The Visit

What it's about:

The terrifying story of a brother and sister who are sent to their grandparents’ remote Pennsylvania farm for a week-long trip. Once the children discover that the elderly couple is involved in something deeply disturbing, they see their chances of getting back home growing smaller every day.

What we thought:

It was with great excitement that I volunteered to go watch the new M. Night Shyamalan flick.

He’s had his ups (Sixth Sense) and downs (After Earth) and I was positive that The Visit would be his long-awaited return to cinematic excellence.

Alas. It is not.

The movie, filmed from the perspective of a brother and sister who are sent to their grandparents' remote Pennsylvania farm for a weeklong trip, is a sticky mess.

Meant to have a Blair Witch Project documentary style feel to it, The Visit is awkwardly scripted and filled with filmmaker jargon that is supposed to impress but is highly annoying.

Shyamalan, who also wrote the script, should have given his cast more freedom when it came to the dialogue.

Even though Ed Oxenbould (Tyler) and Olivia DeJonge (Becca) both impressed in their roles they fell victim to a story that’s just too polished to be perceived as a school documentary project.

Of course Shyamalan gets up to his old tricks and throws in an unexpected twist near the end – but by that time all interest in the Hansel and Gretel type plot is long forgotten.

Do we really still need deep dark wells, crab-walking old scary ladies, creepy basements and mental hospital references to scare the crap out of people?

I found myself laughing when I should have been scared and cringing when I should have been laughing.
 
On a scale from Sixth Sense to After Earth this film dangles somewhere in the middle.