THE VISIT [2015] (REVIEW)

Dir. M. Night Shyamalan

Reviewer. Martyn Wakefield

THE VISIT doesn’t quite live up to Shyamalan's Twilight Zone-esque storytelling but it’s a bare knuckle ride through a tale of terror that steadily unfolds in front of the eyes of two innocent children.

Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) and Rebecca (Olivia DeJonge) are left with their grandparents, John (Peter McRobbie) and Doris (Deanna Dunagan) for a week as their mother takes a cruise with her new boyfriend. An absence of wifi and a curfew of 9.30pm are only the welcoming troubles of a modern teen. As the week develops, the disturbing night time behaviour of their grandparents becomes more and more terrifying all leading to a climax to chilling for children.

The film plays well at being unpredictable yet stays grounded with humour laced throughout, mostly bought by Tyler as a protégé for Tyler the Creator. Yet it is the emotional mockumentary style of filmmaking that leads to the heart and sole of the movie. Rebecca’s search for the truth behind the fallout between their mother and her parents sees a series of well executed interviews with the grandparents that are chillingly cold yet perfectly set.

One thing is for sure, there are no faults with the casting here. THE VISIT captures an innocence that comes as standard with the found footage genre and the unravelling of events may be familiar to other films in the sub genre but the chills are well executed thanks to a stellar leading cast. Dunagan was born to play that role and her performance will shine suspicion on your playful granny in future and will certainly put you off your next game of Yahtzee.

After what happened in THE HAPPENING and after the dismal AFTER EARTH, M. Night Shyamalan has gone back to delivering on what he does best. A well written story that delivers until the very end and the film may be missing the famous Shyamalan’s twist, but take it from us, the twist is that Shyamalan still has it so be sure to make a visit.