film the visit review

M. Night Shyamalan had his heyday almost 20 years ago. He leapt out of the gate with such confidence he became a champion instantly. And then…something went awry. He became embarrassingly self-serious, his films drowning in pretension and strained allegories. His famous twists felt like a director attempting to re-create the triumph of “ The Sixth Sense ,” where the twist of the film was so successfully withheld from audiences that people went back to see the film again and again. But now, here comes “ The Visit ,” a film so purely entertaining that you almost forget how scary it is. With all its terror, “The Visit” is an extremely funny film. 

There are too many horror cliches to even list (“gotcha” scares, dark basements, frightened children, mysterious sounds at night, no cellphone reception), but the main cliche is that it is a “found footage” film, a style already wrung dry. But Shyamalan injects adrenaline into it, as well as a frank admission that, yes, it is a cliche, and yes, it is absurd that one would keep filming in moments of such terror, but he uses the main strength of found footage: we are trapped by the perspective of the person holding the camera. Withhold visual information, lull the audience into safety, then turn the camera, and OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT? 

“The Visit” starts quietly, with Mom ( Kathryn Hahn ) talking to the camera about running away from home when she was 19: her parents disapproved of her boyfriend. She had two kids with this man who recently left them all for someone new. Mom has a brave demeanor, and funny, too, referring to her kids as “brats” but with mama-bear affection. Her parents cut ties with her, but now they have reached out  from their snowy isolated farm and want to know their grandchildren. Mom packs the two kids off on a train for a visit.

Shyamalan breaks up the found footage with still shots of snowy ranks of trees, blazing sunsets, sunrise falling on a stack of logs. There are gigantic blood-red chapter markers: “TUESDAY MORNING”, etc. These choices launch us into the overblown operatic horror style while commenting on it at the same time. It ratchets up the dread.

Becca ( Olivia DeJonge ) and Tyler ( Ed Oxenbould ) want to make a film about their mother’s lost childhood home, a place they know well from all of her stories. Becca has done her homework about film-making, and instructs her younger brother about “frames” and “mise-en-scène.” Tyler, an appealing gregarious kid, keeps stealing the camera to film the inside of his mouth and his improvised raps. Becca sternly reminds him to focus. 

The kids are happy to meet their grandparents. They are worried about the effect their grandparents’ rejection had on their mother (similar to Cole’s worry about his mother’s unfinished business with her own parent in “The Sixth Sense”). Becca uses a fairy-tale word to explain what she wants their film to do — it will be an “elixir” to bring home to Mom. 

Nana ( Deanna Dunagan ), at first glance, is a Grandma out of a storybook, with a grey bun, an apron, and muffins coming out of the oven every hour. Pop Pop ( Peter McRobbie ) is a taciturn farmer who reminds the kids constantly that he and Nana are “old.” 

But almost immediately, things get crazy. What is Pop Pop doing out in the barn all the time? Why does Nana ask Becca to clean the oven, insisting that she crawl all the way in ? What are those weird sounds at night from outside their bedroom door? They have a couple of Skype calls with Mom, and she reassures them their grandparents are “weird” but they’re also old, and old people are sometimes cranky, sometimes paranoid. 

As the weirdness intensifies, Becca and Tyler’s film evolves from an origin-story documentary to a mystery-solving investigation. They sneak the camera into the barn, underneath the house, they place it on a cabinet in the living room overnight, hoping to get a glimpse of what happens downstairs after they go to bed. What they see is more than they (and we) bargained for.

Dunagan and McRobbie play their roles with a melodramatic relish, entering into the fairy-tale world of the film. And the kids are great, funny and distinct. Tyler informs his sister that he wants to stop swearing so much, and instead will say the names of female pop singers. The joke is one that never gets old. He falls, and screams, “Sarah McLachlan!” When terrified, he whispers to himself, “ Katy Perry … ” Tyler, filming his sister, asks her why she never looks in the mirror. “Your sweater is on backwards.” As he grills her, he zooms in on her, keeping her face off-center, blurry grey-trunked trees filling most of the screen. The blur is the mystery around them. Cinematographer Maryse Alberti creates the illusion that the film is being made by kids, but also avoids the nauseating hand-held stuff that dogs the found-footage style.

When the twist comes, and you knew it was coming because Shyamalan is the director, it legitimately shocks. Maybe not as much as “The Sixth Sense” twist, but it is damn close. (The audience I saw it with gasped and some people screamed in terror.) There are references to “ Halloween “, “Psycho” (Nana in a rocking chair seen from behind), and, of course, “ Paranormal Activity “; the kids have seen a lot of movies, understand the tropes and try to recreate them themselves. 

“The Visit” represents Shyamalan cutting loose, lightening up, reveling in the improvisational behavior of the kids, their jokes, their bickering, their closeness. Horror is very close to comedy. Screams of terror often dissolve into hysterical laughter, and he uses that emotional dovetail, its tension and catharsis, in almost every scene. The film is ridiculous  on so many levels, the story playing out like the most monstrous version of Hansel & Gretel imaginable, and in that context, “ridiculous” is the highest possible praise.

Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O’Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master’s in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

• Deanna Dunagan as Nana
• Olivia DeJonge as Rebecca Jamison
• Ed Oxenbould as Tyler Jamison
• Kathryn Hahn as Mother
• Peter McRobbie as Pop-Pop
• Benjamin Kanes as Dad
• Luke Franco Ciarrocch
• M. Night Shyamalan

Cinematography

• Maryse Alberti

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The Visit Reviews

The Visit is a return to form for Shyamalan.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 23, 2023

While Shyamalan doesn’t reinvent the wheel with “The Visit”, he does show the creative flourishes that made him a respected name and overnight success in the horror-thriller genre.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 21, 2022

It’s all a very transparent metaphor for family reconciliation and what happens when your old wounds don’t heal.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | May 27, 2022

This would be a perfect movie to kind of study because it's written really, really well and the scripting and dialogue and just the overall story structure is perfect.

Full Review | Original Score: 6.5/10 | Jun 1, 2021

M. Night Shyamalan needed people to be on his side. Thankfully, with The Visit, a found footage horror movie with more than its share of humor, he finally got me back on his side.

Full Review | Jan 15, 2021

Shyamalan's made a lot of terrible films in a career singularly set with The Sixth Sense, but makes a decent rebound here.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 10, 2020

The Visit is one freaky found footage frightfest.

Full Review | Jul 18, 2020

The fear of 'The visit' is something very real, it is fear of abandonment, of not being loved. A fear far superior, by its authenticity, to any created fiction. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Apr 14, 2020

We all know that comedy and horror are close to each other, so much so that screams can quickly transform into laughter. Shyamalan remembers this...

Full Review | Feb 13, 2020

Shyamalan recaptures some of his earlier essence with lots of mystery, subtle creeps and moments where you'll question what exactly it is you're seeing.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 7, 2019

The Visit's faux-documentary stylings bring fresh horrors to tired formulas.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 4, 2019

A thoroughly generic predictable horror movie.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Apr 18, 2019

The Visit is solidly entertaining without overdoing anything. At least it's not a negative mark on Shyamalan's record, which is in and of itself a reason to be happy.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 11, 2019

Unpretentious, scary, and wickedly entertaining, The Visit will, with hope, signal a new, not-shitty period in a fallen filmmaker's career.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 7, 2019

The Visit proves to be a pleasant surprise, with a surprisingly effective mix of laughs and chills that doesn't try to do too much.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Jan 18, 2019

Los detractores de Shyamalan podrán encontrar de qué quejarse, pero indudablemente Los huéspedes marca parcialmente su regreso como un narrador con buenas historias que contar.

