The Visit: is it as scary as it seems?

The Visit: is it as scary as it seems?

Ben Lombardi, Staff Writer

The Visit, directed by M. Night Shyamalan is a PG-13 thriller with a twist. Critics are raving that it is Shyamalan’s best film since The Village. Getting a high 63% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, maybe they’re right.

 

It stars Ed Oxenbould, who plays the younger brother. Olivia DeJonge, the older sister. Deanna Dunagan as the grandmother. Peter McRobbie as the grandfather. And finally, Kathryn Hahn as the mother. The Visit is a terrifying story of a brother and sister that go to their grandparents for a weekend, and soon find out that with every day they stay there, their chances of getting back home grow slimmer and slimmer.

 

The movie starts off with the two siblings taking a train into a small-town in Pennsylvania. Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) and Becca (Olivia Dejonge) are promptly picked up by their Nana and Pop Pop upon arrival. Nana (Deanna Dunagan), at first glance, is a Grandma out of a storybook, with a grey bun,  apron, and muffins coming out of the oven every hour. Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie) is a taciturn farmer who constantly reminds the kids that he and Nana are “old.”

 

Almost immediately, things get crazy. Why is Pop Pop always out in the barn? Why does Nana always ask Becca to clean the oven, insisting she crawls all the way inside? And what are those weird noises at night coming from outside their bedroom door?

 

One night the kids sneak a camera into the house to try and find out just what exactly is going on. What they find is a lot more than they bargained for. You’ll have to watch to find out what spine-chilling events they recorded.

 

As the weirdness intensifies, the film evolves from an origin-story documentary to a mystery-solving investigation. I would have to give this film 4 out of 5 stars, as it had me on the edge of my seat at times. I would highly recommend it as it seems like it truly could be some of Shyamalan’s best work yet.