Shymalan's forgotten gem THE VISIT, directed by M. Night Shyamalan is a about a girl, Becca, and a boy, Tyler, that while their mother is on holiday, visit their grandparents for the first time. These grandparents are a bit weird and a bit, creepy. The girl, Becca, films "interviews" and documents her trip because she aspires to be a documentarian.
And this movie is filmed in found footage format as we see through these kid's eyes, though their camera. And without words you can tell who you're looking through in the way they move the camera, Becca is a bit more professional with her stabilization of her video when Tyler isn't. Small factors like Tyler being a germaphobic and Becca being afraid to look at herself in the mirror all play out conclude this movie in great fashion and it all kind of meant something in the end.
This movie is full of these little touches that change the whole experience, not as many little touches like his masterpiece The Sixth Sense, and I am going to compare this to The Sixth Sense, because this is definitely his best work after some of his, um, horrible movies recently.
I hadn't seen a Shyamalan movie when I watched this for the first time. I've now watched it twice. And seen his best work. But the first time I didn't expect this film to have as many laughs as it did. This movie has times where it is funnier than any other comedy I've seen recently. Not in a bad way either. This movie is meant to have jokes in it.
This is something that M. Night is great at - creating something unexpected and different. Whether it be his best film or his worst film, he has tried to do something different. It really caught me by surprise because I was laughing one scene and screaming the next, even at the same time! And the blend between both genres really gelled and was probably the best factor of the film.
The twist isn't a Sixth Sense twist movie changer, but is a surprise if you haven't been paying attention. The twist is said in a very effective way that gave me goosebumps. Some non sensical decisions are made, in most horror movies to create more tension, but here it was just stupid. For example one scene Nana goes crazy from speaking about the mother and is actually really scary, then a little bit later, after more creepiness and life threatening experiences, the daughter asks her, the same thing?! Why would you do that? Some stupid decisions brought the rating of this down.
But really, aside from some of the director decisions with the actors on set, I love Shyamalan's choice of them. Bruce Willis, Toni Collette and Osment from The Sixth Sense were masterful together. They added little details to enhance the mood of the performance and create emotion to hit the audience.
It reminded me of The Visit actors while watching The Sixth Sense, because the acting on the most part is great. The grandparents are both loving and frightening and play both tones very well. These guys are in their mid seventies and they give some of the best performances I've seen all year. But the kids, the protagonists, are incredible. They are both so real and interesting. They're both Australian and they give off American accents so well, I sound like an idiot trying to speak as well as they did. Even though it isn't as emotional as Osment's performance in The Sixth Sense, you still feel as if these are just some kids that are documenting their trip, which is where the great use of found footage comes into play. The whole movie is supposed to be the daughter's edited trip documentary and I thought was very clever and adding, that a piece of music is played at the start briefly and also at the very end of the movie. Giving off more realism, much like the effect of The Blair Witch Project.
The movie has hidden messages in it, on top of the comedy that surprised me also. This movie has a lot of character and depth to it. There are some really touching scenes with the mother and daughter that reminded me a lot of the character arc with Osment and Toni Collette, mother and son. I found it having the same effect as the emotional The Sixth Sense scene, it is still great to see Shyamalan slowly coming back to form and bringing emotion into a horror movie.
Shyamalan's at his best doing these low budget horror films, instead of huge Hollywood movies that don't really work.
The Visit is scary because it takes time to build suspense. The movie doesn't revolve around half naked girls who get eaten by giant piranhas that jump scare the audience whenever they feel like it. This movie is about, forgiveness, loneliness, and pure terror as this could happen in real life!
It is not the next Sixth Sense and even though it sounds like it's trying to be, some similarities. It's not. They are two different types of movies. Other than bad decisions made by characters that make some scenes slightly annoying to watch, much like The Sixth Sense this is a different type of movie, that fits into many genres and categories with a mixture of beautiful scenes, laugh out loud comedy, and frightening moments. It is so refreshing. This is a really fun movie, with replay value, not for hidden messages, but just because it's a whole lot of fun!
9 / 10