Full Review | Original Score: 7.5/ 10 | Dec 29, 2018

While "The Visit" bucks the trend of space-oriented films that start from a sense of wonder rather than fact, it does inspire the former, treating its audience as aliens to restore that all-too-human curiosity about what lies beyond our own planet.

Full Review | Nov 15, 2018

The Visit isn't on par with Shyamalan's early work nor does it excuse his recent atrocities, but going from dreadful to pretty good is still an enormous leap to accomplish.

Full Review | Original Score: 7.5/10 | Nov 1, 2018

If you've felt burned by Shyamalan over the past ten years, put your skepticism aside and take a chance on The Visit. It's well worth your time.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 31, 2018

The Visit is not a perfect film, but it is fun and as the viewer you may laugh out loud or gasp.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 30, 2018

Previous Story

• Entertainment
• Movie Review

The Visit review: the most shocking M. Night Shyamalan twist is a good movie

• By Bryan Bishop
• on September 10, 2015 10:18 am

A decade ago it was impossible to discuss supernatural thrillers without invoking the name of M. Night Shyamalan. After exploding into the popular consciousness with The Sixth Sense , the writer-director staked his claim with carefully crafted follow-ups like Signs and Unbreakable , eventually leading Newsweek to dub him “The Next Spielberg.” But Shyamalan faltered soon thereafter, and by the time his sci-fi adaptation After Earth rolled around two years ago, his name was practically being hidden in studio marketing materials .

With irrelevancy lurking in the shadows, like one of his fictional boogeymen, the director needed to save his career. So Shyamalan switched things up — trying his hand at television with the quirky Wayward Pines , and leaving Hollywood behind altogether for his new movie The Visit . As the filmmaker told us in July , The Visit was a completely self-funded affair, with Shyamalan putting up the money so he could make a smaller film in relative secrecy without the interference of studios or outside influences. The result is the best snapshot we have of Shyamalan the filmmaker as he stands today.

Judging from the bonkers mix of horror and comedy that is The Visit , he may have gone totally insane — and that’s a wonderful thing.

The movie follows 15-year-old Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and her younger brother Tyler (a hilarious Ed Oxenbould). Their mother, played by Kathryn Hahn, is still suffering in the wake of her recent divorce, and to give everyone some space, the kids go off for a week to visit their grandparents for the very first time. Nana and Pop Pop (Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie) are warm, if not a bit quirky, at first, but as the visit stretches on, it becomes clear that something is very, very wrong.

Yes, The Visit is a found footage movie, and it’s the first clue that this is a break from the Shyamalan we’ve seen before. As a director, he built his career on meticulously crafted shots and camera moves that carried an almost mathematical precision, but that’s all thrown out the window here. Becca is an aspiring filmmaker, intent on documenting the visit for her mom, and as she enlists Tyler to help, the film takes on a chaotic visual energy that adds a layer of unease when contrasted with Shyamalan’s methodical pace. Where it differs from the Paranormal Activities of the world is that it’s actually beautiful at times; very often Shyamalan simply can’t help but find a gorgeous way to light a scene or evoke a mood, and it keeps the film fresh where the sub-genre has otherwise been pummeled into the ground and left for dead.

But visual technique is only worth so much, and what makes The Visit tick is the two young lead actors, who after a bumpy start settle into their self-conscious, found footage groove. DeJonge is grounded and believable as the older sister, her character endlessly precious and pretentious about her own filmmaking in what feels like Shyamalan having a laugh at himself for once. Oxenbould’s Tyler, on the other end, is the film’s comedic engine; a junior high suburbanite with hip-hop aspirations (he calls himself "T-Diamond Stylus") that deploys a comical adolescent bravado to cover up struggles with his parents’ separation.

Laughs and scares stack in a Jenga of oddball entertainment

That’s the other big surprise here: The Visit is actually funny , and not in a passing joke kind of way. It’s wild and outrageous, stacking laughs and scares atop one another in a giant Jenga of oddball entertainment. Contrasted with the overthought restraint of Shyamalan’s earlier work, The Visit is the Wild West; the kind of movie that uses a character’s unnerving penchant for skulking around nude as both a running joke and surprise scare, and that takes another’s obsessive tendencies and pays them off with a scatalogical gag that had me laughing and cringing in equal measure. It doesn’t always work — the mix is so bizarre that some jokes simply fail to land — but there’s a giddy energy that courses through the movie from beginning to end.

More than anything else, it feels like Shyamalan Unleashed, operating without the weight of expectations for the first time in years. The filmmaker had actually focused on smaller, character-driven films before The Sixth Sense changed his career trajectory, but ever since that early success, his movies seemed to chase the same formula, twist endings and all. The Visit doesn’t seem concerned with living up to those expectations — there’s no mistaking this for a Spielbergian tale — and it’s a fresher story for it.

If The Visit was some midnight movie festival discovery, we’d be talking about its odd weirdness and the potential of its creator; we’d ask if they could take the promise of this small, indie film and transition into the land of big-scale studio movies. Oddly enough, it’s the same question that should be asked of Shyamalan now. But for the moment, he appears to be keeping things small. His next film is set to be another collaboration with Jason Blum, the low-budget horror producer behind Insidious and the Paranormal Activity films, and while people will certainly have higher expectations his next time out, I hope we see more of this weirder, care-free Shyamalan. He may not be making The Sixth Sense anymore, sure, but for the first time in a very long time, he’s making movies that are actually fun .

The Visit opens Friday, September 11th.

Verge Video: The Verge's interview with M. Night Shyamalan

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Two siblings become increasingly frightened by their grandparents' disturbing behavior while visiting them on vacation. Two siblings become increasingly frightened by their grandparents' disturbing behavior while visiting them on vacation. Two siblings become increasingly frightened by their grandparents' disturbing behavior while visiting them on vacation.

• M. Night Shyamalan
• Olivia DeJonge
• Ed Oxenbould
• Deanna Dunagan
• 798 User reviews
• 438 Critic reviews
• 55 Metascore
• 1 win & 14 nominations

Top cast 29

• Man on the Street

• Young Becca

• Young Tyler

• Train Passenger
• (uncredited)

• Street Walker
• Police Officer
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia M. Night Shyamalan 's lowest budgeted studio feature film.
• Goofs The amount of snow covering the landscape varies dramatically from day to day and even between scenes taking place on the same day.

Grandma : Would you mind getting inside the oven to clean it?

