The Visit (I) (2015) User Reviews (786)

Could have done without the rapping.

[Matt_Layden · 6/10 · 5 November 2015]

The big question on people's mind seems to be, is The Visit a return to form for the once promising director, M. Night Shyamalan. The answer is yes and no. While the film is leaps and bounds better than his last 4 previous efforts which include: the dreadful After Earth, the boring Last Airbender, the inane The Happening and the disappointing Lady in the Water, it fails to be anything more than another entry in a long list of horror found footage films. Yes, M. Night Shyamalan has fallen far my friends, so much that just his name on the screen invokes laughter and groans from the audience. He has to fall back and rely on an overused horror genre to bring some sort of credit to his tarnished legacy.

His entry into the found footage genre is The Visit. What Jaws did for the water, The Visit might do for old people. When a mother of two young kids is contacted by her estranged parents, asking to finally see their grandkids, she decides to let her kids go live with their grandparents for the week, while she goes away on vacation. The kids are so excited that the film loving daughter decides to make a documentary about it. Bringing her trusted camera along for the ride, she captures some odd footage from her grandparents and weirder and weirder things start happening after 9:30. So we have to ask ourselves, what's wrong with NaNa and Pop Pop???

The one thing this film does right is something that Shyamalan seems to do well or at least use to, is create a terrific atmosphere. The old home has just enough corners here and there to raise the tension, to make us as ourselves, "What's behind the corner over there?" Having the film be a found footage picture, gives Shyamalan more control over the camera. He can choose what to reveal and when is trickier ways which put the characters in a bit more danger. One terrific sequence where Shyamalan is really at his best is when the kids decide to play Hide and Seek under the house. You expect the unexpected and Shyamalan delivers probably the best scene he's done in years.

The grandparents are excellent; they convey just the right amount of oddness and sympathy. Each scene that they have alone with the kids is when they try to explain away the weirdness of the other. NaNa describes why Pop Pop does the things he does and vice versa. It was an interesting dynamic between the characters that immediately tells you that they are hiding something. Unfortunately, the same can't really be said about the children. Two unbelievable kids, which means I did not believe anything they did was genuine. Whether it is rapping, yes the kid raps a lot, or the cinematic dialogue the girl uses. Nothing they said or did ring true to me, which took me out of the experience.

The Visit is creepy enough to warrant a watch for those that love the found footage films. It's shot in a way that doesn't lead to vertigo or nausea. You finally have a film where you get to see everything that happens on the screen, which was a nice change of pace. Shyamalan might not be back in the good graces of people, but The Visit is a decent start.

Disturbingly funny and interesting movie

[emansmoviereviews · 7/10 · 2 September 2015]

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

Flawed but entertaining

[jennifer626 · 6/10 · 23 January 2016]

Shyamalan has suffered like few other directors as a result of his later films not measuring up to the exacting standards set by The Sixth Sense and Signs. Part of this is self-inflicted, because he has refused to veer from the"M. Night Shyamalan" formula: modern fairy tale crafted to take an unexpected turn approximately two-thirds into the fun. When the twist fails to impress or the fairy tale is dull, the movie disappoints audiences on on two levels. Not only is the movie judged mediocre, but it is criticized for failing to deliver on the promise made by Shyamalan's earlier efforts.

The fairy tale and twist delivered by The Visit do not disappoint. Hansel and Gretel effectively employ today's media and technology for narration and exposition, leading the viewer down an increasingly foreboding path. The fear and anxiety caused by Nana and Pop-Pop's odd behavior appeal to our politically incorrect subconscious: we shy away and are even repulsed by displays of dementia and senility, no matter how clinically explicable we understand those displays to be. I was pleasantly surprised that the predicted twist was not predictable, and I felt a sincere surge of a-ha! at its revelation.

The Visit falls short with respect to the traditional elements of film-making. The children, particularly the brother, are portrayed as cloying, non-credible 1980s sitcom characters with cheesy lines. Attempts at humor come off like a toast at a Dirty Dancing era summer camp in the Catskills. The siblings show no sign of being actual teenagers from the 21st century until approximately 45 minutes into the film, when they interview each other for their "documentary" and reveal certain vulnerabilities. The forced nature of this scene serves to highlight the otherwise inauthentic personalities assigned to them by the director and script. The mother's character is painted with the same superficial gloss, a problem magnified by her limited time on screen. These weaknesses prevented me from empathizing with the family members and reminded me throughout that I was indeed watching a movie.

