M. Night Shyamalan is officially back. Well, technically he never really went away, but The Visit definitely marks his big screen return to the M. Night thrillers that we all know and love. And boy did he deliver. If you haven’t seen it, I’ll try not to ruin it for you, but just know that M. Night may in fact have you too petrified to visit the ole nana and pop pop from here on out. Or at the very least you won’t volunteer to help clean the oven anymore.
The Plot
Basically, the plot of the movie revolves around Rebecca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) who set off on an unsupervised weeklong visit with their estranged grandparents, John (Peter McRobbie) and Doris (Deanna Dunagan). Seems completely normal and sweet, right? It is, except for all the strange happenings that begin to occur once the kids make it to their grandparent’s house. Luckily, Rebecca was videotaping the entire visit for a personal documentary so they were able to record some of the happenings around the house, as well as their own personal commentary on the strange events.
Aside from the seeming innocence of the trip, there is this whole elusive back story about why the mom Paula (Kathryn Hahn) has not spoken to her parents in a very long time. I can tell you that she ran off with the man who would eventually become the father of her children when she was barely legal, and at the time that caused a huge rift between her and her parents. Naturally, what parent would jump for joy at the thought of their seventeen or eighteen year old daughter running away with some older guy who just spelled trouble from the get-go? Still, there was the situation of how Paula handled her parents’ intervening before she left home never to return. I won’t tell you what exactly happened; just know that it’s part of the reason why Rebecca wants to videotape the entire trip, so she can record her grandparents (particularly Doris) forgiving her mother. Sweet goal, as long as she and her brother stayed in their room after 9:30pm.
See It, Don’t Skip It
It’s kind of brilliant how M. Night plays up every potentially creepy aspect of the actual visit, making for both funny and really scary moments. Yep, I just said this movie was funny. Viewers may be surprised to learn that The Visit has quite a bit of humor, and to be honest it’s a refreshing break from the horror and apparent climatic build. While there are aspects of The Visit that are standard horror/thriller cliché or tropes, M. Night does a great a job of taunting you with the obviousness of his willingness to play into those tropes, resulting in you expecting certain outcomes. Then, he completely flips the script on you. Trust me, you likely won’t see the plot twist coming before it happens. Lastly, classic film buffs will love the apparent homage to Hitchcock in the final montage of the film, where Rebecca, Tyler and Paula reunite. Not bad for a thriller in 2015 that isn’t torture porn, if you ask me. Not bad at all.