• Alternate versions In the FX broadcast, to keep the TV-14 rating, the defecation featured in the movie are censored. In addition, two scenes involving nudity is blurred out.
• Connections Featured in Late Night with Seth Meyers: Andy Samberg/Kevin Love/M. Night Shyamalan/Abe Laboriel Jr. (2015)
• Soundtracks Possession Written by Harry Revel Performed by Les Baxter and His Orchestra and Chorus [Theremin - Dr. Samuel Hoffman ] Courtesy of RCA Records By arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

User reviews 798

• CinemaClown
• Dec 19, 2015
• September 11, 2015 (United States)
• United States
• Los huéspedes
• 3049 Merlin Road, Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, USA (Exterior House)
• Blinding Edge Pictures
• Blumhouse Productions
• Neighborhood Film Co.
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $5,000,000 (estimated)
• $65,206,105
• $25,427,560
• Sep 13, 2015
• $98,450,062

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 34 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Film Review: ‘The Visit’

Michael Madsen's documentary imagines the global response to an alien arrival.

By Ben Kenigsberg

Ben Kenigsberg

• Film Review: ‘The Death of Louis XIV’ 8 years ago
• Cannes Film Review: ‘Le Cancre’ 8 years ago
• Film Review: ‘Mimosas’ 8 years ago

What if an alien invasion really happened? Danish essay documentarian Michael Madsen ( “Into Eternity” ) answers that question with this “simulation,” in which real-life experts imagine their responses to a visit from another world. Filled with sleek and often surreal imagery, “ The Visit ” is served at a cool temperature; it fluctuates from fascinating to banal depending on the logistics under discussion. A feat of speculation that amounts more to a curiosity than a major sci-fi movie, it is likely to engross anyone intrigued by the topic while remaining in the outer orbit of a conventional theatrical release.

Billed as “an alien encounter by Michael Madsen” (complete with pretentious signature in the opening credits), “The Visit” begins — in a showman’s touch — with a thank-you from the producers “to the experts and scientists who agreed to participate in this simulation.” The conceit is that “you,” the viewer, occupy the role of the alien in mankind’s first encounter with intelligent extraterrestrial life. “You” are sometimes even addressed as such by the talking heads and the narrator, although the experts seated together also speak to one another, and some of the presentations play in a more straightforward manner.

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The interviewees include individuals associated with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and NASA. The subjects covered are not just procedural but also historical and philosophical. Who should speak for humanity? John Rummel, from the Committee on Space Research Panel on Planetary Protection, appears suited up in some sort of padded biohazard tent, explaining the concept of swabs. Christopher McKay, an astrobiologist with the NASA Ames Research Institute, raises the possibility of life that can’t be detected via DNA tests. Fearing even inadvertent biological competition between life forms, he favors separation and barriers, at least initially. (“Nothing personal,” he adds.) In the most eye-roll-prompting digression, Chris Welch, of France’s Intl. Space U., closes his eyes as if he’s some sort of medium and imagines boarding the spacecraft that has arrived.

Popular on Variety

The bureaucratic protocol appears far more complicated than it might be in another instance of worldwide news. We go to the Ministry of Defense in London, where the retired colonel Paul Beaver and Vickie Sheriff, a former U.K. government spokesperson, debate the wording of an announcement to the public (“We believe no one is in imminent danger”); they cite the need to keep the language simple, the fear over media reports of an “invasion,” and cooperation with other nations.

Doug Vakoch, director of Interstellar Message Composition with the SETI Institute, mentions a spacecraft that was launched in 1977 with recordings designed to present a summary of humanity — and the debated question of whether our self-presentation should mention war and other elements of our dark side. Ernst Fasan addresses interplanetary legal and moral issues. Sheryl Bishop, a social psychologist, speaks of humanity’s collective anxiety in the event of an arrival, illustrated with enacted footage of persons running in slow motion. She also addresses the possibility that we may be slighted. “The scenario in which they get on their ship and take off — I think the entire species would go into collective depression,” she says.

In some ways, Madsen’s free-floating approach bears a similarity to that of film essayist Patrick Keiller (“Robinson in Ruins”). As the interviewees speak, there are simulated scenes involving biosuits, ultra-slow-motion pans of crowds, shots of a military springing into action and many scenes of the camera roving lab and space equipment and museum displays. The scoring is chockablock with fractured radio transmissions and beeps. We hear everything from Arvo Part’s strings to “The Blue Danube” (a tip of the hat to “2001: A Space Odyssey”) to echoing metallic “high frequency” sounds. The use of ‘Scope, unusual for a doc, subtly enhances the idea of a simulation, lending the images composed, artful quality.

Tech contributions ensure that all of this is a fluid, slightly lulling mix. The frequent use of sterile-looking, hyper-clean locations gives even Earth an otherworldly sheen.

A director’s note in the press kit says that, after “Into Eternity,” which examined what might happen to stored nuclear waste 100,000 years from now, this film is the second part of a planned trilogy. The title is bound to prompt confusion with that of the forthcoming M. Night Shyamalan picture .

Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (World Cinema — competing), Jan. 25, 2015. (Also in True/False Film Festival.) Running time: 83 MIN.

• Production: (Documentary — Denmark-Austria-Ireland-Finland-Norway) A Magic Hour Films presentation, in co-production with NGF Geyrhalter Film, Venom Film, Mouka Filmi, Indie Film, with the support of Danish Film Institute, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, Austrian Film Institute, Vienna Film Fund, Film Location Austria (FISA), Land Niederosterreich, Bord Scannan na hEireann/the Irish Film Board, the Finnish Film Foundation, Norwegian Film Institute, in cooperation with DR3/Irene Stroyer, Yle/Iikka Vehkalahti and Erkki Astala, VPRO/Barbara Truyen, SVT/Emelie Persson. (International sales: Autolook Filmsales, Vienna.) Produced by Lise Lense-Moller. Co-producers, Michael Kitzberger, Wolfgang Widerhofer, Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Markus Glaser, Andrew Freedman, Sami Jahnukainen, Carsten Aanonsen.
• Crew: Directed, written by Michael Madsen. Camera (color, widescreen, HD), Heikki Farm; editors, Nathan Nugent, Stefan Sundlof; music, Karsten Fundal; sound, Peter Albrechtsen; visual effects supervisor, Ed Bruce.
• With: Jacques Arnould, Paul Beaver, Sheryl Bishop, Michael Boyce, Ernst Fasan, Niklas Hedman, Christopher McKay, Mazlan Othman, John Rummel, Vickie Sheriff, Janos Tisovszky, Doug Vakoch, Chris Welch. (English dialogue)

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Home » Movies » Movie Reviews

The Visit (2015) Review

We review the 2015 movie The Visit, which does not contain any significant spoilers. 

M. Night Shyamalan is back – and he really snuck this one in under the radar. The Visit adopts the found footage form of storytelling – a change from Shyamalan’s usual style, though bearing obvious marks of his directorial and writing styles throughout nonetheless – and introduces this horror – akin to the likes of  The Blair Witch Project and  Paranormal Activity – with a simple premise: a young brother and sister visit their somewhat estranged grandparents as a holiday away, while their parents go on a cruise or something more enjoyable.

The Visit Review and Plot Summary

Before meeting their grandparents for the first time in their lives, Becca, aged 15, and Tyler, 13, are told by their divorced mother, Loretta, that she has not spoken to them for 15 years due to their strong disapproval of her marriage with her high school teacher. Becca and Tyler decide to take a camcorder along with them to make a documentary of their visit. Always a fun idea.

