By Melissa Ann
Writer and director M. Night Shyamalan took cinema by storm in 1999 with the movie Sixth Sense. You could barely go into public without hearing the phrases “I see dead people” and “He was dead the whole time”. Thanks to a clever plot twist, Shyamalan had made a name for himself as a director. During the years after, he saw some successes in both the box office and with critics, including Unbreakable and Signs, but they have been few and far between. But now, thanks to The Visit, Shyamalan may be seeing his comeback.
Siblings Rebecca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) get an offer from their estranged grandparents to meet for the first time and visit their countryside house for a week. They decide to make the trip so that their single mom, Paula (Kathryn Hahn), can go on a cruise and have some fun with her current boyfriend. Since Rebecca is an aspiring filmmaker, she records the entire journey to help find closure for her mom who had a falling-out with her parents as a teen. After taking a train ride alone, Rebecca and Tyler meet their grandparents, John (Peter McRobbie) and Doris (Deanna Dunagan) and see their mom’s childhood home. Throughout their visit, the grandparents start to act increasingly weird. Rebecca and her mom credit old age to be the issue, but Tyler isn’t so convinced.
I watched The Visit knowing very little about the movie, so I was surprised that it was filmed in a found footage/documentary style. Although the subgenre is oversaturated with too many shaky cams, it worked really well here. Another surprising element was the comedy, especially from Ed Oxenbould’s character. Tyler is a wannabe rapper and seems like an annoying kid in the beginning, but his personality and songs bring a lot of laughs and add a whole other layer to the movie. While there is a classic Shyamalan twist to the story, I did find it to be a bit predictable but was unable to guess all of the details.
The Visit had a good mix of scares and comedy, deeply likeable characters, and an enjoyable story. Perhaps this is indeed M. Night Shyamalan’s comeback to where he belongs. Although, since I am one of those rare people who enjoy the majority of his films, I never really considered him gone.
Rating: 8.5/10
