The Visit (2015)

After having spent years squandering the studio money & garnering the wrath of film critics in his past few outings, M. Night Shyamalan takes a break from big-budget productions and decides to return to small-scale projects constrained by shoestring budget in an attempt to rediscover his creative side and with his latest feature, I'd say he has found it.

The Visit tells the story of two siblings who decide to spend a week with their grandparents at their farmhouse while their mother is planning a vacation with her current boyfriend. The two kids, having never met their grandparents in person before, find their company strange at first but as the days pass, they discover a deeply disturbing secret about their hosts.

Written & directed by M. Night Shyamalan, The Visit finds the director away from all sort of studio involvement, thus allowing him to rely on his creativity to overcome the restrictions imposed by its low budget and he does a really good job at it. The film makes use of all his trademarks and successfully blends different genres & shooting techniques into one solidly crafted thriller.

Shyamalan's screenplay isn't bad either. The plot is quite simple, the number of characters are kept to a minimum and all have relevant roles to play in the outcome and it's effectively brought to life on the film canvas. The found-footage camera-work is nicely carried out and its tight editing only helps in establishing an increasingly tense & suspenseful atmosphere, which is brilliantly sustained till the end.

The expected Shyamalan twist is also there, following which the movie becomes somewhat predictable and the pay-off isn't much rewarding. The performances are a definitely plus for the kids waste no time in becoming a nuisance, especially that 13-year old rapping douche, but it's actually their grandparents who leave the most lasting impressions with their eerie renditions, which only gets more menacing as the story nears its end.

On an overall scale, The Visit is a welcome return to form for M. Night Shyamalan after his lengthy string of critical & commercial failures and is a strange mix of horror & comedy that is able to balance the elements of both genres quite nicely. It does create a friction at times but for the most part, the narration is smooth. The few bad decisions taken in the picture lie within the characterisation range and as a whole, The Visit succeeds in delivering a thrilling movie experience, that comes loaded with odd laughs in between.

Fmovies: I went into this movie knowing nothing about the film so when I saw, "an M. Night Shyamalan film," I let out a frustrating sigh having been disappointed by him for years. This movie was different though.

There are no viral outbreaks, no creatures chasing Will Smith, and no air benders. It's simply two kids visiting their grandparents while their single mother goes on vacation.

I've noticed that M. Night does his best work when he puts the focus on ONE main story and lets the other dynamics and plots unfold around that story. In Signs, he focused on Mel Gibson's crumbling family life with an alien invasion as a backdrop. In this film, he puts the focus on the two children's relationship and lets the rest of the film follow suit. Anywho, enough about that.

This movie has the essential elements of a creepy movie. House in the middle of the woods, crazy lunatics for grandparents, and a couple of tech savvy teenagers.

The film is shot in found footage style which has definitely been done to death, but is not "in your face" in this movie. M. Night cleverly writes the teenage girl in the movie as a film buff who focuses on cinematography and "setting the mood," which allows him to use depth of field, good lighting, and good framing unlike other FF style movies like Paranormal Activity, etc which are more jumpy and gopro-ish. The visuals and camera work are refreshingly crisp and smooth, given the method of filming

From day one, you can tell that something isn't right with the grandparents and the kids decide to set up cameras and capture the action. Long story short, things get crazy.

The most surprising thing about this film is how naturally comedy, suspense, and overt horror are blended together. Nothing really felt forced or unnatural in acting, pace, or action. At some points the horror felt a little campy, but that can't really be avoided with so much humor in the movie and most of the people I saw the movie with were cool with that.

Looking back on it, the twists were somewhat predictable but at the time I was so engrossed with the movie I didn't even notice the plot twist creep up.

Great movie and I really hope M. Night can continue with this excellence! see this movie if you can!!

