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I still consider “The Last Airbender” to be one of the worst films I’ve ever seen both because of a personal attachment to the television series and because I’m a human being with eyes and ears. Nevertheless, I’m happy to see M. Night Shyamalan get back on track with the horror comedy “The Visit”. I think it’s a smart and original horror film that is quite effective. If the trailers interest you, I say check it out. If you’re not convinced yet, or you don’t know what this movie is about, allow me to entice you into a trip to the theatre.
Young Rebecca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) are travelling to meet their grandparents Pop Pop John (Peter Mc Robbie) and Nana Doris (Deanna Dunagan) while their mother is off on a vacation with her new boyfriend. Neither has ever met their grandparents, as their mother (Kathryn Hahn) left home at a young age and on bad terms. As the days pass by, they become increasingly uneasy upon witnessing the uncomfortable behavior of the elderly couple, even as everyone around them keeps insisting that old people, sometimes they just act weird.
I think if you boil any effective horror film down, they’re essentially about a single, primal fear. The fear of the dark, of being alone, of water, etc. “The Visit” is a fear that I think lends itself very well to a horror comedy, the fear of old people. Now I can hear you chuckling or thinking that it’s pretty insensitive to write something like this, but I think I’m just being honest. Have you ever been to an old folks’ home, one where the residents are starting to struggle with dementia? It weirds you out to see human beings act unusually. This film reminded me of seeing my elderly grandmother before she passed away, how I felt bad for her because she would pick at imaginary garden plants… but it also made me uneasy and if you step back at the situation, it could easily be played for comedy effectively. I think there’s an image of an old face being something to be fearful of that’s simply ingrained in our minds and experience with kind grandparents have allow us to move past that, but think about old people in stories. The old woman disguise in “Snow White”, any image of a witch or warlock, the shriveled frame of a mummy… they’re old people and they’re something to be afraid of.
“The Visit” is a horror comedy. I’m not talking about something like “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil” or “Slither” where people are killed or murdered in a comedic way. The humor here is a mix or awkward humor and persistent nervous laughter. Nana will say something really off-putting and creepy and then just stop. She’ll stare intensely and then say “oh, I’m just joking” and you’ll laugh because hey! She was just playing with her grandchildren… but was she really? Was she just trying to make it seem like everything was all right? Don’t think that I’m interpreting some peculiar sights or events as being intentionally funny when they’re not supposed to be either. It’s very obvious that we’re supposed to laugh at the sight of a prepubescent Tyler acting as a wigger wannabe gangster by busting out rhymes to impress the “ladies” on YouTube. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a horror comedy that handled its laughs quite the way this one did and originality is something to seek out.
You might not know that “The Visit” is shot in a found-footage style, but that is not a deterrent here. The premise is that these kids are travelling to see their grandparents and because Rebecca aspires to be a documentarian, she’s shooting interviews with Nana and Pop Pop, looking around the house to re-create family memories and going through the footage to edit it into a coherent story. She and Tyler both have cameras, meaning we can get multiple angles on certain situations and there are scenes where the camera is put down in a strategic point to catch the action in a way that is very effective. Because of the way the characters are developed, I bought the framework completely. I actually think this is one of the better examples of how to properly use this camera technique, particularly when you consider that every kid nowadays is looking to capture that YouTube fame.
There’s some nice subtlety present throughout, like the way that we learn about the children’s relationship with their family and how this trip is both exciting because they’re meeting people they never met, but it’s also being therapeutic in a way. The characters are actually well developed because there’s not a focus on a high body count, but I know what you really want to hear about. You want to know if the picture is scary right?
I’ll admit that I get scared pretty easily, but there’s a difference between being scared, and being startled. This movie is not about jump scares. The few that there are, they’re well earned and I thought they made sense considering the method of filming. Maybe it’s because sometimes, old people freak me out. I was able to both laugh at some of the strange behavior and start turning it over in the back of my brain until it started becoming truly bizarre. Nana seems to be cooking every time you see her, maybe it’s nothing but to me, it started looking like compulsive behavior. Then, as we learn more about what exactly is going on when the lights go down in this isolated house in the middle of the country, I got to be really frightened. In a way I’m glad that none of my friends were “brave” enough to join me. I did not have a spare stick of deodorant handy I was sweating a lot during the last third of the film, particularly as some big and very chilling revelations come up.
I think the ending drags a little, and even then that’s somewhat excusable because of the documentary-like format the story is being presented in. I also feel like some choices, like having big titles come up and say “Monday morning” were unnecessary and didn’t really help the story or the pacing. Small details really. I think this horror flick is original, it’s got good atmosphere and genuine scares, and it uses tried-and-true techniques well. It’s also got some very strong performances. Highlights for me are the grandparents, Peter McRobbie and Deanna Dunagan. They play the roles just right. They display a mix of being warm and inviting, at times funny, at times scary and plain awkward in a chilling way. I think that if you look at how many different masks they wear and how they’re able to put themselves in situations that are somewhat embarrassing (old age you know, it ain’t pretty) it took a lot of guts to go with this role, and go all the way with it.
Well, there you have it. A director that hit some rough patches in his career has come back with a good movie. I was genuinely frightened during “The Visit”. I didn’t quite scream in terror, but I did laugh out loud a lot and I was caught off-guard by more than one or two scares, elevating it above your generic chillers. I say check it out and take a little bit of time to really think about what you just saw and I believe you’ll agree with my positive review. (Theatrical version on the big screen, September 17, 2015)