Perhaps Shyamalan was so focused on invoking his brand upon The Visit that he was distracted from maintaining its essential quality. Like many other viewers, I still look forward to the film where he regains that balance.

I liked it!

[vladimirnerandziicbps · 7/10 · 30 September 2015]

In my opinion it's not even half as bad as people say it is. The movie is first of all entertaining which is one of the reasons why you would watch it? But also it is well made. The plot is very good and as far as i know original. The way it was filmed was great, any other way wouldn't be the same. I thought the director of this movie was great before and my opinion def didn't change after seeing this one. The acting was good. It says that it's a comedy/horror, you cant really expect to get scared in it like some people complain about. I wouldn't recommend it to a friend but it's worth the watch if you have spare time and don't know what to do with it.

M. Knight has redeemed himself! Movie is a trip!

[kimbg-909-818076 · 7/10 · 8 November 2015]

I love horror and some flat out just suck but I have been wanting to see this one.

Tyler and Becca are sent to see their grandparents, whom they have never met since Papa and Nana had a falling out with their mother years ago. Some bad blood between them and Mom wants to go on a vacation with her boyfriend so she sends the kids to meet their grandparents for the first time. They live on a rural farm in the middle of nowhere with no cell service and little internet access.

At first they seem like a normal old couple but soon after it becomes obvious something is off esp with Nana. They maintain in constant communication with their mother. It is obvious Nana does not like to talk about their mother so the kids are still trying to figure out what the estrangement is all about. Things then get weird! A good solid flick. Great job M. Knight for keeping me entertained and scaring me a little

A Good Shyamalan Film After A Long, Long Time!

[CinemaClown · 20 December 2015]

After having spent years squandering the studio money & garnering the wrath of film critics in his past few outings, M. Night Shyamalan takes a break from big-budget productions and decides to return to small-scale projects constrained by shoestring budget in an attempt to rediscover his creative side and with his latest feature, I'd say he has found it.

The Visit tells the story of two siblings who decide to spend a week with their grandparents at their farmhouse while their mother is planning a vacation with her current boyfriend. The two kids, having never met their grandparents in person before, find their company strange at first but as the days pass, they discover a deeply disturbing secret about their hosts.

Written & directed by M. Night Shyamalan, The Visit finds the director away from all sort of studio involvement, thus allowing him to rely on his creativity to overcome the restrictions imposed by its low budget and he does a really good job at it. The film makes use of all his trademarks and successfully blends different genres & shooting techniques into one solidly crafted thriller.

Shyamalan's screenplay isn't bad either. The plot is quite simple, the number of characters are kept to a minimum and all have relevant roles to play in the outcome and it's effectively brought to life on the film canvas. The found-footage camera-work is nicely carried out and its tight editing only helps in establishing an increasingly tense & suspenseful atmosphere, which is brilliantly sustained till the end.

The expected Shyamalan twist is also there, following which the movie becomes somewhat predictable and the pay-off isn't much rewarding. The performances are a definitely plus for the kids waste no time in becoming a nuisance, especially that 13-year old rapping douche, but it's actually their grandparents who leave the most lasting impressions with their eerie renditions, which only gets more menacing as the story nears its end.

On an overall scale, The Visit is a welcome return to form for M. Night Shyamalan after his lengthy string of critical & commercial failures and is a strange mix of horror & comedy that is able to balance the elements of both genres quite nicely. It does create a friction at times but for the most part, the narration is smooth. The few bad decisions taken in the picture lie within the characterisation range and as a whole, The Visit succeeds in delivering a thrilling movie experience, that comes loaded with odd laughs in between.

This was absolutely nothing special

[doofuspoofus · 6/10 · 12 September 2015]

For starters the reason this is the best found footage film is because it only gives the illusion of being found footage whilst being filmed professionally. Which is a relief because I'm so tired of these directors making a movie that looks like it was filmed by someone with Parkinson's disease and then calling it "original". The Blair witch project was original; after that it's just a bunch of lazy copycats.

