M. Night Shyamalan's new film, "The Visit," is his best movie in years. Still, this is not saying much given his recent swan dive into oblivion with garbage like "The Happening" and "After Earth." For Shyamalan, it is actually a compliment to say that one of his films is at least watchable or that it does not provoke blinding anger or excruciating annoyance. I am happy to report that "The Visit" works well as a thriller, even as a pseudo-horror film. Shyamalan's career chart, which previously had a remarkably steep downward trend, now has a small upward spike.
The plot is very straightforward, as it always is for Shyamalan: two kids decide to visit their estranged grandparents in rural Pennsylvania. Luckily for us, one of the kids is an aspiring documentary filmmaker and brings along her camera. The children arrive by train and meet their weird, cold, and uneasy grandparents. A progression of frightening vignettes continue to happen until the film reaches its plot twist at the end. What would an M. Night Shyamalan movie be without a Hitchcockian twist? Thankfully, he uses the plot twist as a small, spooky aside in "The Visit," rather than the gimmick for the entire movie as he did in "The Village," a film that will live in infamy for its utter stupidity.
Another signature plot device used by Shyamalan is a set of arbitrary, inane rules that almost completely drive the story. In "The Village," the townspeople couldn't go past a boundary line; in "The Lady in the Water," there is a cornucopia of nonsensical rules governing fairytale characters (a scrunt couldn't go near a narf during a blood moon on a Tuesday unless it's a leap year, etc). Thankfully, Shyamalan only has one simple rule in "The Visit:" don't leave your room after 9:30 PM due to the dangerous geriatric transformations that take place thereafter. This simple rule immediately takes hold of your imagination and creates the plot: what could be going on after 9:30 PM? How do we find out? What happens when we find out?
The plot is very straightforward, as it always is for Shyamalan: two kids decide to visit their estranged grandparents in rural Pennsylvania. Luckily for us, one of the kids is an aspiring documentary filmmaker and brings along her camera. The children arrive by train and meet their weird, cold, and uneasy grandparents. A progression of frightening vignettes continue to happen until the film reaches its plot twist at the end. What would an M. Night Shyamalan movie be without a Hitchcockian twist? Thankfully, he uses the plot twist as a small, spooky aside in "The Visit," rather than the gimmick for the entire movie as he did in "The Village," a film that will live in infamy for its utter stupidity.
Another signature plot device used by Shyamalan is a set of arbitrary, inane rules that almost completely drive the story. In "The Village," the townspeople couldn't go past a boundary line; in "The Lady in the Water," there is a cornucopia of nonsensical rules governing fairytale characters (a scrunt couldn't go near a narf during a blood moon on a Tuesday unless it's a leap year, etc). Thankfully, Shyamalan only has one simple rule in "The Visit:" don't leave your room after 9:30 PM due to the dangerous geriatric transformations that take place thereafter. This simple rule immediately takes hold of your imagination and creates the plot: what could be going on after 9:30 PM? How do we find out? What happens when we find out?
"The Visit" is an homage to cheaply made but effective horror films like "The Blair Witch Project" and "Paranormal Activity," except that it's shot with a high quality camera. While the constructed realism of this genre adds to the scariness, one drawback is that the camerawork must look spontaneous and amateurish to seem real. One aspect that I admired about "The Visit" is Shyamalan's decision to splice in artsy still shots with the chaotic documentary footage. This inclusion helps to tell the story from two perspectives, a spontaneous one from the kids and their camera and one from an omnipotent position that seems to edit the film to heighten the eeriness. As in a Tarantino film, we become aware that we are watching a movie and celebrate the cliches of the genre.
It is undeniable that Shyamalan is a good director. The film is full of great shots, inventiveness and suspense building. One can only hope that he will continue to improve so that mere mention of his movies does not induce reactive cringing or recurrent projectile vomiting as they have for audiences in the past.
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