M. Night Shyamalan experienced a meteoric rise in Hollywood with horror thrillers The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, but was soon followed by an equally rapid decline after a series of more controversial titles: movies like The Happening or “After Earth” were mercilessly torn by fans and the trade press. But in 2015, Shyamalan found his way back to his old form with the self-funded The Visit.
Those who have not seen the mean and black humorous horror shocker (including the obligatory Shyamalan twist, of course, but this time really successful), can now catch up. The Visit is now available as an Amazon Prime Video subscription:
While Shyamalan came dangerously close to self-parody for a while with “The Happening” and co. In “The Visit” he again succeeds in the difficult balancing act between strong moments of shock and slowly rising tensionwhich culminates in a deft twist – spiced up this time, however, with some genuinely funny scenes and deeply personal movie-philosophical elements.
The narrative liberties that Shyamalan entails by simply financing the found-footage horror film with his own money also really pay off here. This is especially important in the final (Cheeky!) Scenes not normally seen in classic Hollywood movies. The editors of FILMSTARTS gave “The Visit” a solid 3.5 out of 5 stars.
In The Visit, 15-year-old Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and her younger brother Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) travel to their grandparents, whom they and their mother (Kathryn Hahn) have not seen in years. At the time, her mother ran away from home in a hurry, but now Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie) finally want to meet their grandchildren.
Tyler and Becca, capturing the week-long visit for a documentary, receive a warm welcome from their grandparents, though some strict rules apply to their stay. But soon they hear eerie scratching noises in the house at night and make terrifying discoveries when Nana and Pop Pop start acting strange. Something is clearly wrong here…