Tons of ‘Horromedy’ in THE VISIT Movie Review

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Tons of ‘Horromedy’ in THE VISIT Movie Review

Not completely a horror film, not quite a comedy, director M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Visit” can be better described as a “suspense/thriller” movie. If not for the inappropriate hilarious situations in “The Visit”, in fact, you could say it would be in the ranks of Alfred Hitchcock in the suspense territory.

the visit_logo_banner final

“The Visit” is the story with a mysterious back-story. It opens with a scene of a P.O.V. from a camera where a mother (Kathryn Hahn) explains that her child is making a documentary about the circumstances surrounding her meeting an older man (her teacher), leaving home soon after, then him leaving her and their two very young children – Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould).

After re-discovering their daughter on social media, her parents request a week long visit with their grand kids. Their mom, who decides she is not ready to face her parents after the past turmoil, puts her two kids on a train to make the journey to the farm where she grew-up while she heads away on a vacation trip with her boyfriend. The one week trip also gives Becca more content for her documentary.

The scenario of having Becca create her documentary plays perfectly into Shyamalan’s intended found footage type style of shooting this film. Basically, copying a style made so famous by “The Blair Witch Project” and “Paranormal Activity”. But, not done as well as both movies, and the format was really disappointing coming from a director like Shyamalan who has had such impressive features as “The Sixth Sense”, “Unbreakable”, “Signs” and “The Village”.

Within the first couple of days, grandparents, Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie) give off strange eccentricities in their behavior that something just isn’t right. Even worse, they are volunteers at a local community center where they lend psychological therapy to those in need. What!

Wanting so badly for everything to be just normal and cheery, Becca sees past it and accepts Pop Pop’s explanation for Nana’s very odd behavior occurring around the time of 10:45 ish pm each night by labeling it a condition called “Sundowning” (a real condition). According to “webmd.com”, Sundowning is when people who have dementia or Alzheimer’s disease have big changes in their behavior triggered by fading light which gets worse as the night progresses. There will be an increase in Google searches of “sundowning” once “The Visit” opens. Becca and Tyler both agree to Pop Pop’s suggestion not to leave their room after 9:30 pm each night.

After deciding to put a camera out at night to capture Nana’s questionable practices after dark, Becca and Tyler come to the conclusion that they are no longer safe within those walls and ask their mom to retrieve them pronto!

The moment and the moments thereafter when the real truth about Nana and Pop Pop in “The Visit” is exposed becomes the most terrifying parts of the whole film. All done with great acting and suspenseful situations.

The Visit, Skype

Pictured: Becca and Tyler Skype with mom.

A few annoyances with the reality of “The Visit” were although it was clearly stated in the film more than once that there was no cellphone service on the farm, yet there was Wi-Fi which enabled Becca and Tyler to talk to their mom via Skype internet calls and for Becca to look-up the definition of “sundowning”. Another annoyance was the abundance of ad placements by way of Tyler’s creative raps. Lastly, several times the camera was clearly placed in a way that simply did not connect to how the character was really holding the camera. Also, viewers saw footage from a mystery camera that was not explained – such as in the third act of the movie where it happened the most.

The main theme of the film, parents think twice before putting your kids on transport to a seemingly innocent venture.

“The Visit” opens in theaters Friday, September 11, 2015

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