The
Visit
Why does such a bad movie have to have such an awesome ending?
Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould star as Becca and Tyler – two
teenagers off to meet their grandparents for the first time ever. Mom
(Kathryn Hahn) had a dramatic, mysterious falling out with them years
ago, but she welcomes the opportunity for the kids to head out to rural
Pennsylvania, while she takes a cruise with her new man.
Becca wants to make a documentary about the entire experience, and
reveal the secret to Mom’s huge rift with her parents, but
she and Tyler start to become more and more worried about Pop Pop
(Peter McRobbie) and Nana’s (Deanna Dunagan) increasingly
strange and dangerous behavior.
Are Becca and Tyler safe on this remote farm, in the middle of nowhere,
with no cell phone service?
Writer/director M. Night Shyamalan tries to return to his roots to
deliver an ominous, creepy film with a shocking ending, but the ending
was the only amazing part.
Shyamalan writes The Visit
as if he had one truly awesome idea and has to invent ways to waste
time until we get to it. This leaves the audience with a movie that
isn’t eerie enough and doesn’t escalate enough. The
situation should become more dangerous by the moment, and Shyamalan
only achieves that goal in scatter shot fashion.
The cast does their best to increase tension in The
Visit, and Dunagan deserves all
the credit for being oddball and kooky enough to be equally frightening
and outrageous. However, sharp eyed moviegoers might be distracted by
Shyamalan’s attempts to incorporate images similar to
successful found footage films like The Blair Witch Project or
Paranormal Activity. He will call it an
homage. We might call it being
a copy cat.
If you think it through, you will see the clues he drops throughout the
film, and you might see the obvious lapses in logic. Yet, nothing can
make me forgive Shyamalan for attempting to graft on some deeper theme
and lesson about facing your fears to free your soul. Who cares?!?!?!
The
Visit is rated PG-13 for disturbing
thematic material including terror, violence and some nudity, and for
brief language.
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