M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit sees two teenagers, siblings Rebecca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), going on a week long stay with their grandparents.
Rebecca is an amateur filmmaker and is eager to document her and her brother’s visit for the benefit of their mother – who hasn’t seen her parents since she eloped with the kid’s father 15 years before.
When the siblings arrive, their grandparents are warm and welcoming. As the week progresses, however, their behaviour gradually grows weirder and more disturbing.
After a string of failed attempts at making Hollywood blockbusters (The Last Airbender, After Earth), I was looking forward to seeing M. Night Shyamalan’s return to horror/suspense thriller. The idea of a movie in the vein of his earlier works, The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs had me genuinely excited. What a shame then that The Visit is so mediocre.
There are plus points: the film’s snowbound, rural location is suitably creepy and a perfect setting for any horror film. Its found-footage style also gives it a very intimate, home video feel that suits its familial themes.
Then there is the tension and atmosphere which Shyamalan effectively creates by consistently ratcheting up the weirdness factor. What’s disappointing is that the only thing Shyamalan builds towards is some not very jumpy jump scares and a few gross-out moments.
The film’s biggest flaw though is its messy juxtaposition of comedy, horror, and family drama. It shifts uncomfortably between scenes of each in a way that is quite jarring.
Perhaps the best (worst?) examples of these tonal shifts occur towards the film’s end in which scenes of domestic horror are followed by preachy moralising and then by a very cringe worthy attempt at humour. It gives you the feeling that since Shyamalan couldn’t decide how he wanted to end the thing he decided to go with three endings for good measure.
Although not as disastrous or ill-conceived as some of his previous films, The Visit is still another misfire from a director whose catalogue is slowly becoming full of them.
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