The Visit (2015) Review

Protagonists Becca and Tyler aren't quite sure what to think when their Mom sends them off for a week to their grandparent's house in the woods, considering they've never met them. Meanwhile, their mom uses this time to go on a cruise to the Caribbean with her boyfriend. Everything seems normal until Pop pop and Nana begin acting eccentric, especially when the lights go out.

M. Night Shyamalan does not have the best track record with movies. I haven’t seen quality work from him since Signs in 2002. A joke among some groups, his name has become synonymous with laughably terrible films. This latest attempt sparks some life back into his career, but we'll have to take it with a grain of salt.

I've never been so pleasantly confused by a movie in my life. M. Night Shyamalan hasn't attempted a horror film since The Happening, which ended up being one of the best "so bad it's funny" movies in a while. There are elements of that in this movie, where you aren't quite sure if it's trying to be funny or disturbing. For example, there is a scene, which is also in the movie trailer, wherein Tyler finds Pop Pop with a gun in his mouth, but he quickly stops what he's doing when he's caught and says, "Oh, I was just cleaning it" with a funny dear-in-the-headlights look on his face. What am I supposed to feel in this scene? Fear? Laughter? It's so confusing! The film genuinely makes you feel uneasy and creeped out whenever the grandparents start acting weird. The end of the film especially has some intensely scary moments. The older sister Becca is an amateur filmmaker who is documenting her week, and the film plays out like another run-of-the-mill found footage horror that has dominated Hollywood for years. What makes this film different is its attempt at filling a lot of the run time with "interviews" that Becca gives. There is a side plot involving the kid's estranged father and the girl uses her camera to ask people how they feel about it, but it doesn't really go much of anywhere, albeit slightly bring the family closer together by the end. For me, the Grandma was the highlight of the film, played by Tony-winning actress Deanna Dunagan. She was unpredictable and provided the scariest and sometimes funniest moments.

At the beginning of the film, I immediately hated the younger brother Tyler because he freestyle raps. There wasn't any real purpose for it, except that it was just a character trait to make him unique from the others. It's cringe-worthy and I wanted it to end quickly. In general, for a horror film, this movie is not very scary. In fact, it's more of a look into the minds of the mentally ill, and sometimes I felt sorry for the old couple. There isn't much to say in the way of character development. The kids are just trying to make it through the weekend without dying and the mother is almost entirely out of the picture, save for a few Skype calls strewn about. If the Internet wasn't available and the kids had to depend on each other entirely for help, that would lend the script to some more thrilling moments, but alas.

Is this a good film? Not really, but it’s a lot better than Shyamalan's other recent work. It has more unintentionally comedic moments than scary moments, which makes it more fun than if it had just been a straight forward found footage horror movie. The film has innocent scares for the right crowd. (I watched this movie with two teenagers, and they laughed too). It also has some brief gross-out moments that some will love. It's not something you'll want to watch over and over again, unless you want to crack up watching it with friends.