THE VISIT

It's been awhile since M Night Shyamalan has made a film like those that initially brought him fame - THE SIXTH SENSE, UNBREAKABLE, THE VILLAGE. Essentially they are LIKE well-constructed jokes wherein the punchline is everything but you don't need to be told it more than once.

THE VISIT definitely falls into this category with a terrific twist and plenty of scary foreshadowing. This is the best film he's made in a long time but as I said once the surprise is over that's it.

Two children visit their estranged grandparents while their mother goes on a cruise with her new beau. They have never met their grandparents before and we see through their eyes the elderly couple's weird behavior which gradually escalates to its horror movie conclusion over the length of a week.

Shyamalan has joined the ever growing list of filmmakers using found footage as the vehicle for telling a story. It does make sense in the context of the story here as the granddaughter is an aspiring filmmaker and documents all that is going on. It also is a good storytelling method as it prevents the audience from finding out too much and moving at the same rate of speed of knowledge as the characters in the film.

Shyamalan's best film is UNBREAKABLE as it was an example of a filmmaker who totally understands the comic book narrative flow and style and also has the best Shyamalan surprise ending. THE VISIT is not on the level of that film but easily as good as the best of his other films.

The performances by Peter McRobbi and Deanna Dunagan as the grandparents are really creepy and unsettling and make perfect sense once you know the twist .

Overall a strong horror movie with plenty of jump scares and excellent pacing.

Here is a post from 2008 I wrote about Shyamalan

https://rajdronamraju.wordpress.com/2008/07/19/unrealistic-expectations-and-the-films-of-m-night-shyamalan/

 

THREE FILMS - LAST SHIFT, COOTIES, HELLIONS

LAST SHIFT

Rare to see a horror movie these days that is this genuinely scary and it is successful at being scary because it is very focused, relentless in piling on one nailbiting scene and shock scare after another, and takes place at one location (The set is perfect) - A police station the night before it closes for good. A rookie officer (Juliana Harkavy) has been assigned to play watchman by herself but little does she know the station is haunted by the ghosts of a Charles Manson like cult leader and a couple of his followers who committed suicide while in custody one year earlier. All the scares here are legitimate and might be something as simple as a chair that moves by itself or a hideously mutilated ghost-corpse. The end is a bit of a mind screw and I dug it. Anthony DiBlasi, the director, previously made the films DREAD and CASSADAGA but this is much much better. Maybe the best horror movie I've seen this year.

COOTIES

Horror comedies are difficult to pull off as they often seem like an uneasy mix of two things that don't go well together but this film does a good job I think because it is primarily a comedy. One can ignore the gruesome violence and bloody gore because of the large number of jokes, hilarious dialogue, and the characters in particular the angry right wing Christian teacher, the ridiculously perverse and socially awkward science teacher, and the anal retentive fake cool vice principal. There's even couple Lord of the Rings jokes (Elijah Wood is the main star). Not a masterpiece of the genre, just good gory fun.

HELLIONS

Crappy film in love with its bargain basement psychedelic visuals and containing a muddled pro life message. Had no idea what the plot was about and by the end I didn't care. The first twenty minutes made me think it was going to be yet another variation on THE STRANGERS and it would have been better off for everyone if it had gone in that direction.

 

FIVE FILMS - THE EDITOR, DARK WAS THE NIGHT, SOME KIND OF HATE, FELT, THE OVERNIGHT

THE EDITOR

This overdone Giallo parody (and I think that word fits better here than homage) is filled with gore, nudity, bad jokes and bad dubbing. It is energetic, highly stylized, and painstakingly aimed for a 70's Italian grindhouse look. The verdict is it's very entertaining (although all logic goes out the window at the end) but might have been more entertaining if they dialed it down a bit. It's almost too much at times. There is such a thing in film making as trying too hard.

                                              

DARK WAS THE NIGHT

Mature, old fashioned creature feature that errs on the side of caution too much by taking very long time to reveal the monster and spending much of the rest of the time on character development. The creature is decent looking, a combination of CGI and a man in a costume. The tension is diluted by too much time spent on human drama. There should have been more attacks by the monster in the beginning. I salute what the filmmaker is doing but the exciting last 20 minutes doesn't make up for the dullness of earlier parts. 

SOME KIND OF HATE

The beginning feels like a student film so by the numbers predictable and poorly shot it is however once the action turns from a bullied teen who is sent to a camp where he finds further bullying to the vengeful spirit of a teenage girl he accidentally summons things improve. The spirit's gross, bloody,creepy look coupled with the truly painful way it kills people (cuts itself with a razor and the wounds appear on the intended target) is the big draw. In that way it reminds me of 80's slasher films with the Freddys and Jasons as big stars although everything else about this film is poor. I would like to see Moira the ghost get a sequel where she kills more kids but hopefully with a higher budget.
 