The Good: The most surprising thing about this movie was how it uniquely found a way to be scary, but still include funny moments throughout the film. It knew when to be funny, and when to be scary, without mixing the two together. The scary parts will provide quite a few jump- scares, and in some scenes they will simply disturb you. The young boy, "Tyler" (played by Ed Oxenbould ), will quickly become a favorite in this film with his various remarks, "swearing", and "skills". I think it's fair to say that "Nana", played by Deanna Dunagan, does a really good job of playing the crazy grandma given all the versatile things she did in the movie. For some, the plot twist in the story will be mild, but good nevertheless.

The Bad: As we've come to know from director M. Night Shyamalan (The 6th Sense, Signs), the "big twist" is to be expected. Because of that, if you're an over-analyzer of movies like me, you'll probably see the twist coming from a mile away. So in that aspect, the story is mildly predictable. (That doesn't ruin the movie though) Many of the scary scenes you'll see coming, and for the most part are not terrifying to the point that will give you nightmares. It's very generic horror and scare tactics that we've seen before.

The Reason: Okay, so here's the real deal about this movie. M. Night Shyamalan is known for having a really bad reputation for putting out movies like Lady in the Water, The Village, The Happening, and others. He started off great with The 6th Sense and Signs, but since then, audiences have been generally disappointed. Luckily for The Visit, this movie was not one of his bad films. It was disturbingly funny and scary at the same time. This film is like his "makeup movie" to audiences. For example, in a relationship, if a guy messes up and constantly disappoints his girlfriend, he may give her flowers as an apology. Now the girlfriend may like the flowers, but that doesn't mean the boyfriend is completely forgiven. Shyamalan is in the same boat. The Visit is his "flowers" to audiences. We'll take it, but he's still got a lot more work to do to make up for all the other not-so-great movies he's given us.

Take caution if you decide to see it. It's a unique movie. Not a Hollywood blockbuster by any means, but I wouldn't be surprised if many would enjoy it. To see this movie I recommend: Go in with low expectations, pay the matinée price, and go with a friend or date. (You'll want to talk about it afterwards)

The Rating: 7/10

For more of my reviews visit: www.EmansMovieReviews.com

The Visit fmovies. Well that took a while but I can now say that he is back. I think this is the kind of film where he thrives– low budget, small and intimate domestic settings and a smaller scope. It has echoes of Signs, The Village and The Sixth Sense. I see that critics are comparing it to The Conjuring and I would agree to an extent yes, it has the same level of information withholding.

It's amazing how this film manages to be so wonderfully terrifying without the use of much cgi or special effects. A couple of points in the film I yelped and let out a nervous laughter (and I'm a tough guy).

M. Night Bashers will continue bashing this film but I feel this will stand the test of time, much like his best films. I hope he keeps this up and makes two or three more of these 'small' films quickly and then perhaps, people will eventually forget his larger failures.

I say, watch it. If anything, it's a fantastic lesson in directing horror through restraint.

It's hard to talk about any M. Night films these days without discussing his career trajectory, how he started off incredibly strong with a triple knockout of The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs, only to have his potential squandered, or at least questioned, with films like The Happening, The Last Airbender, and After Earth. As a fan of Shyamalan myself, even I had to admit that he may have lost his luster. With that being said, I'm overjoyed and elated to say that The Visit is Shyamalan's best film since The Village over 10 years ago (my personal favorite). And it's not so bad it's good. The Visit is a legitimately good film, with great performances, terrific setups and even better payoffs, and an overall simple but satisfying story, which is all Shyamalan needs right now.

It's difficult to say much about the story without revealing too much, because The Visit is essentially the type of film where it's better the less you know going in. It's not to say the film is filled with plot twists left and right, but how cleverly it subverts expectations, especially based on the film's misleading marketing campaign. Let this be known: The Visit is a horror AND comedy. It's downright hilarious (intentionally so) during a majority of the film but also equally scary and creepy, which is what M. Night is known for. I was laughing hysterically and screaming, sometimes at the same time! The success of the film is how effectively it jumps in between the two genres and frequently on the dime. The third act showcases this in the best possible way and in full Shyamalan fashion.

