Shyamalamadingdong: THE VISIT (2015)

So...

Let's start with, yes, I still didn't update even though I said I would, and that is because...the movie sucked. It's hard for me to write about something I don't like. Let's get this out of the way, Shyamalan, stop making movies. Especially don't ever wander off to a country home alone and decide to make a movie without consulting other professionals! Seriously?

Don't get me wrong, everything Shyamalan has produced has not been garbage...just his recent stuff. I really enjoyed the Village, though I didn't grasp all the little details the first time. Maybe that was because I was much younger, maybe the Visit actually had the same effect and I just didn't see it, but I would never associate the two.

TITLE: The Visit

DETAILS:

            DIRECTOR: M. Night Shyamalan

            LEAD ACTORS: Olivia Dejonge and Ed Oxenbould

            ANTAGONIST LEAD: Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie

            

SUMMARY: 

Two siblings become incredibly frightened by their grandparents disturbing behavior, while visiting them on vacation.

PERSONAL CRITIQUE:

Just STOP! I can not say enough negative things about this movie! That might be a bit hyperbolic on my part, but seriously, it was disappointing, more so when we consider that the trailers actually made me want to watch it. But then again, the advertisements for the movie made me think of supernatural events, probably pertaining to possession, with a nice addition of "old people are scary." What I got was subpar at best as far as terror in plot is concerned, then again, this was probably the most realistic scary movie setting of all time. There's a positive, most of the time when scary movies are "based on a true story" it's an oddball one in one-million true story, and this presumably original idea seemed more like a one in ten-thousand chance of happening. Shall I spoil it? Let's! (So don't read beyond if you haven't seen it and want to. Or just skip the underlined section.)

Okay, so, the film starts with the two main characters going to spend a week with their estranged grandparents while their mother is off on a cruise. Seems normal so far. These children have never seen these grandparents as prior to their birth their mother had a spat with them. Not unheard of. Here's the kicker, this topic is super taboo with the grandparents, they absolutely refuse to discuss anything regarding the children's mother. I'll grant to Shyamalan that this portion of misleading information is well-constructed, because lo and behold, they are not the children's grandparents. Nope, they apparently are mental patients who escaped the psych ward and murdered the real Nana and Pop Pop in order to take their place in this delightful vacation with the kids. A lot of details that previously looked like possession scenes are then revealed to just be psychotic episodes, or whatever the correct term is for what these guys have.

There's a lot of light-hearted banter in the film between the siblings, and some less than satisfactory scenes with the young boy rapping. I don't have anything against people pursuing their dreams and I don't have anything against modernizing a movie or adding some childish entertainment, but Shyamalan seems to have forced these scenes into the film, and they have negative effects. I'm not saying he's not a good rapper, I don't really have an opinion, but I didn't feel like it belonged in the film. A redeeming quality of the use of this young character is his attempt to censor his own foul mouth, and the subsequent failures. Resolving to replace his curse words with the names of pop culture stars, Tyler provides us with some fantastic "Oops" moments. 

RATING: 

Nine out of Ten Psych Ward Escapees would give it Two used adult diapers, out of Five. 

In my opinion, this film stinks. With the exception of an unforeseen but disappointing twist ending and the oops scenes with our tiny hero, I feel like it should have never hit theaters.