Film review of M. Night Shyamalan's "The Visit," opening this Friday (September 11).

[Vladimir Putin]

Well, that was weird.

Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan initially made impressive films, "The Sixth Sense" (1999) being his most successful. His following films "Unbreakable" (2000), "Signs" (2002) and "The Village" (2004), also got a bang for their buck. The following four films he directed after "The Village" bombed both with his fans and at the box office, with "The Happening" (2008 barely making back it's money. Many entertainment pundits predicted this was the end of his film career.

Now Mr. Shyamalan is trying to make himself relevant to Hollywood again. His latest film, "The Visit," isn't his best film, but it's also not so bad either. It's also his cheapest film to date, not counting the first two films he directed before "The Sixth Sense," made for a mere five million bucks. Hopefully this will leave him more room to at least break even, unlike his more expensive flops.

The film consists of a documentary two children, a 15-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy, decide to make of their visit to their grandparents and the premise is that we're watching their product, similar to the "Paranormal Activity" franchise, which, by the way, is produced by the same production company, Blumhouse Productions. It starts with a single mother in her mid-30s (Kathryn Hahn) who reveals to her daughter filming her that she ran away from home fifteen years earlier after a falling-out with her parents and that she cut off all communication with them. She doesn't say what led to her leaving them, but also tells her that her parents looked her up on the Internet and have invited their grandchildren to come spend a week with them at their Pennsylvania farmhouse. Reluctantly, the mother sends her two kids off hoping to build bridges with her estranged family.

The children consist of teen daughter Becca and her younger brother Tyler, played respectively by Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould, both fresh out of Australia. Becca is a high-school freshman and Tyler is an aspiring rapper. Both are greeted warmly by their grandparents who meet them at the train station. Their grandfather is referred to as PopPop (Scotland's Peter McRobbie) and their grandmother as Nana (Deanna Dunagan). Upon their arrival the children bring their own DSLR cameras to continue their documentary, as well as their laptop, which they use to keep in contact with their mother via Skype. The grandparents appear to come off as nice, but also require the grandchildren to observe one ground rule: they need to be in bed by 9:30pm. A minor inconvenience, but the children grudgingly agree.

On their first night, strange things already start to happen. Becca wakes up to go down to the kitchen to get something to eat. She brings her laptop equipped with a camera hoping to document more useful things for their film, only to find Nana walking across the hallway and throwing up on the floor. That's the first of many strange things surrounding their grandmother. Their grandfather isn't any better. One time he takes his grandkids to their mother's childhood school, only to confront an innocent passer-by across the street whom he wrongly accuses of spying on them. Both grandparents gradually engage in behaviors that come off as very strange and worrisome to the grandkids at first, but then become more menacing and threatening. There are plenty of "what the hell" moments, as well as moments that will have you shaking your head, one of them being when Nana puts Becca in an awkward situation by requiring her to climb into an oven to clean it. And of course, what's a horror film without a few cliche jump scares? The film also has it's funny moments, Tyler especially is a riot. At times when Becca tries to include Nana in their documentary, she tries to find out from her what happened that lead to their mother leaving them, only for Nana to go into a conniption fit, prompting Becca to cut the interview short. Unbeknownst to the children, the grandparents have a story that will eventually lead to them fighting to survive their weeklong stay.

While I've seen better films made by Mr. Shyamalan, "The Visit" is a fairly good effort for him seeking redemption from people who have all but written him off. There might be some hard-core fans that may be disappointed in the sense that this film is not like any of his earlier more successful work. Some may be disappointed that this is just another "found footage" film. This is a movie with a twist that will catch you off guard.

One thing is certain. After watching "The Visit," you'll never feel the same way about the board game Yahtzee again.

The film is rated PG-13 for intense scares, some nudity, the sight of children in peril and one dropping of the F-bomb.

[philipsfrog]

Saw it yesterday, pretty bad. Kids are very unlikable and every time the movie tries to be funny it fails but lucky every time the movies to be creepy or scary it is very comical. If you found The Happening funny you will get some enjoyment out of this but still wait for it to come to Netflix or home video