The 2015 horror film The Visit may be about scary grandparents but it is also about leaving love behind. M Night Shyamalan gives us a tale about the family visit from hell. In reality though, this twist and turn thriller starts before the kids give “mom” a romantic break.
The story
Becca and Tyler are shipped off to the grandparents. Their mother is spending some quality time with her new beau. The mother does not get along with her parents, so she does not drop them off.
During the visit the two grandkids learn that Nana and Pop Pop are very odd and sometimes quite scary.
The main cast
Olivia DeJonge is Becca.
Ed Oxenbould is Tyler.
Deanna Dunagan is Nana.
Peter McRobbie is Pop Pop.
Kathryn Hahn is Mom.
Yahtzee!
Shyamalan gives us a dysfunctional family for the ages. Sure Mum loves her two kids, but she doesn’t love herself. Her parents never forgive her actions. She is ostracized for her love interest. Becca tries to bring her grandparents back together with her mum.
The family seem to practice leaving love behind. The two kids have a strained relationship with absentee father. The journey of Becca and Tyler is meant to be a reconciliation within the family.
It is instead a trip to “family fun-time” hell. As Nana screams, “Yahtzee!”
It works
The immediate oddness of the grandparents, played brilliantly by Dunagan and McRobbie, sets the tone. As does the initial displacement of both “mom” and her two offspring.
We feel a sense of unease from the very start. Everything feels wrong. Shyamalan offers us a lot of clues, many of which feel almost like fairy tales:
Hansel and Gretel – the oven in the kitchen, twice. Or, not a fairytale exactly, Bluebeard – not being allowed to be in a certain room. Each of these “signposts” lead us to believe, before we learn the true extent of the horror on offer, that something is very off about Nana and Pop Pop.
The Verdict
The Visit is a solid 5 star knockout of a film. It works on so many different levels. It is streaming on Max at the moment. This is a perfect “Halloween” movie. *What? Too soon?*
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.