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/