The Visit: Unnerving, Hysterical, and Plain Fun

Editor’s Notes: The Visit is out in wide theatrical release today, September 11th. For an additional perspective on the film, read The Visit: Shyamalan’s Most Tolerable Film in Over a Decade by Jason McKiernan.

M. Night Shyamalan has had a rough 11 years since the release of The Village. Even if you don’t keep up with film news, you know that. Moviegoers have made the habit of hating him so profoundly systematic that it’s impossible to escape. We’ve all heard theater audiences react verbally to seeing his name in trailers, from Devil to After Earth, with laughs or groans. So, here comes The Visit, a new Shyamalan outing that’s being sold, to the ridicule of the public, as a found footage horror film. Has he made something worthwhile after all this time? If you’re like me, an avid fan of Shyamalan’s early work, you’ll be happy to hear that yes, he has. He finally has.

We needed inspiration. Ingenuity. Originality. Humor. Cohesiveness. Charm. We get that in spades here.

Now, in no way am I saying that The Visit is perfect, because it’s certainly not, but we didn’t need perfect. We needed inspiration. Ingenuity. Originality. Humor. Cohesiveness. Charm. We get that in spades here. The story is a simple one that easily wins you over, following two kids who stay with their grandparents for a week. Tyler, the younger brother, is a wannabe rapper who, if nothing else, just wants people to acknowledge that he’s cool. Becca, the older sister, is an aspiring filmmaker, who plans to film their visit for a documentary, in a hopeful attempt to repair her grandparents’ relationship with her mother. Upon arrival, the kids affectionately refer to their elders as “Nana and Pop-Pop,” but the innocence that the group’s interplay initially exudes is snatched away when strange happenings begin to occur. Things only get worse when Becca conducts some interviews, and that’s where this synopsis ends. Divulging any further details would be robbing you of a great experience, after all.

The Visit functions perfectly as a love letter to the kind of creativity Shyamalan began his career with.

Watching an obviously giddy M. Night’s brainchild play out onscreen is an endearing experience. Two kids, rife with curiosity, go on a little fact-finding adventure to discover the truth, and it’s complete with emotional resonance, great performances, and a successfully eerie atmosphere. Funnily enough (considering it’s a horror film), the emotional clarity is a large part of what makes it such a great watch. Much of the film focuses on the practically nonexistent relationship between their mother and her parents, and how that’s made their mother so attached yet distant to her children. But, Becca doesn’t feel complete without assisting in the mending of that relationship, so how does she go about that? Film. Film is her tool, and it’s what she believes will repair an entire family. In that, The Visit functions perfectly as a love letter to the kind of creativity Shyamalan began his career with.

But somehow, I’ve entirely forgotten to touch on how frequently funny it is. So I’ll fix that. The Visit is often hilarious. It’s marketed as a shocking horror film, yes, but in truth it’s a damn good horror-comedy. The star of the show, in terms of laughter, is Ed Oxenbould as Tyler. His timing is impeccable, and he’s full of immediate energy, acting exactly like a 13-14 year old boy should. Olivia DeJonge as Becca is more like the David Spade to Ed Oxenbould’s Chris Farley, setting up comedic bits rather than delivering punchlines, but that’s not what her character is designed for, so it’s definitely not an issue. Peter McRobbie and Deanna Dunagan as Nana and Pop-Pop, on the other hand, are metric tons of commanding and awkward hilarity, while simultaneously being creepy as hell. They’re both casted to perfection, but everyone does a fantastic job.

Somehow, M. Night has molded horror, comedy, and drama into an unnerving, hysterical, and plain fun gem that assures us of one thing: Shyamalan is back, baby.

8.1 GREAT

Somehow, M. Night has molded horror, comedy, and drama into an unnerving, hysterical, and plain fun gem that assures us of one thing: Shyamalan is back, baby.