The Visit (2015)

As you well know, M. Night Shyamalan's credibility among film-goers started gradually tapering off with each questionable release following his breakout dead people movie. There was shit involving aliens and villages and Paul Giamatti and then M. Night pretty much said "fuck it" and started doing Airbender and Mark Walberg flops that solidified his status as a sellout laughing stock. Then along comes a 'found footage' movie that I immediately wrote off as Shyamalan's meager attempt to stay relevant by cashing in on this abysmal, genre-killing trend. Well, "The Visit" managed to find it's way into my night of whiskey sours after a buck-and-a-half was dumped into a Redbox and... I'll be damned, this could very well be Shyamalan's best work. No shit.

The plot concerns a brother and sister who go to meet up for the first time with their estranged grandparents out on their farm. The girl is trying to make a documentary of their stay (for the bullshit sake of this tired fucking format...), but they quickly come to realize that their elderly relatives are completely batshit crazy with such 'quirks' as nanna clawing the walls nekkid in the middle of the night, gramps' paranoia of being followed by strangers, and much more. Things eventually come to a head in a trademark 'Shyamalan twist' (goes without saying...) that is actually not too bad...

First off, and it should come as no surprise, the handheld camcorder thing is the main problem I had with "The Visit" and, like many of these types of 'found footage' flicks, is unnecessary for a large portion of the movie, if not all. I don't understand why movies can't just go the "Cannibal Holocaust" route and use the FF 'style' only when it works for a given scene. Structuring a whole movie this way - through an established camera's POV - limits a film greatly and usually stops making ANY sense once things start getting chaotic (they keep the camera rolling and the action always manages to be in the frame...). But it sure is cost effect, right?

Other than that (and the rapping kid... Holy shit was that excruciating!...), "The Visit" actually has it's enjoyable moments involving the whacked out geezers' quality performances and a pretty strong climax. Again, the 'Shyamalan twist' is well executed and the attempts at humor - while uncomfortable - didn't seem to get in the way of the film's 'darker' moments.

Overall - the needless 'found footage' element aside - "The Visit" was quite a bit better than I expected. Definitely M. Night's "purest" horror flick to date, in that it felt like a HORROR flick, more than the overly emotional, 'psychological-thriller' stuff he's done in the past. It's nothing that's going to recharge the genre, but it's a watchable flick.