At first, the grandparents generally seem like any other adorable old couple, aside from some suspiciously strange requests – they’re adamantly told they must be in bed by 21:30, and that they also mustn’t go into the basement due to some toxic mould. And, of course, with 21:30 being the prime time at which hunger strikes (this isn’t sarcasm), Becca heads to the kitchen for a snack at which point she is rudely interrupted by the witnessing of her grandma projectile vomiting.

Grandpa – or Pop Pop – tells the kids that grandma – referred to as Nana – merely has a case of the flu, before reminding them of the house rules. The days progress and the kids pick up on instances of noticeably bizarre behaviour being exhibited by their grandparents, including Tyler entering Pop’s shed and happening upon a big pile of shit (akin to  The Happening , coincidentally). Becca decides to question Nana about Loretta leaving home to which Nana being screaming and shaking.

The cute couple are later confronted by a woman they met through some prior counselling sessions. The three of them are seen going into the backyard by the kids, though they never see the woman leaving. Some clues lead the kids to believe their grandparents killed the woman by hanging, at which point they decide to film their grandparents’ goings-on post-curfew, by recording them with the camera.

They decide to film the grandparents, and Nana discovers the camera. Nana grabs a kitchen knife and heads for Becca and Tyler’s shared bedroom, before trying to unsuccessfully break her way in. Reviewing the footage, the kids see the knife and call Loretta explaining the situation and demanding they be picked up. And here’s where the classic Shyamalan twist comes in – upon being shown images of their grandparents, Loretta, horrified, reveals that the people in said images aren’t her parents.

Suitably shitting themselves, Becca and Tyler try to escape but are forcefully kept in by the increasingly creepy grandparents who they now know to be complete strangers. Becca sneaks into the basement and finds her real grandparents, both dead, with their work uniforms from their jobs at a mental hospital, thus revealing the strangers are escaped patients who broke into the house, murdered their grandparents and assumed their identities ( I mean, seriously – identity theft is not a joke, guys ).

Despite it already being a pretty messed up situation, it soon turns into a shit-uation, when Pop tries to physically and mentally torment Tyler by rubbing a diaper full of shit in his face, after having locked Becca in a room with Nana who spends the duration trying to eat Becca. Tyler decides he’s put up with enough shit and, in a fit of pure rage, kills Pops with the help of the refrigerator door. Becca and Tyler escape, and are greeted by Loretta and the police. The film finishes with a heartfelt family-oriented moral, in which Loretta tells Becca not to hold onto her anger surrounding her father’s abandonment of them.

Is the movie The Visit good?

Despite the found footage style of filming being one of my least favourite in the genre of horror (which I’m already a fairly avid hater of), the film just works; it delves straight into the story, and presents us with two admirable characters with situations we can all relate to – having to spend unwanted time with extended families.

Tyler in particular, however, is a highlight of the film. Ed Oxenbould does a wonderful job of maintaining a genuinely comical and endearing aspect to his character alongside the effectively established mysterious and eerie atmosphere created once the film kicks in. With a range of running gags throughout the film – including replacing curse words during unfortunate events with the names of famous female pop stars, and some genuinely good rapping skills – the film provides a uniquely enjoyable form of side comedy combined with a primary dose of peril.

If there’s anything to complain about in regards to this film, it’s the usual inaccurate trope of people with mental illnesses being dangerous and ridiculous – something we all know Shyamalan has done on more than one occasion, though it’s a problem in the film industry and media in general.

Despite the clearly present issue surrounding mental health in films,  The Visit is a film I thoroughly enjoyed. Many claimed this to be Shyamalan’s comeback after the abomination that was  After Earth – and I’d agree. Shyamalan manages to use a form of presentation in a horror film which has been equipped time and time again, yet manages to keep it fresh, full of suspense and, of course, inclusive of a healthy dose of twists to ensure it all pays off. And it does.

What did you think of the 2015 movie The Visit? Comment below.

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‘the visit’: film review.

Grandpa has a dirty secret and Granny goes bump in the night in M. Night Shyamalan’s comic horror-thriller

By Sheri Linden

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A family get-together starts out strange and quickly enters nightmare territory in  The Visit , a horror-thriller that turns soiled adult diapers into a motif. Told from a camera-equipped kids’-eye view, M. Night Shyamalan ’s latest is well cast and strong on setting. But the dull thudding that resounds isn’t part of its effective aural design; it’s the ungainly landing of nearly every shock and joke.

Notwithstanding the evidence of Shyamalan’s  features since the pitch-perfect Sixth Sense , hope endures among fans that lightning will strike twice. In the wake of bloated recent outings After Earth and The Last Airbender , that hope takes on a particular fervency with this modestly scaled return to straight-up genre fare. That anticipation will drive theatrical business for the feature, as will the lure of sheer horror fun, at least until word-of-mouth stems the box-office tide.

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Early in the film, there’s a wonderful moment when a mom’s exuberant clowning shifts to tears. Played by the terrific Kathryn Hahn , she’s a divorced woman seeing her kids off at the train station. From that point on, the energy, warmth and nuance of her performance is reduced to intermittent Skype sessions — a crucial element to the story but nonetheless a letdown for the viewer.

To give Mom time alone with her boyfriend, teenage Becca ( Olivia DeJonge ) and tween Tyler ( Ed Oxenbould ), a serious germophobe and aspiring rapper, have volunteered for a weeklong stay at the Pennsylvania farm of their grandparents. It’s an especially generous offer given that they’ve never before met Nana and Pop Pop ( Deanna Dunagan and  Peter McRobbie ).

Read more Critic’s Notebook: Buoyed By Jobs and Bulger Biopics , Telluride Delivers

But there’s more to it than generosity; the camera-wielding siblings, budding auteur Becca in particular, sense an opportunity to make a documentary that uncovers the generational rift between their grandparents and their mother, who left the farm as a teenager under circumstances she refuses to discuss.

The grands prove no more forthcoming on the subject, but that’s the least of the kids’ worries as they’re confronted with Nana’s nocturnal rages, usually unclothed, and Pop Pop’s unsavory stockpile in the shed. Determined not to be one of those people who fear the elderly “for no reason,” Becca chooses to ignore the ample reasons before her. While Tyler goes eagerly sniffing for trouble, she accepts the rational explanations Nana and Pop Pop give her for their increasingly bizarre and unsettling behavior.

Through it all, she and her brother shoot their documentary. Cinematographer  Maryse Alberti captures the sense of a nonstop work in progress, seen through the lenses of the kids’ video cameras and laptop, with reality-style interviews, off-center framing and p.o.v. night footage a la Blair Witch . Shyamalan uses the various devices to tiring effect and without conjuring the requisite deep chills.

Playing off the winking self-consciousness of the film-within-a-film, there’s a jokey aspect to the feints and shock cuts. The writer-director’s would-be sendup of down-home country comfort tries to have fun with fairy-tale terrors. The result is almost always mechanical rather than exciting or funny, despite the actors’ layered performances — the self-aware kids, Dunagan’s otherworldly weirdness and McRobbie’s unnerving deadpan.

The rural winter backdrop works as a fitting contrast to Mom’s Skype dispatches from her sunny cruise-ship vacation. Within what’s essentially a single setting, Shyamalan and Alberti keep things visually diverse but cohesive, while Naaman Marshall ’s clean farmhouse interiors avoid the common trap of overdesign .

