No other director in Hollywood has had a career like M. Night Shyamalan. His career started off tremendously with movies like Unbreakable and The Sixth Sense, suspense films with meticulously detailed screenplays, beautiful metaphorical imagery and killer twists which made sense in accordance with the rest of the film. This also made his earlier projects effortlessly re-watchable. However, since the mid 2000s Shyamalan seemed to lose his marbles with movies like The Happening, The Last Airbender and After Earth creating a holy trinity of dogsh*t.
The Visit is the story of a brother and sister who go to stay with their grandparents who they have never met before. However, as the days pass and night time approaches, their grandmother and grandfather begin to exhibit some incredibly strange behaviour, leading the grandchildren towards discovering a dark secret. The Visit is exactly what M. Night Shyamalan needed; a low budget suspense film which also excellently satires his own work as a director. It's not the Sixth Sense, but it's still an enjoyable film and a solid return to form for a director who has fallen heavily from grace in recent years.
The Visit is a weird amalgamation of horror and comedy, also borrowing elements of suspense and real human drama. It is not a film which will keep you up at night, but it does accomplish some very intense and disturbing scenes. A lot of this is played for comedy, using the younger brother as a way to channel all of the film's comedic energy and satire. Sometimes I feel the comedic aspect of the film overrided and deflated the tension that had been built up via M. Night's direction. This tonal conflict alongside the occasional over-reliance on jump scares is probably my biggest personal complaint with The Visit. But for the most part, it is successful in being dramatic, thrilling and comedic all at the same time, which is truly impressive.
There's also sparks of the M. Night Shyamalan genius from The Sixth Sense days via the movie's screenplay, which he also wrote. The movie does exhibit a slow burning pace but as soon as it got to a point where it seemed the narrative wasn't progressing, the movie really sharpened up. It took its time but it eventually fleshed out the brother and sister characters as well as the relationship between them and their mother. The Visit became dramatically hefty towards the end which is credit to M. Night's writing as well as the performances given by the two children who play the brother and sister.
Their acting performances in the movie were very good and the two had an organic relationship and real synergy between them. They actually felt like real people with their own crazy interests and obsessions; the brother is an aspiring rapper/MC and the sister is an aspiring filmmaker/documentarian. Plus, they have effective banter between them, making them feel as if they really were brother and sister. But, their performances are completely over-shadowed by the actors who portray the creepy grandparents. They were fantastic at playing these crazy geriatrics, particularly the grandmother who has a lot of psychological issues.
But for me what worked the most with The Visit was the use of the found footage style of direction and cinematography. It didn't come across at all like a gimmick or a cash-grab, and at times the film would actually stop to satire it as a method of filmmaking, which I laughed at considerably. The found footage does border into cliché on a few occasions particularly in the film's third act yet it still seems to boost the quality of everything else in the film. Dialogue which would normally come across as bogged down and expository works and compliments the style of direction.
And I can't conclude a review without mentioning the twist at the end. It isn't the most mind-blowing thing you will experience in a theatre this year. But is it still effective? Yes. Does it make sense? Yes. Do I feel stupid for not getting it? Absolutely not.
Overall, The Visit is one of the most surprising films of 2015. At times there are tonal conflicts and a cheap over-reliance on jump scares as a thrill tactic, but it's still a movie I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend for someone if they just want to sit down and watch a fun adventure. A lot of the comedy works, the acting performances are good across the board, the screenplay involves a good twist and relatable emotional sub-text (staples of Shyamalan's films) and a directorial style which seemed to boost everything else going on around it. I like The Visit, and I want Shyamalan to do more films like this:
Rating - B
Thanks for reading,
Matt
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