Although M. Night Shyamalan became one of our favorite filmmakers with his work on The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs, his last few films (The Last Airbender, After Earth) left us wondering if his Midas touch had faded a bit. He’s back in fine form with his latest, the horror-thriller/family drama The Visit.
Shyamalan wrote and directed the feature and it returns him to his wheelhouse of spooking audiences with his trademark talent for terror, coupled with a family-centric tale that is chock full of messages that tug at our heartstrings.
Olivia DeJonge is Becca and Ed Oxenbould plays her younger brother Tyler. Their mother (Kathryn Hahn) left her parents’ home as a pregnant teenager and hasn’t spoken to them since. They reach out in an effort to meet their now teenage grandchildren and Becca and Tyler are eager to meet them, so they agree. Mom puts them on a train and they head to rural Pennsylvania.
They’re picked up by Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie) and their weeklong discovery begins.
What makes this a unique tale for Shyamalan is how it is a “found footage” or “point of view” picture. Becca is an aspiring filmmaker and she begins the film by video interviewing her mother to talk about the past and then hopes to make a documentary about her family and healing after a week of footage gathered at her grandparents’ house.
There’s just one thing. Things become a little spooky at Nana and Pop Pop’s house. Night by night, the creep factor goes up and the kids at first chalk it up to senility and old age. Then, they truly start to worry.
The Visit works on so many levels and this is praise coming from someone who has not been impressed by found footage films of late.
Shyamalan scored hugely with casting. The two teens are fantastic and carry this film on their shoulders. DeJonge sells the documentary angle with her adoration of filmmaking and why there is a camera recording everything that happens. Oxenbould is a slice of heaven in his ability to create laughs, more than we’ve ever seen in any Shyamalan film prior. In fact, the laughs abound and aid in the scares. Nothing works better in a horror film than ebbs and flows in emotion for the viewer.
Is Shyamalan back to form?
In his mind, he probably never stopped telling stories that sizzle. But for most audiences, yes, The Visit is a return to the M. Night Shyamalan that enthralled audiences for his first several movies. The Visit is a refreshing twist on things because it is found footage, a new method of storytelling for the veteran filmmaker. But what we have to point out is this is his first creative partnership with Jason Blum and his Blumhouse Productions and perhaps that also played into the effectiveness of this cinematic experience.
Shyamalan has never had a person like Blum on the behind-the-camera end who could question his decisions, make suggestions and give notes that always have the film’s best interests in mind. The two will work together again in the future. That’s a Visit to the movies we look forward to making again (and, hopefully, again).
Grade: B