A Jungian therapist might have a field day with the story’s plunge into the nigredo , the aspect of alchemy that involves putrefaction and decomposition (those diapers!). But the unpleasantly memorable moments of the movie’s dark mix hardly compensate for the dull sludge surrounding it. Attempts to liven things up with Oxenbould’s raps don’t do the trick either. And given the lack of gripping storytelling, the big twist arrives as more of a “hmmm” moment than a ground-shaking thrill.

The movie isn’t without an emotional core, though: It’s Hahn’s mostly absent character, and although she’s called upon to deliver the heavy-handed moral of the story, she manages to make every moment she’s onscreen ring true.

In one of the few gags that connects in this missed opportunity of a film, Tyler utters the names of female singers rather than cursing when he’s upset or disappointed. To borrow that conceit, a fair response to The Visit might be “Cher, Rihanna, Dolly Parton.”

Production companies: Blinding Edge Pictures, Blumhouse Cast: Kathryn Hahn, Olivia DeJonge , Ed Oxenbould , Deanna Dunagan , Peter McRobbie , Celia Keenan-Bolger , Samuel Stricklen , Patch Darragh Director: M. Night Shyamalan Screenwriter: M. Night Shyamalan Producers: Jason Blum, Marc Bienstock , M. Night Shyamalan Executive producers: Steven Schneider, Ashwin Rajan Director of photography: Maryse Alberti Production designer: Naaman Marshall Costume designer: Amy Westcott Editor: Luke Ciarrocchi Casting director: Douglas Aibel Rated PG-13, 94 minutes

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Common Sense Media Review

Shyamalan's found-footage spooker has teens in peril.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Visit is a found-footage horror movie from director M. Night Shyamalan. There are plenty of spooky images, sounds, and dialogue, as well as jump scares and a small amount of blood and gore. Viewers see dead bodies (including one killed in a rather shocking way), and two teens, 13…

Why Age 13+?

Dead bodies, one hanged. Elderly man killed in a shocking way. Some blood. Spook

"F--k" is used once. Other words include "s--t," "ass,&

Minor innuendo involving 13-year-old boy who imagines himself a ladykiller. Nana

Skype is used as part of the plot. Sony laptop shown. A Yahtzee! game, with refe

Adults occasionally smoke cigarettes. A boy mimes "pot smoking" with h

Any Positive Content?

Teens learn to overcome past fears to deal with current situations. They sometim

The main characters are teens (13 and 15) who try their best to survive a bad si

Violence & Scariness

Dead bodies, one hanged. Elderly man killed in a shocking way. Some blood. Spooky images, spooky dialogue, and jump scares. Stabbing with a mirror shard. Teens in jeopardy. Vomiting and poop. A man briefly assaults another man. Rifle briefly shown.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

"F--k" is used once. Other words include "s--t," "ass," "ho," "bitch," "goddamn," "hell," "douche," and possibly "a--hole." Middle finger gesture.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Minor innuendo involving 13-year-old boy who imagines himself a ladykiller. Nana's naked bottom is shown twice.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Skype is used as part of the plot. Sony laptop shown. A Yahtzee! game, with references to toy companies Hasbro and Milton Bradley.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Adults occasionally smoke cigarettes. A boy mimes "pot smoking" with his fingers.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Teens learn to overcome past fears to deal with current situations. They sometimes work together but at other times are forced to split up.

Positive Role Models

The main characters are teens (13 and 15) who try their best to survive a bad situation; they're brave, but their situation isn't one anyone would emulate. The adults in the story aren't particularly admirable.

Parents need to know that The Visit is a found-footage horror movie from director M. Night Shyamalan . There are plenty of spooky images, sounds, and dialogue, as well as jump scares and a small amount of blood and gore. Viewers see dead bodies (including one killed in a rather shocking way), and two teens, 13 and 15, are frequently in peril. The 13-year-old boy fancies himself a ladykiller, which leads to some minor innuendo, and the "Nana" character's naked bottom is shown a couple of times. Language includes a use of "f--k," plus "s--t," "bitch," and more, most frequently spoken by the 13-year-old. Adult characters infrequently smoke cigarettes, and there's a very brief, mimed reference to smoking pot. Shyamalan is a filmmaker whom horror hounds love to hate, but this movie could be a comeback that fans will want to see. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (20)
• Kids say (83)

Based on 20 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Thirteen-year-old Tyler ( Ed Oxenbould ) and 15-year-old Becca (Olivia DeJonge) agree to spend a week with their grandparents while encouraging their mom ( Kathryn Hahn ) to take a vacation with her boyfriend. The kids have never met their grandparents, "Nana" (Deanna Dunagan) and "Pop Pop" (Peter McRobbie), at least partly because when their mother left home 15 years earlier, something terrible apparently happened. At first things seem fine, but then Nana and Pop Pop start behaving strangely. Even if it can all be explained -- Nana gets "sundown" syndrome, and Pop Pop requires adult diapers -- it doesn't quite ease the feeling that something's wrong. Meanwhile, Becca documents their visit on video, hoping to capture something that explains it all.

Is It Any Good?

After several perplexing misfires, writer/director M. Night Shyamalan has scaled back, gone for a lower budget and a lighter tone, and emerged with his most effective movie in over a decade. THE VISIT begins interestingly; the potentially creepy moments can be easily explained away and even laughed off, but the director still manages to create a subtle, creeping dread that steadily builds toward the climax.

Shyamalan uses the found-footage concept with more creativity than most other filmmakers, displaying his usual intriguing grasp of three-dimensional space, as well as empty space. The characters themselves are even aware of certain cinematic theories that could make their "documentary" more interesting. They're refreshingly intelligent and self-aware, and they never blunder stupidly into any situation. If the movie has a drawback, it's that fans will be looking hard for clues to one of Shyamalan's big "twists." As to what it is, or whether there is one, we're not saying.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about The Visit 's violence . How much is shown, and how much is suggested? How did it affect you? What's the impact of media violence on kids?

Tyler considers himself a "ladykiller." Is his dialogue inappropriate for someone his age?

Tyler likes to rap and posts videos of himself. Is he expressing himself, or is he merely seeking fame? What's appealing about fame? Is it OK for kids to start their own online channels?

Movie Details

• In theaters : September 11, 2015
• On DVD or streaming : January 5, 2016
• Cast : Kathryn Hahn , Ed Oxenbould , Olivia DeJonge
• Director : M. Night Shyamalan
• Inclusion Information : Indian/South Asian directors, Female actors
• Studio : Universal Pictures
• Genre : Horror
• Run time : 94 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : disturbing thematic material including terror, violence and some nudity, and for brief language
• Last updated : July 24, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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'The Visit': Review

By Charles Gant 2015-09-09T17:00:00+01:00

Dir: M Night Shyamalan. US, 2015, 94 minutes

Following a run of creatively disappointing features encompassing Lady in the Water, The Happening, The Last Airbender and After Earth , the time was certainly right for M Night Shyamalan’s return to his twisty, genre roots. And teaming up with prolific, mightily profitable Jason Blum on a $5million-budget, single-location, kids-in-jeopardy scary movie seemed like the smart way of going about it – even if The Visit ’s found-footage format feels several years past its moment of maximum freshness. What results is a marketable slice of hit-and-miss mischief that doesn’t suggest a career rebirth so much as a larky side project that will yield more in the way of nervous laughter than quickened pulses.