Now I am a fan of M. knight and I like his films even the ones people didn't like but this was just...not his style and not his style in a bad way. It just seemed like he was taking the chance to jump on a new trend as opposed to being original and thought provoking like he usually is; a modern Hitchcock if you will. And for most of the movie I was wondering why the trailer was made to look like the grandparents were going to be some sort of creatures when in actuality most of their symptoms were in fact dementia.

The only thing I can say is the twist is worth the watch but like most found footage movies there's lame attempts at humor(like every stranger saying "I used to be an actor" just because she has a camera) mixed with actual humor. The cast is great and the direction too but just not his style at all. Now the twist is not that great but there is one. All and all I can say I'm glad I had a gift card and didn't actually pay to see this. This was just okay nothing special and certainly not for an M. Knight film.

Oh Crap !

[lionpride-08896 · 3/10 · 28 January 2024]

This movie is quite literally a huge crappy diaper shoved in your face. The director is the grandpa and the audience is the boy. I can't believe this is what passes for an artistic movie that is considered to be good. I would use the script to wipe myself after a massive dump on the toilet. Well it must have had some redeeming quality because I did give it 3 stars out of 10. Oh I know. I could use this movie as a recommendation to someone I didn't like. As a prank. Oh and as for the script I could line the bottom of my bird cage with it. If you haven't guessed by now I didn't particularly care for this movie. It's a real stinker.

Very Intence psychotic Disturbing Flim in its own way ( American C+Movie ) My Ratings 8/10

[THE-BEACON-OF-MOVIES-RAFA · 8/10 · 9 March 2020]

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.

She should've shown them a photo

[MJB784 · 6/10 · 16 March 2022]

It started out good, but the movie wasn't scary and the twist doesn't add up. For example: If they aren't the grandparents, wouldn't they see a photo of them from their mom before visiting? Besides, how did they escape the asylum and what does that have to do with not leaving the room at 9:30?

Unfathomably Terrible

[deebrubaker · 1/10 · 13 September 2015]

Walking into the over crowded theater to see yet another over hyped M. Night Shyamalan movie, I already missed the money I had spent on the 90 minute torture. Let's face it, Shymalan has not made a fantastic movie in over a decade and this movie does not show any signs of him getting any better.

We all know as soon as we turn on a Shymalan movie that there is going to be a plot twist that is so obscure that we would never have thought of it, but the Visit fails to deliver this mind blowing twist. The idea that the 'grandparents' were mental patients who had escaped seemed pretty self explanatory from the start. Not only is the twist a complete failure but the movie delivers no real scare. There are a few cheap jump scares throughout, but no suspense or build up.

The children in the movie are seldom frightened by the bizarre behavior of their 'grandparents', but they do make a lot of jokes about them and are very sarcastic about everything that happens. This strongly takes away from the horror factor. Think about it. You're stuck in a place with 2 elderly people you have never met who are very strange and at one point you even record one of them knocking on your door with a knife. Witty banter is the last thing on your mind.

Finally the very last issue with this movie comes from one of the last scenes in which the 'grandfather' shoves dirty diaper in the young boys face and in retaliation, the boy kills the old man all the while yelling like the hype man at an 8 mile rap battle. No not like he's yelling because he's a minor killing someone who just shoved crap in his face, but literally like Eminem's on stage hype guy. As if that wasn't enough to defeat the end of this movie, after a touching scene with their mother, the movie cuts to the young boy in his sisters room rapping about his visit. If a kid had crap shoved in his mouth he wouldn't be writing a rap about it. If a kid had to kill someone to go home he wouldn't be rapping about it. He would be talking to a therapist and not acting as if nothing had ever happened.

In conclusion, this movie was unrealistic, the emotions of the kids were very unnatural, the plot twist was barely a twist, and I would never see this movie again if I was paid to.

There's still originality in Hollywood horror movies !!!? I'm scared !

[Alcaminhante · 10/10 · 3 October 2015]

This was one of the rarest horror movies that managed to keep me totally scared and mostly uncomfortable from start to finish in years and years. I don't get this new trend of hating everything Shiamalan does. This new movie is one of the best horror concepts I've come across in a very long time and uses simplicity to the best effect.

