The Visit is a return to form for its director M. Night Shamalayan.
The brain behind the 1999 runaway supernatural horror hit The Sixth Sense, quite simply has made one bad movie after another for much of the 16 years following his debut film that earned him best directing and best writing Oscar nominations.
The Sixth Sense possessed sharply written characters; potent thrills and a dramatically satisfying plot twist. His post-debut work has had largely cringe-worthy two-dimensional characters and thrills and quite laughable plot twists. This film is closer to the first model.
The Visit tells the story of Rebecca — a budding filmmaker with a great eye for the visual — and her younger brother, Tyler — a young rapper that has a knack for rhymes and a fetish for saying the name of famous pop stars out loud— visiting their grandparents for the very first time.
The kids’ mother (Kathryn Hahn) estranged herself from her parents by leaving their house 15 years prior to elope with her high school teacher Robert, who later broke up with her. There was an incident that took place the day Tyler and Becca’s Mom decided to leave home, but she refuses to talk about it.
Becca decides to film the visit to their grandparents who live “in the middle of nowhere,” to show her audience the home that her mother grew up in, and show what her grandparents are like.
The first day of the visit goes well. Nana and Pop-Pop come off as very nice. They give their grandkids tasty treats and they let them have the freedom to film anything they want for their documentary. The only rule is to not enter the basement. Pop Pop tells the kids that there “is toxic mould growing in there.”
The grandparents opt to check into bed every night at 9:30 p.m., “because they are elderly,” say’s Pop-Pop. An hour after the grandparents’ curfew, the kids opt to head into the kitchen to get a late snack, but they stop when they see Nana projectile vomiting all over the floor.
The next day when the kids inform Pop-Pop of Nana’s late night sickness, he dismisses it by calling it a “24-hour thing.” But then he strongly advises the kids not to exit their bedroom after 9:30 p.m. for the rest of their visit.
Over the next few days, the kids witness their grandparents exhibit a lot of strange behaviour, both in the daytime and the night. For example, the grandfather spends a mysterious amount of time in the toolshed, and Nana is keen on Rebecca entering “all the way into the oven” to clean it, and she shakes uncontrollably at the mere mention of her daughter.
M. Night Shamalayan is quite famous for introducing a plot twist in the third act of the film. I won’t spoil it.
I recommend this film because it masterfully blends outrageous comedy with unnerving thrills.
Credit also has to be given to the cast. In the Sixth Sense, Shamalayan was able to draw out an Oscar-nominated performance from Haley Joel Osment. While Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould won’t get a lot of award buzz, they should be credited for both giving charismatic dramatic and comedic performances.
However, the lion’s share of acting praise should be directed towards Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie. They expertly portray the mysterious grandparents that become more and more unhinged each day. This movie would have gone nowhere if both actors failed to realize the dementedness of their respective characters.
This film does have some flaws. The Visit falls into the same trap of a lot of horror films by having its protagonists’ make some really dumb decisions near the end of the film. I also thought the final scene, which was quite emotional, was completely out of sync with the tone of the film. The ending of The Visit would have worked if this film were a heartfelt family drama instead of a dark comedy horror feature.
Four popcorn buckets out of five.
