{"id":4080,"date":"2015-09-11T04:36:45","date_gmt":"2015-09-11T11:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=4080"},"modified":"2015-09-11T04:37:21","modified_gmt":"2015-09-11T11:37:21","slug":"review-the-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=4080","title":{"rendered":"Review: THE VISIT"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Screen<\/a>\"fixbutton\"<\/a>Director M. Night Shyamalan is winking at us again. He\u2019s been doing it for years. This time, he shamelessly delivers laughs and shocks with his cheesiest film to date.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Visit\u201d is a found footage film. This might disappoint some cynical viewers who were first introduced to the gimmick when \u201cThe Blair Witch Project\u201d popularized it in nauseating fashion back in 1999. But Shyamalan\u2019s take on the sub-genre is a bit of a cheat. It is obvious that while the visual scope is supposed to be lower end prosumer cameras, higher end equipment was used to produce the film. And this is especially true with regard to the sound recording, which is of expected cinematic quality.<\/p>\n

The ultimate problem is that because the production values are undeniably higher end, selling the \u201cfound footage\u201d material is impossible. \u201cThe Visit\u201d plays better as a parody of such films rather than a successor and extension to their ilk (see the original \u201cParanormal Activity\u201d for a superior example that furthers the genre). \u201cThe Visit\u201d is not nearly as effective or memorable as \u201cBlair Witch,\u201d and even shares more in common with the \u201cScary Movie\u201d franchise than anything approximating real horror.<\/p>\n

When Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) go to visit their estranged grandparents for a week, they soon discover that something just isn\u2019t right. Nana (Deanna Dunagan), the grandmother, is a lovely woman who bakes endlessly and seems sweet enough. But after 9:30 at night, she begins to act very oddly. And Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie), the grandfather, makes every effort to provide stability, even explaining that Nana has a real disorder called \u201csundowning.\u201d Pop Pop also begins to show signs of problems. But Becca reasons with her younger brother Tyler that they\u2019re old people and old people often act strangely.<\/p>\n

To document everything, Becca has brought along to grandmother\u2019s house two video cameras \u2013 a Canon DSLR and a prosumer Canon video camera. And she films everything. Anyone familiar with these two cameras will immediately be suspect of whether they were actually used to make the film. Shoot times on the DSLR is often very limited and sound quality is rubbish. Still, careful effort is made to sell the point of view and, after a period of adjustment, the visual scope is acceptable, but never authentic.<\/p>\n

As the action becomes ever more unnerving, Shyamalan\u2019s narrative becomes utterly transparent. During the screening I attended, a fellow critic leaned over to me and whispered her thoughts on the story\u2019s secret that was completely obvious. Needless to say, this is not the Oscar nominated \u201cSixth Sense\u201d and figuring things out early doesn\u2019t require a degree in psychology.<\/p>\n

But without a doubt, \u201cThe Visit\u201d is funny and somewhat creepy. DeJonge and Oxenbould make likable siblings whose banter is rich with natural, self-aware humor. Oxenbould even steals the show by rapping in key scenes. Kathryn Hahn (who\u2019s always great) makes a meaningful straight-laced appearance that plays against her ordinary comedic presence. Dunagan literally bears all in her role as Nana, which delivers uncomfortable giggles.<\/p>\n

Sadly, \u201cThe Visit\u201d is an example of how far M. Night Shyamalan\u2019s brand has fallen. He brings nothing new to the found footage techniques that are often the go-to for young and emerging filmmakers. It is as if Shyamalan is slumming it with this film in hopes that he will, on a low budget, turn a profit that will vault him back into the popular mainstream discussion. But he already proved his potency recently on the small screen with the effective \u201cWayward Pines\u201d limited series. And any doubters should go back and watch one of my favorite guilty pleasures, \u201cUnbreakable,\u201d as a example of his talent.<\/p>\n

Making \u201cThe Visit\u201d at this point in Shyamalan\u2019s career really comes off a bit desperate. He\u2019s capable of much better cinema told without the restrictive trappings of the tired found footage gimmick. Let\u2019s hope that after the producers make their investment and then some back on \u201cThe Visit,\u201d Shyamalan will move back to traditional story-telling and give us something worthy of his abilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonathan reluctantly rewards Shyamalan’s latest with a fix rating… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4080"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4083,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4080\/revisions\/4083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}