The Visit

The Visit

Starring Olivia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould, Deanna Dunagan, Peter McRobbie

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

The Story:
Siblings Rebecca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) live in a broken home.  Their father ran off, and their mother Paula (Kathryn Hahn) has been looking for love ever since. To top it off, she's had a strained relationship with her own parents, and haven't talked to them in years.  Out of the blue, the grandparents want to meet their grandchildren, so Paula sends the kids to their grandparents' house in the middle of nowhere.

At first, Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie) seem like the average doting grandparents - baking, cooking, and loving on their grandkids.  Things turn odd when Rebecca and Tyler are told bedtime is 9:30, and to not come out of their room.  Of course, they do, and witness Nana especially acting erratically, and as the days go on, the grandparents become weirder and weirder.  What is really going on, and are Rebecca and Tyler in danger?

The Synopsis:
I saw this preview a long time ago, and I was really intrigued by the premise, until the end of the trailer where it said: "directed by M. Night Shyamalan."  I was bummed out, because Shyamalan hasn't been known for being a great director.  He stepped out of the gate with "The Sixth Sense," which is one of the few horror films to garner several Oscar nominations (including Best Picture and Best Director).  He then released "Unbreakable," which was another remarkable tale which treated viewers to things never before imagined.

Then came "Signs."  Good premise, good story, incredibly poor ending.  "The Village" followed, which, to me, was the lamest and easiest-to-spot Shyamalan "twist" that he's known for.  "The Lady in the Water," "The Happening," "The Last Airbender" and "After Earth" followed, and you could compare Shyamalan's career to that of a snowball on top of a mountain.  As his films were released, the snowball of shame grew stronger and bigger, until it threatened the entire village below.

So with "The Visit," I didn't have high hopes.  Either this was going to be the death knell for Shyamalan, or it would straighten the ship, so to speak.  Thankfully, "The Visit" wasn't a bomb, but it brought Shyamalan back from the dead and once again delivered a fresh, intriguing, and downright unnerving picture.

What attributes the success to "The Visit" lies in several areas.  First of all is the budget.  It was the smallest budget the director ever had, which allowed for the story to truly shine through.  There were no cheap effects ("Last Airbender"), no huge actors (no Will Smith, no Bruce Willis, no Mel Gibson), and, for his first time, was filmed entirely from the first person point of view, which added to the intimacy and terror that the children felt.  Typically, I find this first-person camera use as a cheap way of filming, but here, it was done to pinpoint perfection, and truly allowed you to lose yourself in the movie.  That is, unless you get nauseated when a camera moves a lot.  Then you probably won't like it.

The actors also added to the validity of "The Visit."  As I said earlier, there were no big name actors, so you weren't thinking, "Oh, that's Mark Walhberg acting like a normal everyman."  Instead, there were a bunch of no-name actors (at least on screen) who perform their roles so brilliantly you almost believe you weren't even watching a movie.

Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould played the roles of Rebecca and Tyler, the young children caught in the middle of a living nightmare.  Typically, I hate kids in horror films, because they're either downright annoying ("The Babadook"), or just plain strange ("The Ring").  Thankfully, Rebecca and Tyler were your normal, typical kids.  Rebecca was insanely intelligent and grounded, while Tyler was a wannabe rapper who was more entertaining than annoying.  You genuinely cared for their well-being, and they gave standout performances.

The true stars of the show are Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie, as the mentally dysfunctional Nana and Pop Pop.  Dunagan is a Tony-Award winning Broadway actress and Peter McRobbie has appeared in several films, but was never the lead.  Both of them tackled their roles here with insatiable glee, one minute serving as everyone's lovable grandparents, the next asking Rebecca to clean deep inside an oven (a nice comparison to Hansel and Gretel) or fighting a guy on the street.  Their performances made the film such an enjoyable one, and it wouldn't have been the same without them.

Finally is the story.  It was incredibly simple in premise, yet it built the tension and mystery.  There were a few scenes where I wondered why they were included, as they didn't seem to fit the narrative as a whole, but at the end, those scenes come back to mind and serve as important points to the ending of the film.  This is the subtle brilliance of Shyamalan.  When he truly tells a story, he engrosses you in it, and throws in small parts that you think don't fit, but instead serve as the most important pieces of the puzzle.

So was the film terrifying?  Not necessarily, but it was very unnerving and unrelenting.  It's a thinking man's horror movie, where you have to pay attention to even the smallest things to fully grasp the gravity of the situation.  It's a mystery that slowly unravels, with sympathetic characters. It's a slow-burn at the start, but had a fantastic finish.   It's a welcome return to the Shyamalan of old.

The Summary:
Check out this special podcast I was a guest of for Salem Twin Cinema:
https://soundcloud.com/twin-cinema-cast/ep-4-the-visit

The Score: A-