Though there are plenty of laughs and screams to be had, The Visit is also filled with surprising moments of drama. There are, at the very least, three genuinely beautiful scenes. One of those involves a zoom in of a certain character, and it's utterly heartbreaking. Credit must be given to Shyamalan who manages to get great performances from his actors, a welcome change after the stilted and wooden performances in his last few films. Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould play the leads, and they're completely likable in their roles. Oxenbould, in particular, steals every scene he's in, providing many of the film's biggest laughs. Seriously, the jokes in here are funnier than most comedies released these days. Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie are also rightfully creepy as the kids' offbeat grandparents. Last but not least, Kathryn Hahn leaves a great impression, despite the limited screen time she has. She's truly wonderful here.

Overall, The Visit is ridiculously entertaining and a total crowd pleaser. It's the film we were all hoping for Shyamalan to make to get him out of the slump. No, it's not as great as his first four films, but it's a step towards the right direction. Recently, it's been revealed that he'll reunite with producer Jason Blum and Joaquin Phoenix for a new project. If it's another low budget feature like The Visit, which it most likely will be, we might be witnessing an era of Shyamalascance. After all, going back to basics is his greatest asset right now. Who says horror/comedy can't work?

UPDATE: The film is even better the second time around, and I noticed a lot of details I missed during the first viewing. There's even clever meta humor sprinkled throughout that might not be apparent at first. Additionally, I'd like to put a spotlight on Deanna Dunagan, who I didn't give enough credit to beforehand. She was fantastic.

Even though I've been severely burned by M. Night Shyamalan's commercial misfires (or rather miscarriages) like Lady in the Lake (ugh!), Airbender (what the hell was he thinking?) and After Earth, I decided to give him one more shot in the shape of The Visit. What worked in his favor was his superb work on the small screen in the form of the 2015 mini-series Wayward Pines - which made me believe that deep down inside Shyamlan's heart still resides a true artist, and not some lazy hack who tackles big-budget flops just to get paychecks from the studio. His recent talk in interviews about gaining back artistic control of his products was another positive step in Shyamalan's long path to cinematic forgiveness.

And so I entered The Visit, a somewhat short and intimate tale of two precocious teenagers, a brother (13) and sister (15), who travel cross country to meet and spend a week with their estranged grandparents, whom they have not seen or met since birth due to a big family feud their divorced mother (Kathryn Hahn, the most recognizable face in the cast) refuses to talk about. The sister, Becca (the promising Olivia DeJonge) also happens to be an aspiring filmmaker, out to make a documentary about the big reconciliation, which ever so conveniently sets the movie up in the popular found footage sub-horror genre - but also opens a wide crack for endless jokes and self-aware nods towards the unsuspecting audience.

Anyway, as you could probably tell by the previews, something isn't quite right with Poppa and Nanna, and even though at first they seem like reasonably nice elder folks, their strict rules (do not get out of the room after 21:30, do not go down to the basement) and strange manners (you'll see what I'm talking about) soon enough make it clear to both Becca and Tyler (the smaller brother portrayed by the superb Ed Oxenbould, who at 14 shows endless promise) that they better get the hell out of there - as fast as they could.

Besides the trademark Shyamalan twist, which actually works here and seems reasonable in hindsight (unlike, say, The Village), the extremely self-aware script and the very natural and authentic brother-sister relationship between both co-leads, lends further credence to Shyamlan's pet project. You can see that he cared for the characters, and you can also easily remember that this is a director who made a reputation for himself because he managed to facilitate such an emotional and iconic performance out of then-11-year-old Haley Joel Osment, so obviously he's good with kids. I don't know if young Ed Oxenbould is the next Osment, but he sure does deliver the goods through and through - and gives one of the best children/teen performances I've watched in a while.