Respond to these rapid questions in our The Visit quiz and we will tell you which The Visit character you are. Play it now.
M. Night Shyamalan was at the height of his popularity almost twenty years ago. He bounded out of the starting gate with such self-assurance that he won the race almost immediately. And then…there was a problem with it. He got to the point where he was embarrassingly self-serious, and his movies were drenched in pretense and forced allegories. His famous twists felt like a director trying to recreate the success of “The Sixth Sense,” in which the twist of the film was so successfully withheld from audiences that people went back to see the film again and again. As a result of this success, audiences went back to see the film again and again. But now there’s this movie called “The Visit,” which is purely entertaining to the point where you almost forget how terrifying it is. Despite its horror elements, “The Visit” is a very funny movie overall.
There are so many horror tropes that it would be impossible to list them all (such as “gotcha” scares, dark basements, frightened children, mysterious sounds at night, and no cellphone reception), but the primary trope is that the movie is a “found footage” film, which is a style that has been overused to the point of exhaustion. But Shyamalan injects adrenaline into it, as well as a frank admission that, yes, it is a cliche, and yes, it is absurd that one would keep filming in moments of such terror. However, he uses the primary strength of found footage, which is that we are trapped by the perspective of the person holding the camera. Withhold visual information, put the audience at ease, and then turn the camera around to reveal the shocking scene. OH MY GOD, WHAT IS THAT?
At the beginning of “The Visit,” Mom (Kathryn Hahn) is seen speaking softly to the camera about how she ran away from home when she was 19 years old because her parents disapproved of the boyfriend she was seeing. This man, with whom she had two children, abandoned all of them not too long ago for another woman. The mother displays a courageous and funny demeanor, sometimes referring to her children as “brats” while still displaying a motherly affection for them. Her parents severed all ties with her, but they are reaching out to her from their remote farm in the snow because they are interested in learning more about their grandchildren. A trip to see family involves Mom putting both of her kids on a train.
Still shots of snowy ranks of trees, blazing sunsets, and sunrise falling on a stack of logs are used by Shyamalan to break up the found footage throughout the movie. There are enormous chapter markers that are blood red and say things like “TUESDAY MORNING” and other similar things. These choices plunge us headfirst into the over-the-top operatic horror style while simultaneously providing commentary on that very style. The level of dread is increased as a result.
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Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) have the idea to create a movie about their mother’s lost childhood home, which is a location that they are familiar with thanks to all of their mother’s stories. Becca has done her research on filmmaking, and she now shares her knowledge with her younger brother, instructing him on terms like “frames” and “mise-en-scène.” Tyler, a charming and gregarious youngster, has a habit of stealing the camera in order to record himself improvising raps and filming the inside of his mouth. Becca admonishes him in a stern manner to concentrate.
The kids are excited to see their grandparents for the first time. They are concerned about the impact that their grandparents’ rejection had on their mother (this is similar to Cole’s worry in “The Sixth Sense” about his mother’s unresolved issues with her own parent). Becca describes what she hopes to accomplish with their film by using a word from a fairy tale: she wants it to be a “elixir” that they can take back to their mother.
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At first glance, Nana (played by Deanna Dunagan) appears to be a grandmother straight out of a children’s book. She wears a gray bun, an apron, and has muffins coming out of the oven every hour. Pop Pop, played by Peter McRobbie, is a stoic farmer who never ceases to remind the children that both he and Nana are “old.”
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However, almost immediately after that, chaos ensues. What exactly is it that Pop Pop does every time he goes out to the barn? Why does Nana ask Becca to clean the oven, and why does she insist that she crawl all the way in there to do it? What in the world are those strange noises coming from outside their bedroom door at night? They have a few Skype calls with their mother, and during those calls she reassures them that their grandparents are “weird,” but that they are also old, and that old people can be grumpy and paranoid at times.
As the strangeness increases, Becca and Tyler’s film shifts from being a documentary about their origin story to becoming an investigation into solving a mystery. They smuggle the camera into the barn, which is located underneath the house, and they place it on a cabinet in the living room for the night in the hope of catching a glimpse of what occurs downstairs after they go to bed. They, along with all of us, were not prepared for what they have seen.
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Both Dunagan and McRobbie bring a melodramatic flair to their performances, which allows them to fully immerse themselves in the film’s fantastical universe. And the children are wonderful, unique individuals who make us laugh. Tyler tells his sister that he is going to make an effort to swear less frequently and replace it with the names of popular female singers in pop music. The joke is one of those that is always funny. After tumbling to the ground, he yells, “Sarah McLachlan!” When he is feeling extremely frightened, he mutters to himself, “Katy Perry… ” While filming his sister, Tyler asks her why she never looks in the mirror on her own. “The hoodie you’re wearing is inside out.” While he is interrogating her, he zooms in on her while keeping her face slightly off-center. The majority of the screen is taken up by fuzzy, gray-trunked trees. The haze represents the mystery that surrounds them. Maryse Alberti, the film’s cinematographer, not only creates the illusion that the movie is being made by children, but she also steers clear of the nauseating hand-held stuff that plagues the found-footage style.
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It is genuinely shocking when the twist reveals itself, despite the fact that you knew it was coming because Shyamalan is the director. Perhaps not quite as much of a twist as in “The Sixth Sense,” but it comes pretty damn close. (The audience that I was in reacted with shock and astonishment, and some people screamed.) The children have obviously watched a lot of movies because there are allusions to “Halloween,” “Psycho” (Nana can be seen sitting in a rocking chair from behind in this scene), and, of course, “Paranormal Activity.” They are aware of the cliches and attempt to recreate them in their own lives.
The film “The Visit” is representative of Shyamalan letting loose, lightening up, and reveling in the improvisatory behavior of the children, including their jokes, their arguing, and their closeness. The line between horror and comedy is very thin. It is not uncommon for screams of terror to be followed by fits of hysterical laughter, and he takes advantage of this emotional dovetail, along with its tension and catharsis, in almost every scene. The movie is absurd on so many different levels, with the plot unfolding like the most monstrous adaptation of Hansel and Gretel that one could possibly imagine, and in this context, “ridiculous” is the highest possible praise that one could give.
For more personality quizzes check this: Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 Quiz.
