Wednesday, 25 May 2016

Movie Review -“The Visit”: Confused horror movie

Note: This review contains spoilers in the second half!

My overall rating: 3/10

Night Shyamalan was famous for movies with an unexpected twist. The Sixth Sense, The Village, etc had people sitting on the ed
ge of their seats. However the formula seems to have gotten stale and he hasn't released a movie for a few years.

So when "The Visit" was released with a seeming theme of horror, I expected a lot. I was disappointed!

The movie tracks a one week stay of two children visiting their grandparents for the first time in an isolated place. The usual fun things show glimpses of some weird behaviour and is supposed to build to a grand finale. The glimpses of horror are unfortunately not all that scary and are just weird. Night Shyamalan has assumed that people would get scared of bizarre behaviour shown in the dark and shot with a handheld camera. The twist is quite expected and is unfortunately seen in a lot of movies. To be honest I was actually expecting another big twist and had a few more expected!!

Spoilers ahead!

The reason I found the movie empty and devoid of a good plot are as follows:

Which mother would send her young children to meet people she has not met in 15 years without personally escorting the. The movie has a very weak reason for this and hence the movie is off to a poor start.The glimpses of horror are short lived and more creepy than horror. I agree that there is no supernatural element in the movie and hence the show of horror will have limitations. For people who love very scary scenes this is like drinking diluted cola!The excuse for blocking off the webcam (something baked falling on it) holds little water literally. This is extremely important for the plot and is another weak element.The weird behaviour of the grandparents could have been better shown.The handheld camera shoots are painful after a while. This is a strategy used in many movies and is always a hit or a miss.Th all night shot with the "hidden" camera is not possible with the usual camera for reasons of memory, battery life etc.For a small town where two psychos have escaped and where two two people have not been seen, there is very little concern. I expect that in reality there would have been police visits, etc.The twist was expected and was not really a twist. It was not even well shot! I actually expected another twist. Even at the point when the kids run to the police cars and their mum I ws expecting a twist. When the mother speaks on the video for her daughter, I was expecting another twist. What the heck.... when the last rap video was being shown as part of the credits, I was still expecting the twist! Disappointed.....

There were some nice moments though. The last bit where Beck is finally looking at the mirror and combing her hair may have been missed by many but was a moment to notice!

The connection between Tyler freezing on the football field and the final moment when he freezes and then attacks the fake grandpa is another well built moment.

Overall I would give this movie a miss. It is rated at 6.2 on IMDB, but if you read the reviews there is plenty of disappointed viewers!

My overall rating would be 3/10. It has a poor plot, weak camerawork, no real horror and an expected twist!

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