Movie Review: The Visit (2015)

The Visit (2015)
Universal Pictures, Blinding Edge Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, USA, 2015.

Mom Loretta (Kathryn Hahn) was estranged from her parents. She wants to spend some quality time with her new boyfriend so the kids Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) visit grandparents who they have never met. Becca films documentaries (which explains the film's found-footage style and also some unfortunate use of shaky cam) and Tyler is a wannabe rapper T-Diamond Stylus. Yo dawg!

Tyler and Becca

Happy happy joy joy in the grandparents' house. But not for long. The grandparents seem nice but they are somehow creepy. Friendly neighbours come to visit them but the grandparents are always elsewhere. Nana (Deanna Dunagan) is surprisingly agile for being a sickly old woman and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie) has an unhygienic surprise in his shed. At night grandma gets weird so the kids should not leave their room after 9:30 PM. What the heck is wrong with them? The kids decide to find out, if only they live so long. 

Nana

Pop Pop

Neighbour Stacey (Celia Keenan-Bolger)

After a series of flopped movies, this is Shyamalan's come back, sort of. The found footage genre has spawned some terrible so called movies, but "The Visit" is one of the better ones although it doesn't reinvent the wheel. It still breathes some fresh air to the genre with the good use of its characters. The budget seems to be a fraction of Shyamalan's usual films and the use of minimal cast works well. The actors are good and their characters are eccentric. The twists are hilariously absurd but Shyamalan seems to have developed a sense of self-irony. Black humour and slowly developing sense of dread make it an enjoyable scary flick. 

I don't feel good

Rating: Good 

Starring: Olivia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould, Deanna Dunagan, Peter McRobbie, Kathryn Hahn, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Samuel Stricklen, Patch Darragh, Jorge Cordova, Steve Annan, Benjamin Kanes, Ocean James, Seamus Moroney, Erica Lynne Arden, Kevin Austra, Richard Barlow, John Buscemi, Evan Charles, Michelle Rose Domb, Brian Gildea, Shawn Gonzalez, Basil Kershner, Shelby Lackman, Michael Mariano, Aileen Michelle, Gabrielle Pentalow, Jon Douglas, Zachary Vazquez 

Director: M. Night Shyamalan