So they are weird in the morning, but they’re even weirder at night?

Tyler, TheVisit

The Visit is an American comic-horror thriller released on 11th September 2015. M. Night Shyamalan has written, co-produced, and directed this found-footage film. Its running time is 1 hour 34 minutes. This movie has garnered positive reviews from critics and audiences. After several films in the science fiction genre, The Visit was a thriller comeback for Shyamalan. Moreover, compared to genuine scary jumps, this movie is heavier towards comic relief. This low-budget comedy-horror flick has been appreciated for its uneasy storyline and freaky twists and turns.

The cast includes Olivia DeJonge as Becca, Ed Oxenbould as Tyler, Deanna Dunagan as Marja Bella Jamison (Claire), called “Nana“, Peter McRobbie as Frederick Spencer Jamison (Mitchell), called “Pop Pop“, Kathryn Hahn as Loretta Jamison, Patch Darragh as Dr. Sam, Celia Keenan-Bolger as Stacey, and Benjamin Kanes as Corin. This terror film is like the director’s comeback after a brief downfall. A good amount of suspense and adrenaline rush in the movie has made it popular among the audience. Cinematographer Maryse Alberti has craftily created the illusion of this film being shot by the kids.

There are still snaps of trees, sunset, sunrise, and big blood-red chapter labels giving a horror setting of the film. It begins with a happy mood where two children visit their grandparents whom they are meeting for the first time. However, within a few days of their stay, things start getting creepy and terrifying. As the weirdness starts escalating, Becca and Tyler’s fun documentary changes to a horrifying murder investigation and important evidence.

Plot of The Visit

The movie is about two teen siblings, Becca and Tyler, who decide to visit their grandparents for the first time. They haven’t seen them before and this was an attempt to give their mother some alone time with her boyfriend. Loretta (the children’s mother) has a strained relationship with her parents as she ran away from home while she was nineteen. Years later, her parents have reached out for knowing about their grandkids. So the children volunteer to stay for a week with their grandparents at their snow-laden, isolated farm in Pennsylvania.

Becca, with Tyler’s help, decides to film this entire experience as an attempt to mend the rift between their mother and grandparents. After their arrival, Nana and Pop Pop appear as warm and caring grandparents, who set out some rules for them. The kids are forbidden from going into the basement and from stepping out of their room after 9:30 at night. The plot turns violent and scary as the kids start observing the bizarre and unsettling behaviors of their grandparents.

They start observing Nana’s creepy habits of roaming around the house at night with a knife, vomiting on the floor, and scratching at the walls unclothed. Pop Pop starts behaving oddly too. He is always in the barn, there is a woodshed full of soiled adult diapers. Furthermore, he attacks a stranger on the street and daily dresses up in formal attire for a costume party that never takes place. They also see a woman visiting their grandparents, but not leaving. All this builds a suspicion in Becca and Tyler’s minds. Soon after a video call, the kids discover that these old people are not their grandparents but two mental patients. How they escape this dangerous situation is something interesting to watch.

A Simple Story With Effective Humour and Horror

The Visit gives a glimpse of Shyamalan’s talent as a writer and director. He has successfully combined suspense and witty running commentary in this movie. Combined with great performance, cast, setting, and script, this film succeeds in leaving an eerie and uneasy feeling among the audience. The disturbing and creepy premise will keep the viewers hooked till the end. The inexplicable behavior of the grandparents, spontaneous actions of the kids, their jokes, and the ending rap scene, all evoke laughter in between a horror mood.

Dunagan and McRobbie have aced their roles as melodramatic and mentally challenged, dangerous grandparents. Olivia and Ed are entertaining, funny, and witty. Kathryn gives a great performance as a brave, funny, and caring mother. Shyamalan’s earlier image as a director of a specific kind breaks in this movie. Painstakingly crafted shots and mathematically precise camera movements have been the building base of his career as a director. However, all that is absent this time.

Conclusion

Hence, The Visit is about a family meeting soon turned into a nightmare. Seen from a camera-equipped kids’-eye view, this film gives horror movie buffs a satisfying mix of thriller and laughter, while signaling a return to the original form for writer-director M. Night Shyamalan. In this movie, Shyamalan lightens up. Horror is closely related to comedy in this film. Screams filled with terror frequently dissolve into hysterical laughs. Therefore, The Visit is a good watch for those who prefer a good blend of laughs along with a creepy and chilling turn of events.