The Visit (2015)

The Visit  (Horror, Thriller,  2015) (18) D: M Night Shyamalan W: M Night Shyamalan  C: Olivia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould, Deanna Dunagan, Peter McRobbie, Kathryn Hahn. 1h 34m. USA.

Synopsis : A single mother finds that things in her family’s life go very wrong after her two young children visit their grandparents.

This unusual chilling found footage drama is actually quite an interesting comeback for M Night Shyamalan. Seeming to pull away from the farcical fantasies that he’s produced lately this is a first in both being a film he’s not present in and his first found footage style movie.

Playing on several horror themes such as visiting strange old creepy family members as well as potential supernatural/haunting style disturbances the film, is cloaked in lots of mysteries as well as having a jovial fun side added in by the two children who are making the film.

Starting at a gradual pace with a woman talking about how she left her parents’ home a s young teen and never returning she shows some bitterness that her parents are now Councillors and have made contact over the internet with and want to see their grandchildren. She’s now getting into a relationship after a messy divorce and the children agree to visits the grands and give her some time alone. Obviously the kids Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) and  Becca (Olivia DeJonge) are budding directors/rappers and want to film the entire event and investigate what happened when their mother left. The kids travels to their parents is quite interesting and allows the viewer to get used to the crappy camera angles and the characters as they interview people on the train and each other. Once they get to the grandparents’ house all sorts of crazy shit starts to take place and they start to dig at their mother’s past and get constantly freaked out by their folks “Sundowning” other bizarre and questionable habits and outburst.