Shyamalan is not so much winking at the audience as nudging it in the ribcage

To set The Visit in motion, Shyamalan needs a single mum (Kathryn Hahn) who cut off all contact with her parents when she left home at the age of 19. Now the old folks have reached out, and so the grandchildren they have never met – precocious 15-year-old Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and 13-year-old Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) – are set to visit them for a five-day visit at their Pennsylvania farm, several hours’ train ride away. Aspiring filmmaker Rebecca is documenting the trip, conveniently handing Tyler a spare camera so that he can provide second-unit coverage.

Ominously confined to a shared bedroom after 9.30pm, the youngsters are soon disturbed by the noisy nocturnal antics of genial oddball and enthusiastic baker Nana (Deanna Dunagan), which includes a fair amount of nudity, projectile vomiting and running around bent over, crashing into walls. Eventually it’s explained by their Pop-Pop (Peter McRobbie) that she’s suffering from something called Sundown Syndrome, a neurological reaction that allegedly can affect old people. Pop-Pop has his own eccentricities, notably storing all his soiled adult diapers in the woodshed.

The sibling relationship is nicely explored with Tyler recalling to his sister the day five years ago where he froze up on the school football field, linked in his mind to the departure of their father. On the other hand, his improvised white-boy raps – presumably intended to be cutely adolescent – inflict more painful squirms on the audience than anything else that unfolds on-screen. Meanwhile, Nana’s behaviour reaches into its torpid nadir when she’s depicted smoking inside the house.

After a nifty twist reveals what is really going on, Becca and Tyler’s seeming inability to run, run for the hills makes for convenient plotting, and unpersuasive drama. But by the time Becca enters the basement alone – despite her filmmaking ambitions, she’s clearly never seen a horror movie – Shyamalan is not so much winking at the audience as nudging it in the ribcage. When the narrative dust finally settles, what’s left is a twisted-comedy exploitation of old-timer craziness that leaves a rather nasty taste in the mouth.

As for the cast, it’s hard to escape the feeling that Dunagan, who won a Tony for her performance in the Steppenwolf production of Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County , deserves better. The same might be said for Oxenbould, on whom is inflicted a humiliation far more unsavoury than anything experienced by him in Disney’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day . DeJonge, who like Oxenbould hails from Australia, impresses the most with a deftly textured turn – the only actor here who could be deemed to have received a career assist from the latest twist in the perplexing career of the man who 15 years ago scored a double Oscar nomination with The Sixth Sense .

Production companies: Blinding Edge Pictures, Blumhouse Productions

Contact: Blumhouse productions, www.blumhouse.com

Producers: Marc Bienstock, Jason Blum, M Night Shyamalan

Screenplay: M Night Shyamalan

Cinematography: Maryse Alberti

Editor: Luke Franco Ciarrocchi

Production design: Naaman Marshall

Main cast: Olivia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould, Peter McRobbie, Deanna Dunagan, Kathryn Hahn

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By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Well, it's not in the same league as The Sixth Sense , but director M. Night Shyamalan ends a long dry spell with The Visit. It's a blend of mirth and malice that combines Grimm fairy tales with the found-footage gimmick of Paranormal Activity . A mom (Kathryn Hahn) sends her two kids (Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould), both experts with digital cameras, to visit her estranged parents. It's all smiles until Grandma (Deanna Dunagan, wowza) gets naked and Grandpa (Peter McRobbie) does strange things with his adult diapers. No spoilers, except to say that cheap thrills can still be a blast. Not enough to make up for Shyamalan's awful After Earth , but it's a start.

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Time Out says

The only way is up for nosediving onetime golden boy M Night Shyamalan following the disastrous hat-trick of ‘The Happening’, ‘The Last Airbender’ and ‘After Earth’ – a run of shockers that make Ed Wood look like Scorsese. And on the surface, ‘The Visit’ looks like a welcome return to the ‘The Sixth Sense’ writer-director’s early successes, with its rural Pennsylvania setting, hairpin plot and forgettable title. It’s constructed as a homemade documentary by 15-year-old movie geek Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and her wannabe-rap-star little brother Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), whose trip to visit their estranged grandparents (Deanna Duggan and Peter McRobbie) gradually flips from a fun family getaway to a terrifying endurance test when it turns out the old folks have some unsavoury nocturnal habits.

Shyamalan proves he’s not lost his knack for a short, sharp shock – there’s a hide-and-seek scene that’ll leave you whimpering – and the inevitable twist is a doozy. But there are two major problems here, and they’re both blonde, blue-eyed and unbearable: if Becca’s cheery habit of spouting great chunks of moviemaking lore isn’t irksome enough, Tyler’s penchant for breaking into squeaky improvised rhyme might actually induce panic attacks. The result is a bizarre, conflicted mess, horrifying when it’s trying to be funny, oddly appealing when it turns the screws. Still, if you’ve ever wanted to hear a lisping 12-year-old rap about how traumatic it is to have shit rubbed in your face by a elderly relative, step right up.

Release Details

• Release date: Friday 11 September 2015
• Duration: 94 mins

Cast and crew

• Director: M. Night Shyamalan
• Screenwriter: M. Night Shyamalan
• Kathryn Hahn
• Ed Oxenbould
• Benjamin Kanes
• Deanna Dunagan
• Olivia DeJonge
• Peter McRobbie

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Shannen Doherty's 10 Best Movies And TV Shows

Mortal kombat 2's 27 fights & jax's story teased by star mehcad brooks, alien: romulus concept art reveals even creepier design for final offspring (& it has wings), the visit  is a fun and kitschy horror parable - though the trademark shyamalan twist will be a big disappoint for many viewers..

The Visit   follows Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), two siblings who head out to rural Pennsylvania to document the meeting of their estranged grandparents, last seen when their mother (Kathryn Hahn) left home fifteen years ago. When Becca and Tyler arrive at Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop's (Peter McRobbie) farm, they immediately set about crafting the documentary with the intent of showing how their mother leaving home at a young age echoes the pattern of their own father abandoning them when they needed him the most.

However, as Becca and Tyler focus the lens closer on Nana and Pop Pop the more abnormal their subjects reveal themselves to be. As the week-long visit crawls along, the cracks in the grandparents' good-natured facade widen and widen, finally exploding in a fit of horror that Becca and Tyler must fight to survive.

The latest film from beleaguered filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan,  The Visit  is a fun and kitschy horror parable - though the trademark Shyamalan twist will be a big disappoint for many viewers.

Shyamalan both wrote and directed  The Visit , and as his critics might expect, it's a "blessing and a curse" package. On the directorial front, there isn't much crafting or technique to speak of, due to the found-footage format of the film. Like every movie in the (tired) sub-genre, the found-footage "technique" involves coming up with reasonable scenarios and context for people to be filming themselves - and to continue doing so, even when in peril. While the The Visit does manage to root its voyeuristic perspective in both the narrative themes and the personality matrixes of the two main characters, the format nonetheless feels binding, and in moments of real fright or action the usual shaky cam antics disrupt the viewing experience. In short: if you don't like found-footage, you won't like this found-footage movie.