I don't get what people these days expect an horror movie to be. If you don't think this a good example of a simple concept that works like a dream...or a nightmare, I don't get what passes for horror in Hollywood no more.

The idea for this movie is fantastic, and it's very well executed. I really don't get why people complain that nothing happens in this story. It's that type of simplicity that keeps the scary atmosphere throughout the entire movie. This is not a cgi crap action so called horror thing for teens, this is a classic old school horror, it's filled with a creepy atmosphere and uses perfectly all the ideas for each character to keep the viewer feeling uncomfortable all the time.

There's a couple of good scares ,but most of the horror really happens inside our minds. This is the best thing in this movie, it creates such an atmosphere of tension with simple things that when something really dramatic happens on screen we get ten times more startled and there's no need for any cgi on this movie at all to scare teenagers and bore the rest of us to death with the usual clichés. Not on this one.

This is clearly an horror movie for adults, its not edited at two hundred frames per second and it has a classic structure that simply is not targeted at young audiences. This is an horror movie for horror fans, it's not a popcorn movie for general audiences so ignore the bad ratings on IMDb, because if you remember the good classic stuff from the 70s like The Omen, The Changeling, or all those movies built on atmosphere instead of action, this movie is for you.

Absolutely brilliant. In my view the only thing that does not work is the final sequence after the twist is revealed, simply because the movie stops being a a story that creeps us out and becomes the usual fight for your life action bit we've seen hundreds of times. But until that happens this story is scary. Not because of what it shows but because of what keeps making us expect it's going to happen next.

Shyamalan is really back and this screenplay is the best thing he's ever written since the sixth sense and unbreakable. Also the casting is simply perfect with brilliant performances from everyone.

True horror is back folks. Ignore the bad hype from the multiplex popcorn crowd. This is a real gem that deserves to be among the very best horror titles of recent years and it will creep you out if you like your suspense atmospheric.

The Visit is kinda worth visiting. It was an alright movie for the most part.

[ironhorse_iv · 6/10 · 27 October 2015]

