M. Night Shyamalan has had a rough go of it in recent years,
but it wasn’t always this way. Fifteen years ago, the director was the King of
Hollywood, when endless comparisons to Spielberg abounded in the wake of “The
Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable,” and “Signs.” But those early highlights gave way
to an abrupt career nosedive that began with “The Village,” as the director
started to become known more for shoehorning increasingly uninspired twists
into his stories than for his ability to captivate an audience.
Then came
the double-whammy of “The Happening” and “The Lady in the Water,” before
Shyamalan reached his career low point when he shifted to the realm of fantasy
and sci-fi in the disastrous “The Last Airbender” and “After Earth.” The
director now attempts to rebound with “The Visit,” a horror-comedy (though
there was some debate after the trailer was released, it’s always clear that
the movie is definitely in on the joke) that recaptures a bit of Shyamalan’s
early promise, delivering humor and thrills in equal measure.
Giving a
modern spin to “Hansel and Gretel,” the film follows budding teen filmmaker
Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and her younger brother, Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), as they
take a trip to visit their estranged grandparents, with whom their mother
hasn’t spoken to in 15 years. She left home for reasons that she refuses to
explain, but whatever happened caused a rift in the family that remains unresolved.
Becca plans to make a documentary of their trip, hoping to capture on film a
bit of family history as well as some overdue catharsis and reconciliation.
When they
arrive at the secluded farmhouse, their grandparents seem warm and friendly, and
Becca wastes no time in calling them Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter
McRobbie). But the more time spent with their new relatives, the more things
start to seem a little off with ole Nana and Pop Pop. For starters, the
children are given a strict bedtime of 9:30, and they soon discover that after
that point Nana has a tendency to scamper naked about the house while clawing
at the walls. Meanwhile, Pop Pop spends the days taking repeated trips out to
the mysterious woodshed. The week goes on, and things grow even weirder. As
each new day is announced in bold, red letters, we grow anxious that something
terrible is rapidly approaching.
Invigorating
the overdone found-footage format, “The Visit” benefits from a pared-down,
simple story, and a lack of big name stars. Taking the unintentional
ridiculousness of something like “The Happening” and playing it for deliberate
laughs, Shyamalan finds a looseness in the material that his previous films
have never demonstrated. He uses Becca’s wannabe auteur as an excuse for his
camera’s impeccable compositions, but her pretentious explanations of terms
like denouement and mise-en-scรจne also act as tool for the director to poke a
bit fun at himself.
Shyamalan
continues to prove himself an excellent director of child actors. DeJonge is
appealing as the precocious and somewhat nerdy Becca. Tyler’s white-boy rapper
persona can be obnoxious, but Oxenbould is totally convincing as an annoying
little brother. I could have done without quite so many extended demonstrations
of his freestyling skills (they usually end with an enthusiastic “‘ho!”), but
the actor has enough natural charisma that I wasn’t actively rooting for his
untimely death. The two have a nice chemistry together, and the sibling’s
relationship is always convincing and even sweet. As Nana and Pop Pop, McRobbie
and Dungan face an even more difficult challenge. Their characters are a
mystery, prone to shifts in demeanor that transform them from kindly old souls
to menacing threats, often within a single moment. The speed at which their
lucidity seems to melt away never ceases to be unnerving.
Shyamalan’s
love of storytelling and storytellers is always apparent, and he wraps the film
in fairy tale motifs, from Nana’s repeated request that her granddaughter climb
deeper into the oven to clean it, and Becca’s talk of her film providing the
“elixir” her mother needs to heal her psychological wounds.
Shyamalan
ingeniously taps into childhood fears of being away from home for the first
time, beyond the reach of parental protections. There’s a bit of body horror in
the way he exploits our natural discomfort with the inevitable deterioration — both
mental and physical — that comes with old age. While the buildup isn’t always
particularly scary, it gathers a sense of unease that leads to a surprisingly
nasty climax. It’s a tricky tone to master, and “The Visit” doesn’t always nail
it, though the film has an awareness about itself that is a nice respite from
the ponderous, self-serious tone of Shyamalan’s last few features. It’s a fun
ride, and while “The Visit” isn’t a complete return to form for the director,
it’s most assuredly a step in the right direction.
This article appears in Sep 16-22, 2015.
