The Visit (Review) - Worth an RSVP

Families can be a nightmare, can't they? I'm sure everybody has certain relatives who refuse to speak to eachother, so the premise for The Visit is instantly relatable. Once her kids find out that she hasn't spoken to her parents in years, a single mother (Kathryn Hahn) decides to let them go and spend a week at their grandparent's house. Because of the huge rift between her and her parents however, the mother doesn't go with her kids, as she instead goes on a cruise with her partner. In order to document their trip, the eldest of the two children, Becca (Olivia DeJonge), brings a couple of video cameras. After a few days at their isolated home, however, the kids soon realise that something isn't quite right. 

I went into The Visit knowing literally nothing about the movie: I hadn't seen any trailers, nor even seen a poster for the film. In fact, the only reason I decided to go and watch it was because I had nothing better to do, and I'd heard that it was a horror. Because of this sight unseen approach, I had literally zero expectations for the film - a huge benefit for any modern movie. This lack of expectations meant that the sky was the limit for how much I would enjoy The Visit, and I'm happy to say that it's well worth the price of admission. The plot isn't the freshest I've seen in recent memory, and it clearly borrows elements from icons of the horror genre (the day of the week appearing on-screen regularly, a la The Shining, for example), but it's still interesting and keeps you guessing up to the inevitable reveal. 

Something that surprised me slightly about The Visit was that it was a found-footage movie, although it managed to sway slightly from the mundane stereotypes found within these films. Sure, there were moments such as hiding a camera downstairs to capture footage in the night, but otherwise things felt relatively fresh in this respect. Perhaps this is because while the movie wants to be found-footage, there's times when the camera is operated in a manner that would be completely unnatural if held by a normal teenager. For example, while on a Skype call with their Mum, the camera is positioned behind the two kids. Now, this could obviously be set-up by them with a simple tripod, but it just doesn't feel like something that you would film. For the most part, though, the documentary-esque way in which the story is presented and filmed keeps the pace and tension high, and really adds to the overall feel of the film. 

Something that doesn't entirely add to the movie is the relationship between the two kids, and their characterisation as individuals. First of all, Becca begins the movie spouting academic jargon that would confuse even an adult, and it just feels awkward to say the least. Also, though he's eventually redeemed slightly by other events of the movie, Becca's brother Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) is downright irritating. Sure, I might have a slight bias as I've never been a fan of children in movies (or at all, to be honest), but his pseudo-rapper persona that he adopts is just cringe-worthy. As I said, this is amended a little later by his strengthening relationship with Becca, but there's times that his arrogance draws a little from the events playing out. 

Nana (Deanna Dunagan)

This slight diminishing of tension is an issue throughout the film, as while The Visit is primarily a horror/ thriller, there are segments that are very humourous in a tongue-in-cheek style. While this isn't a problem, there's certain scares that are lessened by a moment of comedy, and vice versa. Personally, I would have preferred if the film had gone all-out horror, but maybe this is just a point of personal preference, rather than a fault of the movie itself. 




Verdict
It won't stick with you as the best film of the year, but if you have a spare afternoon then there'd be far worse things to do than see The Visit. It has moments of genuine tension, and the occasional scene that will make you laugh out loud. While the film runs for about 10 minutes too long, it still manages to tell an interesting story with a twist that, while not revolutionary, it's unlikely you'll see coming. And considering M. Night Shyamalan's last few movies have been panned both critically and commercially, this turned out to be a very nice surprise. 

"Would you mind getting inside the oven...

to clean it?"