While, the movie isn't really that funny, or scary. This horror movie written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan was surprising, not that bad. It had the right amount of horror and comedy to make it, somewhat entertaining. The Visit proves once again, that this where Shyamalan belongs. After all, these are the genres that M. Night Shyamalan is known best for. It also helps that the movie was marketed as a small-budget independent film, rather than a huge money blockbuster. This allows, Shyamalan to work harder on the story asset, rather than focusing his time, on over-the-top visual effects. Unlike Shyamalan's recent films, there is an emotional depth to The Visit that is worth seeing, alone. The movie tells the story of contemporary grief/loss and how not to hold on to anger to your loves ones, because you don't know if you'll ever get a chance to forgive/reconcile with them. It's a very strong message that anybody can related to. I really did get invested in the story of a family is trying to recovered, from a recent divorce. Hoping to give their mother, Paula Jamison (Kathryn Hahn) a well-needed vacation with her new boyfriend; two young kids, Thirteen-year-old Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) and 15-year-old Rebecca (Olivia DeJonge) agree to spend a week with their grandparents, even though, they never met them. At first, their "Nana" (Deanna Dunagan) and "Pop Pop" (Peter McRobbie), seem fine, but things started to unravel, when night falls. Can the kids survive their week with them, or will something deadly happen? Watch the movie to find out! Without spoiling the movie, too much, I have to say, this movie is clearly not a 'found-footage' movie, like some critics label it. It doesn't have, that raw factor that many found-footage movie, has. First off, the camera visual style isn't that amateurism. There wasn't a lot of blurry shots, shaking cam, or pitch darkness shots. Thank God! I like that the movie was mostly well-shot. Shyamalan uses the style with more creativity than most other filmmakers, displaying his unique visual motif. Some great examples are his use of reflected images for dramatic and thematic effect. Others are his use of intimacy long-takes and how he creates a Mise en scène. Plus, the movie, zig-zagged, heavily, from traditionally In-Universe storytelling camera shots to hand-held. It's felt more Cinéma vérité, with bits of documentary style. It's really hard to bypass this as 'realistic found-footage' movie, when there are credits & day title cards, being shown, throughout the film. It's a bit jarring to see that. However, I get, why it's filmed on a hand-held camera. There is in universe reason for this. It was film, this way, because Rebecca is an aspiring, documentary filmmaker with a big heart. Rebecca wants to document the whole thing as a form of therapy for her mum, whose reasons for the bad blood with her parents remain a tightly-kept secret. 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. I also love the straight-to-camera confessions scenes. You really get to see, their desires and anxieties through it. Using this, Shyamalan was able to show, a large range of emotional, within his actors. In my opinion, most of the actors give great performances. The child actors were very likable. The grandparent are downright creepy. However, there were a few things that didn't work for me. I really didn't like how the film establish the kid's phobias. It wasn't use, right. I really don't get, how Becca is afraid of looking at herself on camera, but she's okay, at looking at herself, on Skype. Another thing, why Tyler is afraid of germs, yet, he's willing to play hide and seek, under the dirty stairs. It doesn't make sense. For the grandparents. I really didn't like Grandma's over the top, "alien" theory. Remind me, too much of his previous awful films, 2006's Lady and the Water, and 2002's Signs. Her jump scares and suicide attempts were also pretty lame. It seem, more silly than disturbing. I also didn't like, the poop or cleaning the gun jokes for the Grandpa. It really seem way too cartoony and fell really flat. Nevertheless, I still like their Yahtzee scene. By far, the best part of the film. Some of the grandfather's dialogue, is kinda choppy, and unrealistic in tone, too. The film has also been criticized for its use of dementia equals violent, approach, by other critics; but in my opinion, I just glad, it wasn't cause, by, anything supernatural. Overall: I came into this movie with very low expectations. After all, it's been a while, since director M. Night Shyamalan made an alright movie. While, this movie isn't bad, it wasn't really good. It was pretty mediocre. As much as people might hate him, in my opinion, Shyamalan is a filmmaker whom somewhat deserve a comeback. Hopefully, his next movie will be a masterpiece. Sadly, this movie wasn't it

Wait am I in the Right Theater?

[homdeb1058 · 5/10 · 17 September 2015]

The thing I found out (to my dismay) that I did not know before going to the theater was that a lot of this movie was shot in the long over-used and abused "home movie/shaky cam" format. If I had come in the theater in the middle of the movie, I might have assumed I had accidentally wandered into the 7th, or whatever, sequel to Paranormal Activity. And to add insult to injury M Night is about 8 years late to the party for that trick. Or was it suppose to be some type of irony or mocking of the standard horror movie fare? Perhaps this once creative director has finally succumbed to audience expectations --if all you want is cookie cutter, unimaginative, thematically barren, shaky cam, scary movies then here you go......

Another let down for me was that in his earlier movies there were always a number of positive sub-themes running through the movies that I found as interesting, if not more so, than the obvious scary movie theme. I failed to find any such redeeming parallel plot lines in The Visit. Again maybe he is just simplifying his movies to match his audience's wishes.

On the upside, I did find this movie to be something of an improvement over his most recent efforts. There were a few good chuckles. There were a couple of OK jump scenes. There was some tension here and there, but overall still a disappoint for me.

Of course, I eventually liked The Village and Signs a lot better after I had watched them several times on DVD. Maybe there is a jewel in the rough hiding here, just waiting to be found. Rating a 5.5 of 10 on first impression though.

The impossible has happened... it's an M. Night Scamilan film and it didn't completely suck

[hoytyhoyty · 6/10 · 2 March 2016]

Well, OK, it had some sucky components.

As usual -

* Overblown characters with excessive dwelling on them doing cartoony, cute, 'stuff', as a substitute for actual development. And them doing ridiculous things that nobody would actually do.

* Speechy-preachy dialogue.

* Long, drawn-out scenes, over and over - except that this time most of them - MOST of them - actually *contribute* to the overall effect rather than just boring the viewer.

* Focus on the completely wrong targets: the guy always makes the film he thinks he's making, rather than the one the viewers actually end up seeing, so you end up with these completely non-sequitur, irrelevant 'development' scenes. In this case there is a completely tacked-on pre-ending that leaves the viewer going 'Why is this here? Why are we supposed to care?'

