Although this new movie is technically a horror film, it’s also just like a mystery/suspense story. I saw “The Visit” and recommend it for the following reasons. But first, watch the trailer—it’ll get you hooked on “The Visit.”
- It’s written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who also directed “The Sixth Sense,” and “Unbreakable.” He’s a master at creating spooky, psychological suspense. If you liked those other films, you’ll like “The Visit.”
- Like a good mystery, this story presents characters who are just a little bit off . . . but there’s always a reasonable explanation. They do weird things, but you can accept them as well, normal—even thought they aren’t. For instance, two of the characters in “The Visit” are quite elderly so their goofy behavior is explained because they’re “old” and a little confused in the head.
- The plot is wonderful. It moves slowly at the beginning and picks up speed. Shyamalan has dribbled out little clues but hidden them well. When the film is over and you think back, the climax was obvious but hidden. Like the film, “The Sixth Sense” where the audience thinks Bruce Willis’ character is participating in conversations with living people, you realize at the end that he never actually talked—because he was dead.
- The setting is great and spooky—two young kids go to visit their grandparents. The kids have never met them before because the grandparents were estranged from the kid’s mother years earlier. They still live in the family home in an isolated farm area of Pennsylvania—cut off from all other neighbors and, of course, possible help.
- Like a good novel, there’s very little actual violence. The director suggests horror and violence but depends on the audience to activate their own imagination. When a good writer succeeds with a mystery, he also can leave the gory details out and depend on the reader to supply them from their own imagination—something that’s far more scary than any author or director can create.
Go see “The Visit”. You’ll love the suspense and the surprise ending.
