The Visit

REVIEW: The Visit

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan.

Rating - 3 out of 4 stars

Well, it’s been a while since I have sat at the keyboard and logged into the blog.  The absence has been partially due to life circumstances, as well as having an inbred ability to get instantly distracted by my cat, John McClane.  He’s badass, which he should be.  He drinks his coffee black and takes no prisoners.  He recently had to get a hair cut due to the mighty amount of mats that took root in his powerful coat.  As great as he is, McClane has an aversion to grooming himself, hence the mats.  I wanted to ask the groomer if she was up for giving him a stylized shaving to make it look like he was wearing a tank top, but I figured such a request would get me in trouble from my wife.

Enough about my cat for now.  Let’s chat about someone who has been away from the movie scene and considered knocked down from former heights.  M. Night Shyamalan caught the eyes of movie goers in 1999 with The Sixth Sense, which elevated his name quickly.  In 2002, Signs was another major hit for the director, and he was firmly established as a director whose name alone could be used as a marketing tool.

And then he fell.  The warning signs were visible in The Village, where it had by then become obvious that he was determined to have a twist ending in his films.  The Lady in the Water, released in 2006, was the first major release of his that lost money.  This was also his first major release that was not under Buena Vista, whom he had worked with for four films.  

The following years brought three more films from three different studios that were not really welcomed by either critics or the public.  It ended in 2013 with After Earth, which was considered by some as a vanity project from the Smith family to showcase the acting dexterity of young Jaden Smith.  Whatever the reason for the project, it left Sony with a huge financial loss, and Shyamalan appeared as though he had burned through studios willing to work for him.

Because of his lack of success, major backing for a film did not seem like an option for Shyamalan.  What ended up happening was working with micro-budget producer Jason Blum to get a found footage film from pen and paper to cinemas across the world.  Universal, who has been the powerhouse studio this year, laughing in the faces of everyone who says you need superhero movies to be successful, got behind the project.

Why am I talking about all of this and not simply reviewing his latest film, The Visit?  Well, for two reasons.  First off, I love an underdog story.  While I may not be a fan of Shyamalan or many of his works, I love rooting for the person his coming back with something to prove.  Secondly, I am not going to write a standard review for this movie, but instead examine one major talking point that I took away from it.

I’ll be completely honest about the film and not sugar coat a thing.  This is not a perfect movie at all.  Saying that it has a twist is not a spoiler.  An actual twist to this movie would be if it didn’t have one.  There are some ham-fisted moments of people over-coming their fears.  The antagonists are a sketch of different ideas of what ‘creepy old folk’ would act like.  The camera feels like it is held by a professional camera person and not the characters in the story.  This may seem nitpicky of me, but in a found footage film the camera is not an outside eye, it is actually a character.  

Speaking of characters, the protagonists instantly turned into idiots in the third act.  I was cheering and rooting for them to die.  I know that may leave you believing that I am a horrible person for feeling such things, but stupid people don’t deserve to stay alive in the movie world.  They are the people who look in the barn after all previous idiots have not returned from investigating.  They are the people who investigate things when their lives are in danger.  Digital Projection Darwin says they need to be thinned off to enhance the herd, and I agree with him on this one.

I say all of this, and yet I am recommending the movie.  The reason why is because M. Night Shyamalan returns to the most basic and yet oft neglected and forgotten foundations that make a successful horror or thriller - characters.  We need solid characters who we can feel like we know so we attach to the fear and worry that they experience.  I believe that for horrors, the story should be about the characters with tension added in.  What happens most of the time is stories of tension with characters forcefully inserted.

At the heart of The Visit are a young sister and brother, Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould).  They are heading off to visit their mother’s parents, whom they have never met before.  Right away I rolled my eyes at both of the children who I knew I would be forced to spend an hour and a half with.  They were tropish little ones.  Becca spoke like she had been born on the set of Gilmoure Girls, and was the standard teen intellectual.  Bring on another straight laced bookworm!  Tyler was a thirteen year old who goofed off and wore his pants low.  Way to break the mould, Shyamalan.

This is where M. Night wove his magic on me.  He took characters who I instantly wanted to discard and made me care for them and love them.  When they were done acting like idiots in the third act, I was quick to forgive them for being so dumb.  When they emerged from their ham-fisted scenes, I cheered.

This was all achieved because Shyamalan took time with Becca and Tyler.  He showed us their true characters, and turned them from cardboard cutouts into individuals who I felt like I actually knew.  Even with me feeling a disconnect from the steadiness of the camera (something that rips me out of found footage movies.  Seriously, the character should hold the camera.  There should be absolutely no camera credits in a found footage film.  That’s how it’s done.  Just look at Creep, which is also a production under Jason Blum.  It is much more organic.), I cared for the little third act dullards.  

I believe that if I counted, the issues I had with this film would out-weigh the positives.  While Shyamalan was able to set up visually uncomfortable and scary scenes, they felt tacked on afterwards.  And then there was the sound.  It was which was incredibly well done and intimate, but then was ruined by having a loud noise to coincide with a jump scare.  And, the film had a twist that made the characters act stupid.

Sigh, I guess it was a wonderful mess.  With all of the faults, it had a solid and heartfelt foundation.  The Visit is a solid comeback for M. Night Shyamalan, one where he shows that heart needs to come before scares in a horror.  The movie is carried by his attention to Becca and Tyler, as well as the performances of Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould.  And hey, Kathryn Hahn plays their mother, and she is always wonderful.  There are many laughs to be found in this film, a bit of eye rolling, and some chilling sequences.  When the credits were rolling I was smiling, which meant the ticket price was well worth it