Skip to main content

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


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Baywatch (2017) - Movie Review

Baywatch is a movie based on the old TV series of the same name. It's about a bunch of lifeguards on a beach who try to uncover drug smuggling in their area...yeah, that is the plot. It's dumb, it's stupid, but I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't that bad. Don't get me wrong, it's not good, but it wasn't horrible either.  The movie actually had some fun in it. The Rock, as always, was charismatic, funny and likable; and Zac Efron, surprisingly, was similar to that. He got ripped AF for the movie. Alexandra Daddario was fun as well, although any movie gets bonus points for just including her in my book. Priyanka Chopra was in it as well, and between her in this and Deepika Padukone in XXX: The Return of Xander Cage, Priyanka definitely was the better one.  There were legit funny scenes sprinkled throughout, but there were also a shit ton of scenes that tried too hard to be hilarious but fell flat instead. Baywatch also had a large dosage...
Post a Comment
Read more

John Wick 2 (2017) - Movie Review

John Wick 2 is a sequel to the 2014 surprise hit John Wick, and it follows him as he is forced to return to his former life once again. The trailers did a good job of not giving much away, so I'll keep it vague as well. The first one was great, so naturally, I was hyped for the sequel, and suffice to say it delivered where it mattered.  Keanu Reeves once again reprises the role of ultimate bad-ass assassin John Wick, with different character motivations this time around, resulting in a more subdued performance than last time, which nonetheless works for the story, and it's just great seeing Keanu again in style. There are some familiar faces from the previous film like Ian McShane (Winston) and Lance Reddick (Hotel Manager), giving similarly good performances. And new ones like Laurence Fishburn, resulting in a reunion of Neo and Morpheus, which should make any Matrix fan cheer up inside, and he gave a good performance as well. One of the things that stood out to ...
1 comment
Read more

The Revenant (2015) - Movie Review

The Revenant is a survival+Revenge story taking place in the 1800s in America and is about a pelt collector, Hugh Glass (Played by DiCaprio), who is left for dead in the cold wilderness and must survive in order to get his revenge. From the very beginning, you could tell that this will be a visually enthralling experience. Emmanuele Lebezki, who did the excellent cinematography and deservingly won the oscar for last year's 'Birdman' and 'Gravity' before that, returns to deliver yet again another eyegasmic experience. The movie is overflowing with beautiful shots which just feel very natural with the environment. And there are some sequences which are simply JAW DROPPING, particularly this one scene with the bear where I was completely stunned and had no idea how they pulled it off. Another Oscar win for Lebezki. The story is a simple but a very gritty, brutal and unforgiving experience. Leonardo DiCaprio gave one of his best performance. He had very few lines o...
Post a Comment
Read more