Review: THE VISIT is a Good Little Horror Comedy

Fifteen years after storming out of her parents' home, a woman's two children are going to meet their Nana and Pop Pop for the first time - alone, to spend a week with them, on a farm, in the middle of nowhere, with no cell phone reception.

And in M. Night Shyamalan's new film, THE VISIT, boredom is not the worst case scenario.

It's not long before the kids, 15-year-old Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and 13-year-old Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), notice something's not quite right with Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie), leaving Becca's hope for closure for their mother Loretta (Kathryn Hahn), and answers for herself, looking less and less likely in the face of increasingly bizarre and threatening behavior.

Written and directed by Shyamalan, THE VISIT is essentially a family drama wearing a funny Halloween costume. The film may be unnecessarily heavy-handed in exploring the brokenness of this particular family, but Shyamalan engineers enough genuinely creepy moments, and is masterful at exploiting the release of tension in their aftermath to draw genuine laughs, that the film in its totality is quite fun.

THE VISIT is filmed as a first person documentary, put together by DeJonge's Becca, a precocious, budding filmmaker in the vein of a Dawson Leery (even her dialogue is reminiscent of how 15-year-olds in Capeside speak). The conceit makes for a playfully cinematic film, but expect the requisite shaky cam and Blair Witch moments that pop up in any found footage movie.

The bond between DeJonge and Oxenbould is the heart of the film. Oxenbould, in particular, gets to show off his comedic skills, and he has a lot to work with - Tyler has obsessive compulsive tendencies (which pay off in a gross-out scene in the third act that had the audience groaning in a good way), raps (several times) under the name "T Diamond Stylus," and uses the names of female pop stars in place of curse words (which somehow never stopped being funny to me).

Hahn brings a jittery vulnerability to mom Loretta, an immature and emotionally stunted woman parented by her children. Loretta is a character on the periphery of the film, but quite important overall. Hahn's greatest contribution to THE VISIT is never letting you forget that Loretta means well and that her love for her children is real, making for a believable (enough) jumping off point for the film.

THE VISIT depends so much on Dunagan and McRobbie, and they are perfectly cast. Dunagan clearly has the ranginess her role requires; she goes from sweet to unresponsive, from earnest to animalistic and threatening in seconds. She is a treat to watch, especially in scenes set after 9:30pm and the Hansel and Gretel moments she shares with DeJonge. McRobbie channels his inner Clint Eastwood as Pop Pop but still exhibits a gruff tenderness, especially in the moments he shares with Dunagan.

Finally, it wouldn't be an M. Night Shyamalan film without an M. Night Shyamalanian twist, and THE VISIT (unlike LADY IN THE WATER, or THE HAPPENING, or THE VILLAGE) does not disappoint. It might be a bit telegraphed for some, but Shyamalan is actually quite good at making use of the ageist and gerontophobic impulses in society to camouflage the ending so, my bet is, most of the audience will actually be surprised. If you're interested in seeing a movie this weekend, go ahead and go see THE VISIT and find out if you're one of those people.

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Check out the trailer below:

THE VISIT, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, stars Kathryn Hahn, Deanna Dunagan, Peter McRobbie, Ed Oxenbould, and Olivia DeJonge. It is rated PG-13 for disturbing thematic material including terror, violence and some nudity, and for brief language.

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