On paper, however, The Visit  does manage to capture a lot of the richness of classic '70s or early '80s horror, unfortunately wrapping it around a flimsy twist - one that will likely elicit more bad stigma for Shyamalan, the crowned king of flimsy twists. To the movie's credit, Shyamalan does what good horror storytellers are supposed to: he takes a familiar and relatable concept (going to visit your grandparents) and twists it into something unfamiliar and menacing.  The Visit  indeed has that "campfire ghost story" quality that could've made it an enduring horror parable - so for anyone who likes their fright flicks on that level (read: creepy more than scary or gruesome) this will be a nice fit. The tone of the story is also blessedly kitschy and always self-aware enough to not take itself too seriously, which creates a level of horror/comedy that fans can at least laugh along  with  (as opposed to  at ).

The cast of characters are drawn well enough, though the two main characters may put-off viewers who can't appreciate the level of meta humor in the would-be media stars. Both Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould thankfully polish their characters into genuine modern (pre-)teens, fleshing out the otherwise flat caricatures of pretentious film snob and "ethnically confused" suburban rapper - personas the movie pokes fun at. In certain scenes where more drama and depth are required, both young leads actually deliver quite well, and Shyamalan interjects some genuine heart and drama into the film (though those same dramatic moments, while quality on their own, feel a bit at odds with the otherwise horror kitsch tone of the film).

Deanna Dunagan ( Unforgettable ) and Peter McRobbie ( Daredevil ) jump in with both feet to the roles of Nana and Pop Pop, respectively. Though the movie keeps the oddball old couple at arm's length, the two veteran character actors own every scene they're in, sometimes with just body movements and glances.  The Visit  only keeps traction because of what Dunagan and McRobbie can deliver; if nothing else, the electricity of what they  might  do keeps every scene they're in lively and riveting. On the peripheral, Kathryn Hahn pops in for a funny light portrayal as "The Mom," only to have to swing all that funny charm over into some key (overly heavy?) dramatic moments.

In the end,  The Visit  is fine horror matinée (or future rental) material for fans who don't mind the kitchsy campfire story style of the film. Those hoping for Shyamalan to continue his 'comeback' after the success of  Wayward Pines , or for the filmmaker to deliver another twist on par with  The Sixth Sense , will end up walking away disappointed.

The Visit  is now playing in theaters. It is 94 minutes and is Rated PG-13 for disturbing thematic material including terror, violence and some nudity, and for brief language.

Agree/disagree with this review? Feel free to let us know how you feel in the comment section!

From director M. Night Shyamalan, The Visit follows two siblings who are sent to stay with their estranged grandparents while their mother is out of town on vacation. Realizing that all isn't what it seems during their stay, the siblings set out to find out what is really going on at their grandparents' home. Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould star as Becca and Tyler, with Deanna Dunagan, Peter McRobbie, and Kathryn Hahn making up the rest of the main cast. 

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The Visit Review

Could the faux-doc horror thriller The Visit be a return to form for M. Night Shyamalan? Read our review...

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Following a run of disasters/disappointments that included Lady in the Water , The Happening , The Last Airbender, and After Earth , it would be fair to wonder whether M. Night Shyamalan could ever bounce back with another quality directorial effort. Here’s the good news: his new film, The Visit , is a nice big step in the right direction. A horror thriller told in the faux-doc format (more on that later), the movie is economical, tight, creepy, and actually even pretty damn funny. After a string of ponderous bores, this is the director having fun and not taking either himself or the material so seriously. The result is his best film in more than a decade.

The Visit follows a young brother and sister, Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), who go to stay with the grandparents they’ve never met before (Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie) on an extended visit while their mom (Kathryn Hahn) takes her own vacation with a new beau. As soon as they get to Nana and Pop Pop’s isolated farmhouse, however, things quickly take a turn for the strange.

Told not to leave their room after 9:30 pm, the siblings do just that and witness some rather odd sights. But that’s just the start, as Nana and Pop Pop’s behavior becomes even more bizarre, and the two kids wonder if they’ll ever get home.

One thing Shyamalan has always gotten right in his best films, like The Sixth Sense or Unbreakable , is character: his people may sometimes be eccentric but his better-written ones are recognizably human. The kids in The Visit feel real in the way they each deal with their family’s dysfunctional past and with each other: wannabe rap star Tyler can be annoying, but in a natural, almost endearing way, not like the obnoxious kids we find in a lot of genre movies and TV shows (cough, cough, The Strain ). Kathryn Hahn, in her brief scenes, also brings a lot of emotional resonance to the role of the mom, who’s juggling her own conflicted feelings about her estranged parents with her concern for her kids and her desire to enjoy her new relationship.

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The tricky part is bringing the grandparents into all this, but Shyamalan and his two excellent actors make it work, effectively walking the line between comedy and terror. Old people can seem really strange and frightening to kids, and Shyamalan uses this effectively throughout the film as well, making Nana and Pop Pop not completely unsympathetic even when Nana is chasing the kids around a crawlspace like a rabid dog, buttocks flapping in the wind through her torn housecoat. And if that image sounds disturbing, there’s more where that came from. The fun of The Visit is that you never know whether to laugh or gasp at what goes on in that farmhouse, and the director is clearly having a good time keeping you off-balance.

Less interesting is his use of the faux-doc (or found footage, or whatever the hell it’s called these days) format. Becca, an aspiring filmmaker, is ostensibly making a documentary about her and Tyler’s reunion with their grandparents, but as is often the case these days, one occasionally gets pulled out of the movie by the format’s constant distractions: why is someone still holding a camera and filming as they’re being thrown down a flight of stairs, for example? Becca’s interest in filmmaking is a reasonable enough way to introduce the conceit, but the film doesn’t need the gimmick. Even though Shyamalan handles it more skillfully than most, it still feels unnecessary.

But it’s not fatal. In purely technical terms, Shyamalan is not about to let the faux-doc esthetic dominate his movie or his imagery, which remains, for the most part, clearly and confidently framed and shot. And on a narrative level, The Visit sustains a level of weird creepiness throughout. Its scares are earned, as are its laughs, and for the first time in a long time, the trademark Shyamalan twist works well and feels organic to the story and the world built around it.

Like many fine horror movies, The Visit plays like a combination of fractured fairy tale (there’s a lot of Hansel & Gretel here, as one can see just from the trailer ) and waking nightmare. The cast strikes the right tone, the imagery is unsettling and surreal (and, in a few choice spots, squirm-inducingly gross), and the movie makes you care enough about its central characters that you feel more than just a distant disgust, or worse, a sense of comeuppance at what happens to them – the mark of too many genre outings. The Visit doesn’t repeat what Shyamalan did with his early classics, but it finds him a relaxed, playful space where he is clearly enjoying what he is doing again. Let’s hope he comes back here more often.

The Visit is out in theaters Friday (September 11).

Don Kaye | @donkaye

Don Kaye is an entertainment journalist by trade and geek by natural design. Born in New York City, currently ensconced in Los Angeles, his earliest childhood memory is…

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‘In the Summers’ Review: Understanding a Father’s Flaws

The film, by Alessandra Lacorazza, follows two siblings as they visit their father, played by Residente, in New Mexico.

