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The Visit (2015) - Movie Review


The Visit is directed by M.Night Shymalan, a director who has been to both ends of the spectrum, from great classics like 'The Sixth Sense' and 'Unbreakable' to utter disasters like 'The Last Airbender' and 'After Earth'. I myself really admired his earlier work and he was one of my favourite director back in the day; before the dark times, before the fall. This movie kinda felt like a return for him.

It is about two kids, brother and sister, who are sent to spend a week with their grandparents, with whom their mother hasn't talked to for almost two decades and while they are staying there, things start to get weird. It's a comedy-horror of sorts.

The movie was shot in found-footage style and it was nice to see that the movie had a reason to incorporate that. The sister in the movie is an aspiring filmmaker and wants to make this documentary for her mother and stuff. She is accompanied by her younger brother and it was a bold move by Shymalan to make these two kids the leads because kids in movies aren't always the best actors. But it paid off. They both did a great job and carried the film. The grandparents and their mother did a great job as well, especially the grandmother, who kinda stole the show.

Now the movie had this line between comedy and creepiness/horror and for the most part it worked. The brother provided for most of the comic relief and I really enjoyed that. The flow of the movie was good, with things getting more weirder and weirder and tension building up as the movie went along. The found-footage style made for some really creepy scenes, which brings me to the grandparents. MAN I don't ever wanna live with old people after watching this film. They were genuinely unsettling at times and shymalan executed the whole stuff in a great.

The line between comedy and horror wasn't always that defined though. There were moments where it felt like less comedy would have helped more and the reverse was true too in other scenes. Also, jump scares. I thought Shymalan wouldn't incorporate them in his indie project but I was wrong. There are very few of them but they are still there and it just felt kinda cheap in an otherwise well shot film. Plus, there were some scenes where the camera movement was deliberately executed in a way to add horror/creepiness but person holding the camera would never do that and it just took me out of the experience. Also, there are some plot holes, one in particular, that you kinda have to glance over in order to enjoy film but it is a glaring one.

All in all, I was glad after watching the movie that Shymalan is somewhat back to his better filming days. This is definitely his best work in years and I hope he goes on an improvement path and gives us something truly great again.

7/10


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