The Visit-2015
Director-M. Night Shyamalan
Starring-Kathryn Hahn
Scott’s Review #276
Reviewed September 24, 2015
Grade: B
A modern-day thriller/horror/comedy hybrid (admittedly it is tough to classify this film as exclusively horror with the dreaded and watered down PG-13 rating) directed by M. Night Shyamalan, The Visit has its moments of genuine scary frights and surprises with a wonderful twist at the end but suffers from some clichés one severely unlikeable character and suspensions of disbelief.
Bringing grandparents to the forefront of the film is a clever idea, albeit, stereotypically, The Visit is a decent watch, but laden with a few misfires.
Paula, a single mother on the outs with her parents for some years, but recently reunited, sends her two children- Rebecca and Tyler, for a week, stay at their grandparent’s farmhouse, whom they have never met.
At the kids prompting, Paula decides to go on a romantic vacation with her new boyfriend.
Naturally, when the kids arrive at Grandma and Grandpa’s, strange events occur almost immediately. The children are warned never to go into the basement, not to leave their bedrooms after 9:30 pm, plus the grandparents just have a creepy, weird, look to them.
Rebecca and Tyler, in true modern horror fashion, arguably contrived at this point, record all the events (think Paranormal Activity) and begin to realize there is something rotten in the state of Denmark.
The Visit contains both positives and negatives so let me first begin with the negatives.
The mother and the two kids live in New Jersey and the grandparents in Pennsylvania. That is one state away, yet Rebecca and Tyler have never met, seen photographs of, nor spoken to their grandparents on the phone – not even to discuss the impending visit.
The kids constantly use Skype to communicate with Mom throughout their visit, but it never occurred to anyone to chat with the grandparents before embarking on a week-long visit to, you know, introduce themselves?
Okay. This is a convenient plot manipulation.
Another negative is the film contains one of the most annoying film characters in recent memory- that of Tyler and I am baffled as to whether this was intentional or unintentional.
The kid is about 12 years old and is written as precocious as possible. There are at least three to four endless scenes of him rapping, mostly to the video camera, that I found to be an utter waste of valuable screen time and lends nothing to the plot.
Filler and for a 90-minute movie, unnecessary.
In the end, though, I got the last laugh, as the character, a germophobe, has his face smeared with human excrement. Ha!
The third negative I observed is that of the constant “old people jokes”, which bordered on the offensive after a while. The grandparent’s unusual behavior was blamed numerous times on their age as if all elderly people are scatterbrained, daffy, or just downright strange. Untrue.
Many seniors are intelligent, useful, and lively so there was a feeling of disrespect towards the elderly that I could not shake. The film could have portrayed the grandparents with more dignity than it chose to.
Now for some positives- the compelling twist at the end of the film I simply did not see coming and I loved that about The Visit.
Rarely is the audience surprised anymore, especially in the horror genre, and I certainly was. Having now replayed the film in my mind the plot makes perfect sense, but in the heart of the climax, it works.
On the subject of the conclusion, The Visit has a unique slow-motion/dreamlike feel and an odd, classical type musical score playing throughout the ending that adds much depth to the typical thriller type music heard in most films like this.
The oven scene inevitably viewed by all during early trailers for The Visit is excellent- as Grandma convinces Rebecca to crawl completely inside her oven to clean it we just know this will not end well.
Additionally, the look and texture of the setting- an old deserted farmhouse in a small, rural town in the middle of nowhere- a feeling of being trapped- successfully provides a scary backdrop for the film.
All the elements just scream horror and behoove the film.
The Visit has genuine scares, will make the viewer jump, and perhaps even shriek. That is what good horror does- yet I am still unsure if this film is more horror or comedy- unintentionally so, perhaps.
