The Visit (2015)
Certified: PG 13
Duration: 94 minutes
Directed by: M.Night Shyamalan
Starring: Olivia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould, Kathryn Hahn, Deanna Dunagan, Peter McRobbie, Benjamin Kanes, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Jon Douglas Rainey
KRS Releasing Ltd

When their mother (Kathryn Hahn) goes on a cruise, teenagers Becca and Tyler (Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould) are shipped off to their grandparents whom they never met. This is because their mother had left home at the age of 19 as they did not approve of the man she was seeing. She married him but later divorced when he left her for another woman.

Becca has aspirations to become a film-maker and she looks at this trip as a chance to film her maternal home and discover what happened between her mother and grandparents. Her brother, on the other hand, cares about nothing other than rap music.

To the teens’ surprise, Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie) seem loving and very amicable. However, soon strange things start to occur. Nana starts chasing them around in what is a mix between play and real-life menace. Pop Pop tells them that Nana has a sort of sundown syndrome but even he sometimes acts in an eerie manner.

Soon matters start to escalate and the kids have to decide whether they can accept the explanations given.

M. Night Shyamalan makes us experience the movie through the children’ eyes. It comes with a feeling of dread and fear that is very palpable.

De Jonge and Oxenbould sound like real teens and act like real siblings. They are convincing in their reactions and their performance is plausible.

Dunagan as Nana is one grandmother you really do not want to meet. Her images are deigned to stick in your memory.

Shyamalan has always made interesting movies. Following his successful The Sixth Sense, his success seems to depend on that all important twist. This is evident in movies like The Village, The Happening and Lady in the Water.

However, although The Visit delivers a twist, it is not totally dependent on it. The low-budget movie makes good use of the found footage genre and brings also a wacky comedy feel which makes it even more of a twisted experience.

The Visit is like a twisted Hansel and Gretel with modern sensibilities, a revitalisation of a fairy tale that is often told but is very much a modern nightmare.

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