FELT

Feminist agit-prop that is quirky enough to be interesting but two points 1.) The main character is deeply annoying and weird, so much in fact that any sympathy one might feel for her condition is undercut by this 2.) The viewer might have had a deeper understanding of her final violent act if the script had revealed what exactly had happened to her rather than just general statements complaining about male patriarchy and rape culture. I did like the film's original look and the heroine's artistic self-created environment but a lot of it was just uncomfortable (which was probably the point) and the end violence horror-movie style, what leads to it, as I mentioned before, is not set-up enough in advance.

                                                   

THE OVERNIGHT

Combining hipster affectations with 1970's type swinging couples plot developments and throwing in SNL type humor, this film wanders in and out of interest throwing in the occasional nude scene or gross joke to keep the audience's attention. Not in any way memorable. The ending was a cop-out.

                                                                                                                                                  

SIX FILMS - TURBO KID, BAIT, QUEEN OF EARTH, COP CAR, TALE OF TALES, Z FOR ZACHARIAH

TURBO KID

This film works on so many levels - As a parody of 80's low budget horror/sci fi films complete with the theme music, as horror film with ridiculous gore, as comedy with funny characters and absurd scenes and characters, and as just a good grade z movie adventure that is great fun. So many cool details fill the screen - Burning videotapes for heat, the great Michael Ironside as the main villain, the crazy robot Apple, the nod to SOYLENT GREEN, their bikes, and the clothes they wear - A lot of leftover football jerseys!

BAIT

This tough taut thriller balances its two best parts ( 1.) Jonathan Slinger, perfectly written for, perfectly performed as the villain Jeremy - scary because he's controlled and knows when to explode 2.) The last 20 minute fight scene which is violent, bloody, absurd, and considering what we've just seen cathartic) with the big question the audience is forced to ask - Why didn't they go to the police sooner and if there weren't comfortable with the police in that town why didn't they go to another town's PD? I liked this film for its tough people speaking tough dialogue, shocking violence and for Slinger's performance but that question bothered me.

QUEEN OF EARTH

The end is open to interpretation but I find this story of two frenemeies whose roles reverse themselves to be Bergmanesque in its dissection of relationships. However, here the characters are not restrained or cold. It doesn't take much to get them giving vent to what irritates them and responding in kind to thinly veiled insults. The setting is one of the friend's parent's cabin. The other friend has recently lost her father to suicide and her boyfriend also left her. The year before the shoe was on the other foot. This brings to mind the films of Neil LaBute as well in the gritted teeth brutally honest exchanges. Almost a horror film at times, I put aside the weird parts that didn't click in favor of the personal exchanges between the two lead actresses.  The ending is open to interpretation. 

COP CAR

Spare simple thriller that further reinforces something I believe which is that Kevin Bacon with his weasely face, beady eyes, and tight frame makes a better villain than a hero. Two kids come across a police car in the woods with the keys inside and go for a joyride. Bacon, a corrupt murderous sheriff, comes back to find his car (with something incriminating in the trunk) gone. Short, punchy, and lean - Could have added in another ten or fifteen minutes of narrative to better explain events. I did like how the kids talked to each other - The pre-pubescent language of young boys felt totally real here. This is something movies often have a hard time with.

   

TALE OF TALES

Consisting of three Italian fables by writer Giambattista Basile with extraordinary visuals and epic storylines. It is an entertaining film with a children's story like feel to it(despite the adult scenes). Horror and fantasy elements are balanced throughout. I was left a little cold at the end. I'm not sure why perhaps it was among all the big fantastic effects, the director doesn't really connect to the characters. Still worth seeing though.

                                                


Z FOR ZACHARIAH

Ruining the plot of this very good YA novel about a female survivor of an apocalypse by adding a third male character and sex and a romantic triangle is inexcusable. The end result is dumb, illogical, and by cutting up the plot with new and unnecessary elements, they've made a complete mess out of this story.

WES CRAVEN RIP

Wes Craven created the sub-genre of torture porn with his first film THE LAST HOUSE ON LEFT, he revitalized the slasher sub-genre with SCREAM, he created an iconic figure in Freddy Krueger, he also helped create the city people terrorized by murderous hillbilly sub-genre with THE HILLS HAVE EYES. He made a decent comic book flick in SWAMP THING and also made the enjoyable horror cult films DEADLY FRIEND and THE PEOPLE NEXT DOOR.

Craven knew how to frame a scary scene so the shock came at exactly the right time. He was also a genius at pacing - how to properly plan a horror movie so there are not too many minutes of exposition in a row diluting the scares.

THE LAST HOUSE ON LEFT is an example of something else he excelled at- Atmosphere.   It's a genuinely unpleasant film but there is a twisted artistry there. The feeling is a kind of existential helplessness when confronted with evil. No need for jump scares, the realm the film exists in is hellish on its own. Craven also introduced a handling of gory wild violence that was very matter of fact and whose effect is still being felt today.

He understood the commercial potential of the modern horror film as good or better than any modern horror movie director.

Most interesting Craven trivia - he directed porno films before he got into film directing.