Firstly, I'm quite disappointed in Shyamalan and I really think he's losing it. He hasn't made a movie in like 5 years, and this is what he comes up with? Oh yeah, he did have a part in last year’s “After Earth,” which is a children’s movie, so it doesn’t count.
I’ve loved pretty much all of his movies, except of course for the notorious Airbender, which honestly I never even bothered with. Needless to say, I was very pleased that he was finally making something back in his genre and was quite looking forward to it!
I’m not a big fan of the found footage style, though there have been a few cool ones. The movie starts out okay – a little slow paced, with a creepy kind of undertone, similar to many of M. Night’s previous works. I waited patiently to be fascinated by some amazing plot twist, or at the very least, mildly frightened by a few good scare scenes.
However, the creepiest scene in the entire movie was about 90% of the way through, when the Mom says, “Those aren’t your grandparents.” So that was pretty cool and I really was not prepared for that. I was thinking “yes, here is where it escalates.” But, noOoooo. That’s the entire punch-line. Grandparents were murdered and replaced by random crazy old people.
That’s all. That’s the whole story.
Not aliens that live under the water and lure unsuspecting victims into a deep sleep, only to devour them later. Not monsters that morph at sundown and feed on young children – which is actually what I was expecting – something more “Coraline” style. Besides, there’s absolutely no reason to repeatedly ask someone to get in the oven if you’re not going to eat them!!!
So, since pretty much nothing is explained except for the fact that the grandparents were murdered and their ‘replacement grandparents’ just wanted a week with the kids, we’ll have to conclude that everything mentioned earlier in the movie in regards to the fake grandparents’ condition is what the true plot was meant to be.
For one, I think it’s a little bit mean to say that those who suffer from Dementia, Schizophrenia or Sundown Syndrome are likely to spend their evening hours running around on all fours. Next, all the previously creepy scenes like fake grandma’s incessant laughing before trying to strangle herself, fake grandpa’s story about the white creature with yellow eyes, or fake grandpa trying to shoot himself, are now merely the product of none other than actual mental illness. While those may not be considered ‘plot holes,’ they are to me. I don’t know how they really thought they could get away with explaining the entire movie away with: they’re crazy. Just pure laziness, really. Someone came up with a kind of interesting plot, then just got bored and stopped before the punch-line.
All that to say, next time I’ll think twice before blindly watching a Shyamalan film without bothering to read reviews. Actually, that’s not true at all. When the next horror/thriller flick comes out with M. Night’s name on it, I know I’ll still do exactly the same thing: Excitedly go out of my way to watch it, despite what anyone says. Sigh… old habits die hard.
But seriously, unless you also suffer from the hopes that M. Night will one day make another beyond awesome movie, and will therefore watch all of his movies while waiting for one to blow your mind…. Just ... don’t even bother with “The Visit.”
Final Rating: 5/10
As usual with Shyamalan, it started out really well, then fell on its face. 5 points for a good first half of the movie.Distributor: Universal Studios
Production Company: Blinding Edge Pictures, Blumhouse Productions
Director - Writer: M. Night Shyamalan
Cast: Olivia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould, Deanna Dunagan, Kathryn Hahn, Peter McRobbie
Producers: Marc Bienstock, Jason Blum, M. Night Shyamalan
Music: Paul Cantelon
PG-13, 94 Minutes
0 comments:
Post a Comment