Just when you thought it was unsafe to see an M. Night Shyamalan film (at least after "The Happening"), his true colors burst and delivered a well-made chiller that will keep you twisting and squirming in your chair while watching it. "The Visit" is a terrific, sickening horror flick, dependent on that nauseating feeling of impending doom that could seal the fate of the two young siblings in this movie. You want them to survive the unknowing horror that awaits them, and that is a lot easier said than done when you are in a house in the Pennsylvania countryside with eccentric grandparents.
The movie did not start off well for me, with one older sibling, Becca (Olivia DeJonge), recording and narrating everything with a camera. Becca's younger brother, Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), also records everything and raps, eh, not so wonderfully. Cheery and Divorced Mom (Kathryn Hahn) is sending her kids to spend a week with their grandparents, Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie), both of whom have not spoken to their daughter in over 15 years. Once the siblings arrive at a Pennsylvania country home, things start to spiral out of control and the movie picks up steam. Nana scratches walls in the middle of the night while being naked! When Pop Pop is at the shed, he doesn't respond at all when Tyler calls him - it turns out there is something stinky in there. Nana goes nuts, hitting herself, when interviewed by Becca particularly when questioned about her daughter - geez, how bad was it that Mom decided to run away from home at an early age? Lights must be out by 9:30 at night, and another rule is to stay away from the basement due to increasing mold. Yes, you guessed it, something unspeakable must be in there.
"The Visit" has moments of alarming terror, and of course there are those "jump scares" though they are not preceded by those cliched string sounds. Scenes where grandma is all on fours as she scurries like a rat under the house's foundation, or when grandma discovers their hidden video camera or, the most alarming moment, when she screams "Yahtzee!" are enough to make your spine tingle and possibly dislocate your shoulder from covering your mouth one too many times. Shyamalan's direction is pointed and assured and makes great visual use of the wintry countryside. I never felt that I was watching rambling hand-held camera viewpoints from kids who believe in shaking a camera, giving audience members reason to reach for the Dramamine.
Both Deanna Dunagan and reliable pro character actor Peter McRobbie give riveting, intensifying performances - they represent a sort of unnerving twist on the "American Gothic" painting without much irony. I was wary of Ed Oxenbould as the annoying brat but I grew to like him - aren't all young, wannabe rappin' brothers annoying brats? Olivia DeJonge brings a lucid simplicity to Becca - she tries to remain strong amidst this chaotic weeklong stay. When her brother reveals the truth about Becca and how never looks at herself in the mirror when combing her hair, it is honest and heartbreaking at the same time.
"The Visit" is a vintage Shyamalan effort and he succeeds in telling the tale simply without any overwrought music or extraneous shock value. I can forgive the sight of stinky diapers and one too many Tyler raps because the movie envelops you with a certain dread and horrifying moments are accompanied by silence and no music score. Think of this movie as "On Golden Pond" for horror fans.