-

Amazingly, NONE of which destroys it:

-

The intro is attention-grabbing.

The build-up is stately and involving.

The Weird piles-on quite disturbingly.

And the twist is a GOOD one instead of something DUMB!

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This is the first thing I've seen since The 6th Sense that wasn't write-off rubbish.

Maybe he's got on, or off, the right medication??

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--

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NOT Nearly As Bad As Most Reviews, and NOT A 'Found Footage" Film. Worth Watching

[cyifly-2 · 7/10 · 11 October 2015]

I almost didn't see this film because of all the hate for it on this site. I was going to skip it - considering it wasting my time, but my wife insisted. Afterwards, I was pleasantly surprised and glad we watched it.

It's not really a very typical horror film. It's not even a typical M. Night film. It is scary at times, but mostly creepy. It leaves you glued, wondering what's going to happen next. Which is what a film is supposed to do.

It's low-budget. There isn't anybody in it you would recognize. Which, to me, made it seem more "real." It's not perfect. It does have some clichés, some jump out and "BOO!" kind of scares, which turn some people off. It is NOT a 'found footage' film. Reviewers who labeled it that don't know the definition. The young girl is trying to shoot a documentary and SOMETIMES you look through the camera lens as she's filming. But it's NOT the whole movie and nobody finds the footage. The camera is sometimes shaky, but they are kids, not pros, and it doesn't do that very long. It does have very few plot issues that you kind of have to "go with." What horror film doesn't?

But - I've certainly seen worse thriller/horror type movies. I've even seen worse M. Night movies. This is the best from him in years. The acting was decent and the characters seemed real and flawed. The story was intriguing and it kept you guessing. Just when it seemed like it might be getting long, it was over. Not my favorite movie, but certainly not as bad as people are panning it. It's worth your time if you like this sort of movie.

I'll make you a deal -- If you don't like horror thrillers, don't watch them or review them and I'll do the same for romantic comedies.

Really Good Except For The Ending

[yespat · 6/10 · 13 July 2019]

I found myself glued to the movie, surprised that the director finally might just have made a good movie after all these years. The suspense was real and at times too much for me. No fault there. The problem I had came late. It seemed to me like they ran out of money at the last moment and just slapped on an ending to finish. They never explained what exactly happened to both sets of old people and how one set came to live in the house and who they really were. Then there was a female visitor the kids met earlier in the film who was seen arguing with them, then the kids made a comment about how they never saw her leave but this too was never explained.

Had these loose ends been tied up satisfactorily I would have given the film a 9. The ending just felt tacked on with none of the mystery explained. Before that though, there was an entertainingly tense thriller that was surprisingly good,

A contender for the worst film ever made...

[Jdgane89 · 1/10 · 12 September 2015]

What is wrong with people? This film is currently rated 7.0?! I didn't think that I would see a film worse than "Knock Knock" in 2015 but M. Night Shyamalan's "The Visit" could possibly be the worst film I've ever seen.

Every aspect of this film is terrible. It has all the cliché problems of the "found footage" genre - the shakiness, the perfect Hollywood cinematography when these are supposed to be teenagers with hand- held cameras. The plot is Swiss cheese and the twist can be spotted a mile away (the web cam did it for me). The children are so incredibly obnoxious and their dialogue so pretentious that I wanted them to die as soon as possible.

There is a scene in it where an elderly incontinent man slaps a diaper full of feces into a child's face and I can't help feeling this is a metaphor for Shyamalan's career. He can't help producing this trash but he chooses to slap it in our faces and, like the child in the film, we all just stand there and take it. Seriously, no joke - worse film ever.

My heart sank. Great story.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 19 October 2015]

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.

Cool Concept, Mixed Results

[CANpatbuck3664 · 6/10 · 24 January 2016]

It's the movies that go down the middle that can be the hardest to talk about. When a movie is awesome or just terrible, a lot of stuff springs to mind really quickly. When a movie is kinda mediocre, you struggle to separate the positives from the negatives and it all kinda blends together in a pile. Luckily, even though I gave this movie a 6, there is stuff to talk about and even though this movie didn't completely work for me, it's still a step up for M. Night. But considering his recent output, take that with a grain of salt.

