The Visit

It's hard to talk about any M. Night films these days without discussing his career trajectory, how he started off incredibly strong with a triple knockout of The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs, only to have his potential squandered, or at least questioned, with films like The Happening, The Last Airbender, and After Earth. As a fan of Shyamalan myself, even I had to admit that he may have lost his luster. With that being said, I'm overjoyed and elated to say that The Visit is Shyamalan's best film since The Village over 10 years ago (my personal favorite). And it's not so bad it's good. The Visit is a legitimately good film, with great performances, terrific setups and even better payoffs, and an overall simple but satisfying story, which is all Shyamalan needs right now.

It's difficult to say much about the story without revealing too much, because The Visit is essentially the type of film where it's better the less you know going in. It's not to say the film is filled with plot twists left and right, but how cleverly it subverts expectations, especially based on the film's misleading marketing campaign. Let this be known: The Visit is a horror AND comedy. It's downright hilarious (intentionally so) during a majority of the film but also equally scary and creepy, which is what M. Night is known for. I was laughing hysterically and screaming, sometimes at the same time! The success of the film is how effectively it jumps in between the two genres and frequently on the dime. The third act showcases this in the best possible way and in full Shyamalan fashion.

Though there are plenty of laughs and screams to be had, The Visit is also filled with surprising moments of drama. There are, at the very least, three genuinely beautiful scenes. One of those involves a zoom in of a certain character, and it's utterly heartbreaking. Credit must be given to Shyamalan who manages to get great performances from his actors, a welcome change after the stilted and wooden performances in his last few films. Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould play the leads, and they're completely likable in their roles. Oxenbould, in particular, steals every scene he's in, providing many of the film's biggest laughs. Seriously, the jokes in here are funnier than most comedies released these days. Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie are also rightfully creepy as the kids' offbeat grandparents. Last but not least, Kathryn Hahn leaves a great impression, despite the limited screen time she has. She's truly wonderful here.

Overall, The Visit is ridiculously entertaining and a total crowd pleaser. It's the film we were all hoping for Shyamalan to make to get him out of the slump. No, it's not as great as his first four films, but it's a step towards the right direction. Recently, it's been revealed that he'll reunite with producer Jason Blum and Joaquin Phoenix for a new project. If it's another low budget feature like The Visit, which it most likely will be, we might be witnessing an era of Shyamalascance. After all, going back to basics is his greatest asset right now. Who says horror/comedy can't work?

UPDATE: The film is even better the second time around, and I noticed a lot of details I missed during the first viewing. There's even clever meta humor sprinkled throughout that might not be apparent at first. Additionally, I'd like to put a spotlight on Deanna Dunagan, who I didn't give enough credit to beforehand. She was fantastic. How great and fulfilling it is for an actress her age to have a role that is complicated and complex as is the character of Nana, to be sweet and motherly in one scene only to switch (convincingly) to creepy and insane the next. In one especially dramatic scene, you will even ache for her. Only if you stop to think will you notice the many layers Dunagan has to play with, and for that reason, she should be praised.

The Good: The most surprising thing about this movie was how it uniquely found a way to be scary, but still include funny moments throughout the film. It knew when to be funny, and when to be scary, without mixing the two together. The scary parts will provide quite a few jump- scares, and in some scenes they will simply disturb you. The young boy, "Tyler" (played by Ed Oxenbould ), will quickly become a favorite in this film with his various remarks, "swearing", and "skills". I think it's fair to say that "Nana", played by Deanna Dunagan, does a really good job of playing the crazy grandma given all the versatile things she did in the movie. For some, the plot twist in the story will be mild, but good nevertheless.

The Bad: As we've come to know from director M. Night Shyamalan (The 6th Sense, Signs), the "big twist" is to be expected. Because of that, if you're an over-analyzer of movies like me, you'll probably see the twist coming from a mile away. So in that aspect, the story is mildly predictable. (That doesn't ruin the movie though) Many of the scary scenes you'll see coming, and for the most part are not terrifying to the point that will give you nightmares. It's very generic horror and scare tactics that we've seen before.

The Reason: Okay, so here's the real deal about this movie. M. Night Shyamalan is known for having a really bad reputation for putting out movies like Lady in the Water, The Village, The Happening, and others. He started off great with The 6th Sense and Signs, but since then, audiences have been generally disappointed. Luckily for The Visit, this movie was not one of his bad films. It was disturbingly funny and scary at the same time. This film is like his "makeup movie" to audiences. For example, in a relationship, if a guy messes up and constantly disappoints his girlfriend, he may give her flowers as an apology. Now the girlfriend may like the flowers, but that doesn't mean the boyfriend is completely forgiven. Shyamalan is in the same boat. The Visit is his "flowers" to audiences. We'll take it, but he's still got a lot more work to do to make up for all the other not-so-great movies he's given us.

Take caution if you decide to see it. It's a unique movie. Not a Hollywood blockbuster by any means, but I wouldn't be surprised if many would enjoy it. To see this movie I recommend: Go in with low expectations, pay the matinée price, and go with a friend or date. (You'll want to talk about it afterwards)

The Rating: 7/10

For more of my reviews visit: www.EmansMovieReviews.com

This is Shayamalan's second film after the Last Airbender fiasco. It's a return to his light horror and small, contained story roots. The acting and script were good, and combined with the hand-held mockumentary conceit it felt very real. If you like Shayamalan movies and scary movies about crazy old people, give it a try.

Now I am the first to admit you have to be in the mood for one of M Night Shyamalan's films. He intentionally tries to throw you off guard when you are watching one of hid films, you constantly question if all is as it should be, or quite simply is he messing with you.

I had ignored all info, trailers and chat about this film, as with all his movies once you know what's going on they change somehow, it's the first for a little while of M's films I can say I really enjoyed.

I won't go into too much of the plot, a single woman estranged from her parents receives an online message from them, she allows her two kids, Becca and Tyler to stay with their grandparents for a week. The kids use the experience to make a film, some behaviour they capture is rather inexplicable.

Excellent acting, but it's the kids that steal the show, I really thought they were brilliant.

At one point in the film my heart truly sank, I felt uneasy being the viewer, I felt powerless, and for that reason I give this film an 8, it's been a while since a movie has done that to me. A bit slow for the first twenty minutes, but the ending is worth the wait.

when i heard the new shyamalan movie was going to be a horror comedy, i was a little down since I have really liked his approaches to the horror and specially his close analysis to family interaction, and sociology in general, for example I do not believe that "the village" was about the creatures at all, it was a deep exploration of the American red fear, and in general all his movies have been amazing for me for that simple reason, he doesn't try to deliberately scare people with the popular way of making you jump in your sit, but tries to make you understand, using horror as an excuse, the way humans think, and what scares us the most of all, in this movie, the excuse is simple, gain the strength to overcome the fears of the past, and using them to overcome an even more difficult situation in present, emotional as it might be, and scary as it might be, a director that can fuse all these elements, in such a scary way, will never be a bad one, and i do consider him a very good indie director...