Review: The Visit (2015)

                     

         
                 Quite An Interesting 'Visit' To This House Of Horror

        Since M. Night Shyamalan is behind this, and he is famous for his twist endings, I would say that while there is a big twist at the end, the biggest one is that Shyamalan......wait for it....is actually trying!

    Story:
   The Visit is about two children (Ex Oxenbould and Olivia DeBarge) who leave their mother (Kathryn Hahn) to go visit their grandparents. But as their stay continues, their grandparents begin to exhibit strange behavior.

    Ups:
   First off, I loved the use of the found footage technique. Normally, I am not too crazy about that recent craze because we are starting to see a little too much of them. I especially wasn't crazy about the abysmal Paranormal Activity. But here, they take the found footage technique and mold it into the film's adventurous thrilling feel with the kids filming their grandparents and their escapades.

   I also thought the acting was very good, especially from the actors playing the children. They weren't too mature for their age or too kiddish because that tends to be a minor gripe with child actors. But these two kids had great chemistry. I also thought Deanna Dunagan who plays the grandmother was absolutely terrifying. Some of the scariest scenes weren't just the ones where she acts all nuts around the house, but ones where the daughter is interviewing her and Dunagan slowly sheds hidden layers with her craziness slowly cracking and revealing itself.

   Another thing I really liked was how even though we know that the grandparents are crazy, as the film progresses, we are trying to figure out what is making them crazy. Are they possessed? Are they really just senile old people? You keep guessing and I loved that.

    Downs:
    I'll admit that, despite the film having a pretty short length, it still felt much longer than it was. So the pacing was a little off. But that's just a minor gripe.

    Consensus:
    Overall, The Visit is an adventurous yet chilling effort that is one of the best surprises of the year. It made the tired "found footage" gimmick work very well and it is M. Night Shyamalan's best work in years.

Grade: A-