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By Ben Kenigsberg

“In the Summers” follows two siblings, Violeta and Eva, as they visit their father over four staggered summers from childhood to adulthood. Most of the year, they live in California with their mother, but both she and their lives there go unseen. The film, told in chapters, depicts only the most sweltering months, which they spend in Las Cruces, N.M., with their father, Vicente, played by René Pérez Joglar, also known as the rapper and singer Residente.

The movie, written and directed by Alessandra Lacorazza, won the top prize for an American fiction feature at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. It increases in power as it proceeds, as Violeta (played in succession by Dreya Castillo, Kimaya Thais Limon and, from last year’s “Mutt,” Lío Mehiel) and Eva (Luciana Elisa Quiñonez, Allison Salinas and Sasha Calle) grow older and gain sharper understandings of their father’s flaws. Each segment begins with their arrival at the airport. Vicente’s temper is apparent in the first section, when he explodes at a stranger in an amusement park after she tries to help a sick Eva.

Soon after that, Vicente’s dangerous driving habits emerge as a motif. In one chapter, to impress the children, he swerves recklessly at night, making a game out of not stopping. In another, Violeta has to prevent him from driving drunk. (Emma Ramos as Carmen, the bartender who drives them home and who has known Vicente for years, is in some ways Lacorazza’s secret weapon. Her character becomes a watchful eye and sounding board for the siblings.)

Vicente can’t seem to keep track of Violeta and Eva’s ages. But even with his wavering attention, he is capable of flashes of warmth. He works as a tutor and has a knack for explaining things. In a sweet early scene, he pours chili flakes on a pizza to illustrate how scientists can estimate the number of stars in a given area. And even at his most irresponsible — he introduces the teenage Violeta to marijuana, reasoning that it’s better to smoke it in a safe place — he often means well. A late scene in which he haltingly tries to apologize for his shortcomings constitutes the film’s most perfectly underplayed moment.

Pérez Joglar becomes the movie’s through line, a constant presence who has to act against a changing roster of co-stars. If the casting shifts aren’t always persuasive, Vicente’s limited ability to perceive Eva and Violeta is part of the point. The structural conceit is the most engaging aspect of “In the Summers,” even if it gives the storytelling some perspective issues. (While Vicente sees Violeta and Eva only during the summer, they in theory see each other much more regularly.) Lacorazza’s deftness with actors, feel for the setting and aesthetic decisions — shooting in the snapshot-like 1.66-to-1 aspect ratio, or leaving the characters’ Spanish without subtitles — help the drama ring true.

In the Summers Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. In theaters.

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Former LU Football player recovers game film thought to have been lost in Treasure Island flood

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September 20, 2024 : By Ryan Klinker - Office of Communications & Public Engagement

Former Flames Football player Greg Mosely (’81) is proud to be a piece of Liberty University’s football foundation, and thanks to his discovery of a misplaced game film from its first Division I win, he has helped to keep the team’s history alive for his peers and Flames fans.

Mosely was a starting running back for the Flames from 1978-81, with his name still listed on some of Liberty’s record lists, including for his 300 rushing yards against Evangel University in his final game as a Flame in 1981.

When Mosely arrived at Liberty, the football program was only 5 years old. During his four seasons, the team competed in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) but would often schedule teams in the higher levels of NCAA to help grow the program.

“My four years was a transitional time where we went from NAIA to NCAA Division II, and by my senior year, even though we took the lumps for it, we were playing Division I-AA (now FCS, or the Football Championship Subdivision) teams,” he said. “It was a necessary part of building the program. I’m very proud to have been a part of Liberty Football, of Liberty University, in those transitional growth days.”

One of his most memorable games was a 23-20 Homecoming victory over against Morehead State in 1980, Liberty’s first win against a Division 1-AA opponent. After sitting out with an injury in the first half, Mosely scored twice in the second half, including a 65-yard rush for the go-ahead touchdown. After his senior season, he asked the team’s equipment manager for the 16mm films of that game, his 300-yard game, and one other game to make duplicates for his personal collection.

The reels went into a box and were forgotten about in his closet, Mosely admitted, and after graduating with his degree in ministry , he hung up his cleats and picked up a clipboard to begin a career in coaching. Mosely is currently in his 15th season as the head coach of women’s volleyball at North Greenville University in Tigerville, S.C.

But that box in the back of his closet would unexpectedly became the sole archive of those games and, in the grander scheme, a part of Liberty’s football roots.

In 1985, a sweeping flood destroyed virtually all of Liberty’s resources on Treasure Island — a property in the James River that held dormitories, a summer youth camp, and the football team’s practice field and equipment building. The films in Mosley’s possession and potentially other reels from the program’s infancy were presumed lost.

Mosely assumed the school had duplicates. It wasn’t until 2022, when he was having lunch with a former teammate who worked at Liberty, that he realized how much the tapes were missed and valued for the program.

“We were talking about all sorts of things; the Morehead State game came up in the conversation, and I said, ‘You know, I have that game tape,’” Mosely said. “(My former teammate) couldn’t believe it. Not long after, I came up to campus and they digitized that tape and the others. I’m very happy and blessed that it’s been able to be preserved and that people have a strong interest in it.”

The visuals and audio of these recovered tapes were used in the celebration of Flames Football’s 50th anniversary in 2023.

[Watch clips from the Morehead State game below.]

Like many other players of that time, Mosely has enjoyed look back at the early years of Flames Football, the foundational years of three-a-day practices among the bugs and humidity on Treasure Island. Even though they were studying and playing in these humble conditions during the school’s first decade, Mosely said he and his teammates created strong bonds that continue to this day.

“Those things are what made the memories that I shared with those guys,” he said. “There are so many other memories and so many experiences that those of us of that time shared; there could be volumes of books written about it. The thing today that means the most to me is being able to reunite with (my teammates) through social media and just being able to keep up with what’s happening in their lives today.”

Mosely reflected on the rise of Flames Football to a winning FBS program today, noting its present success under Head Coach Jamey Chadwell, whom he knows personally from when Chadwell coached at North Greenville (2009-11). He cited the oft quoted ambition of Liberty’s founder, Dr. Jerry Falwell, that the Flames would play prestigious programs like Notre Dame and Brigham Young University.

“Every successful program has to have a firm foundation, and that’s what those years were,” he said. “Back when I was at Liberty, I heard that we wanted a football team that could play Notre Dame. A lot of people rolled their eyes at the time, but today that is a realistic possibility. It’s just amazing how the vision of a man who had such a strong prayer life could continue to be carried on to bring about the reality now, 50 plus years later.”

He elaborated on the importance of remembering one’s history in times of success, like Liberty is now experiencing. From the beginning, Flames Football has been driven by a desire to honor God on and off the field and, win or lose, be Champions for Christ.

“I’m a big believer in the idea that you have to remember where you came from, and if you don’t, you’re going to lose your way,” he said. “Preserving and honoring those who have come before, in any situation or program or field, is so important. You have to remember the core values and the culture that got you to where you are.”

Mosely was interviewed earlier this year on Flames Central , Liberty University’s sports television show dedicated to providing in-depth coverage of student-athletes and teams.

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