*Minor Spoilers Ahead* Paula (Kathryn Hahn) is a single mom who has 2 kids, Rebecca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould). Rebecca is a teenage aspiring filmmaker and Tyler is a wannabe rapper who Rebecca describes as "ethnically confused." Paula works hard and gets very little for herself so the kids want her to spend some time with her new boyfriend Miguel. So she goes on a cruise with Miguel, while her estranged parents John (Peter McRobbie) and Doris (Deanna Dunagan) are going to look after the Rebecca and Tyler for the week. There is some tension with this decision as Paula has had little to no contact with her parents since her teenage years after she moved out with her boyfriend when she was pregnant. But the kids genuinely want their mom to have some time for herself so they board a train and head off to their grandparents.

I don't want to go into the plot more to avoid spoiling things, so I think the strength of this movie is that the story/concept is interesting. When you're a kid, being handed over to strangers for an extended period of time is pretty scary, you ease into it of course but initially it can be pretty frightening. This movie plays into those fears well, I can tell you if I had been left with these people, I would not have been so calm and willing to roll with the punches as these kids were. I found it to be intriguing that they found a fairly unique way to tap into a natural fear instead of manufacturing a ghost or a demon from another realm.

Another positive is that the acting is largely good. Peter and Deanna are pretty creepy respectively, they really put a lot into their performances, they display some physicality even. Now Olivia and Ed are also solid, their characters themselves are annoying, Ed's rapping is pretty bad and Rebecca doesn't talk like a teenager (her dialogue is obviously written by someone who's older and didn't know how to bring it down to a teenage level) but their performances are good. Kathryn Hahn is also sound in the small amount of screen time she gets. She's an underrated actress and she continues to deliver in the small parts she gets.

I'll get into the stuff that didn't work for me. The found footage movie has been done many times over and while I didn't find this one to be especially bad, it certainly didn't add anything new. It didn't have to be found footage and while it being that way was part of the plot, it just felt like a way to keep the movie's budget down as opposed to being an important stylistic choice.

As much as I thought the central premise was cool, a lot of the plot relies on coincidence and contrivance. Somehow whenever someone comes to the house, the grandparents are never there. Whenever the grandparents do something crazy, the excuse is they're old (rarely is there a further explanation and when there is, its dropped and barely addressed at all later). Their mom can't see them during their Skype conversations because there's batter on the camera. Paula gives the kids so few details about their grandparents' temperament or their appearance. I understand every movie has that to some degree but it stood out to me here.

The film itself wasn't very scary but I did get some laughs (intentional laughs) and toward the end the tension did ramp up. This is another divisive movie, looking at other reviews you either really enjoy it or you hate it with a passion. It's closer to a 6.5/10 for me but since it is technically a horror movie and I wasn't very scared I'll go with a 6/10.

i'm

[imizrahi2002 · 4/10 · 18 November 2023]

Not sure what was more astounding...the movies or the reviews... before watching the film i came here to see what ratings the reviewers were coming up with...and there were a lot of reviews that rated the movie at an eight or above...so i thought, 'great. I have a good shayamalan movie in a loooong time.

And that's still true... i'd like to say it was well done but even that wouldn't be true. I thought the kids did a pretty good job with their roles...but why make the boy so annoying? Am i supposed to rationalize that he's 'that age'? Was it supposed to up the tension? Because it just made me fast forward through a lot of the scenes with him present.

This movie did not work for me at any level except the acting, hence the rating i gave it... it started out ok but don't let that fool you... and the reviewers? Were there any older than 14? And i mean just TURNED 14... let me OUT of here...

Better than it had any right to be!

[saarvardi · 9/10 · 7 September 2015]

Even though I've been severely burned by M. Night Shyamalan's commercial misfires (or rather miscarriages) like Lady in the Lake (ugh!), Airbender (what the hell was he thinking?) and After Earth, I decided to give him one more shot in the shape of The Visit. What worked in his favor was his superb work on the small screen in the form of the 2015 mini-series Wayward Pines - which made me believe that deep down inside Shyamlan's heart still resides a true artist, and not some lazy hack who tackles big-budget flops just to get paychecks from the studio. His recent talk in interviews about gaining back artistic control of his products was another positive step in Shyamalan's long path to cinematic forgiveness.

