched his career with a handful of classic genre films, but that ended with either Signs or The Village, depending on who you talk to. That being said, with his new film, titled The Visit, a flick he both wrote and directed, it appears Shyamalan may have broken his dry spell with a genre nobody expected, a found footage horror comedy. Yeah, go figure.
The premise of The Visit is fairly simple. The two children of a single mother ship themselves off to their grandparent’s house, whom they’ve never met, in order to learn about their mother’s childhood and meet their Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and their Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie). The single mother doesn’t discuss why she hasn’t spoken to them in years but if her parents want to tell them them, she’s ok with it. Becca (Olivia DeJonge), an overly smart and snarky teenager decides to make a documentary of the experience with her brother, Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), helping and annoying her in the process. What starts off as a pleasant seven weeklong trip evolves into one that progressively gets weirder and creepier as the week progresses.
If you’re like me and went into this film with zero expectations or curious how creepy this movie might be, then prepare to be blown away. You’ll laugh, you’ll sweat, you’ll tense up, and you’ll probably thoroughly enjoy The Visit, especially if the entire audience in the theater is completely into the film the way mine was. Just know that this is not a scary film so don’t expect that.
Mr. Shyamalan has finally broken his curse with a low budget movie that’s got everything you could want for found footage horror comedy. Freaky old people, hilarious commentary and side banter, nasty scenes, a solid twist, and a fun, seemingly fresh take on a filmmaking trope that the public has grown tired of.
I don’t want to get into the specifics of the film because of lot of the fun of this movie comes from all the surprises, which are both funny and disgusting. What I will say is that Becca’s character is incredibly annoying, Tyler was ridiculous and a great character for comedic relief, but the stars of the show are the grandparents. Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie were fantastic and really sell both the innocent, caring grandparent roles as well as the incredibly disturbing, potentially senile types.
With expectations set super low, M. Night was able to make a cheap film with a script that, in other hands, could have been seen as derivative. He was able to balance the comical and horror elements in a way that made the entire theatrical experience a roller coaster ride. The entire crowd bought into everything, cheering and shrieking at various points throughout the film. If that’s what he was going for, which I’m sure it was, then he succeeded with ease and can be proud to start fresh with a film that should grow in popularity as word beings to spread about it.
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