And so I entered The Visit, a somewhat short and intimate tale of two precocious teenagers, a brother (13) and sister (15), who travel cross country to meet and spend a week with their estranged grandparents, whom they have not seen or met since birth due to a big family feud their divorced mother (Kathryn Hahn, the most recognizable face in the cast) refuses to talk about. The sister, Becca (the promising Olivia DeJonge) also happens to be an aspiring filmmaker, out to make a documentary about the big reconciliation, which ever so conveniently sets the movie up in the popular found footage sub-horror genre - but also opens a wide crack for endless jokes and self-aware nods towards the unsuspecting audience.

Anyway, as you could probably tell by the previews, something isn't quite right with Poppa and Nanna, and even though at first they seem like reasonably nice elder folks, their strict rules (do not get out of the room after 21:30, do not go down to the basement) and strange manners (you'll see what I'm talking about) soon enough make it clear to both Becca and Tyler (the smaller brother portrayed by the superb Ed Oxenbould, who at 14 shows endless promise) that they better get the hell out of there - as fast as they could.

Besides the trademark Shyamalan twist, which actually works here and seems reasonable in hindsight (unlike, say, The Village), the extremely self-aware script and the very natural and authentic brother-sister relationship between both co-leads, lends further credence to Shyamlan's pet project. You can see that he cared for the characters, and you can also easily remember that this is a director who made a reputation for himself because he managed to facilitate such an emotional and iconic performance out of then-11-year-old Haley Joel Osment, so obviously he's good with kids. I don't know if young Ed Oxenbould is the next Osment, but he sure does deliver the goods through and through - and gives one of the best children/teen performances I've watched in a while.

M. Night Shyamalan tricked me again - TERRIBLE MOVIE

[jeffdclifton · 12 September 2015]

The 7/10 rating for this movie is very misleading, its more of a 2/10 rating. Its funny, a bit or horror, a bit thriller all with a PG-13 rating. This movie is fun for teenagers but the story was boring. The acting was just OK. M. Night Shyamalan will never make a movie as good as the sixth sense again and the qualities of his movies is quickly going downhill.He does a good job of attracting the teenage crowd that is easily entertained. If you are looking for a good thriller, horror or just a movie with a good story steer clear of this movie. Please don't waste your money on this nonsense.

-J

Solid return

[KineticSeoul · 7/10 · 2 October 2015]

So after M. Night Shyamalan movies started to go downhill. This is suppose to be his comeback movie. Now this isn't a groundbreaking return or anything like that. But for a found footage style movie that has been getting old these days. This is one of the actually enthralling and entertaining ones. There is quite a bit of freaky and creepy moments in this movie. Mainly because you as an audiences isn't quite sure what is going on and why the creepy people in this movie act the way they do. Now kids in horror movies are usually super annoying and difficult to watch because of how irritating it is. But the kids in this movie acted like kids without them being annoying. The interactions with one another I thought was realistic enough. And the kid that wants to be a future rappers, I thought he was pretty cool...And funny. A lot of M. Night Shyamalan movies or maybe all of them. Has a message about family and this one was more of a endearing movie than I thought it would be. This is well worth the rental. I just hope it doesn't go downhill again from here.

7.3/10

Rubbish

[swtcj_2000 · 1/10 · 19 September 2015]

I've only ever liked a very small number of films by M Night. And this one won't be joining that short list. It was a waste of my time and money. Slow, boring, and easily predictable. I couldn't stand the 'documentary' style of filming, hated the characters and the acting, and wanted to walk out of the movie before it was finished. I keep giving this movie guy the benefit of the doubt but time after time his movies bite the big one.

The gist is a mom has a falling out with her parents. Many many years later, out of the blue, the parents want the grandchildren to come visit. Even though she hasn't seen her parents in years, she lets the kids go off on their own to hang out with people they've never met. Then weird stuff happens and an annoying kid tries to rap.