The Visit Movie Review-

While there’s red herrings and a prolonged predictability at work (I saw most of the movie coming early on), what I didn’t guess was how laugh out loud funny The Visit consistently is. Neither a satire or straight faced horror, the tipping between both tones is a level of nuance I didn’t think Shyamalan was capable of anymore. Tyler (the brother) is a wanna-be gangsta rapper, and his raps littered throughout the movie are as terrible as they hilarious. And unlike every facial expression by Mark Walhberg in The Happening, laughter is an intentional part of the movie. The prolific director discovered one of his late-career talents—his ability to inspire laughs—and he plays to that strength with a resolved self awareness that’s a pleasant surprise. Pitting humor and suspense together are a fetching pair, and the contrast works. Well-tuned performances guide the ship, and deftly handling the two tones is particularly impressive for Dejonge and Exenbould, given their young age.

One consideration is that had The Visit come out with an unknown director’s name in the credits, and not Shyamalan’s, and therefore no fanfare, this would be remarked on as a promising start instead of a positive upswing on a crashing plane. It’s in a high class of its low brow genre, but sadly never becomes the sum of its sometimes very good parts. Shyamalan ultimately fights against himself, knocking down his victories with stilted dialogue or unnecessary scenes that undermine the tension and pace. The biggest problem isn’t that it’s terrible, but that it can’t stay being very good for very long. There are lulls. But there are victories too, so even if The Visit never comes alive as a result of the uneven assembly, it’s a mostly worthwhile entry in his previously dying catalogue. When the heavy handed ending reveals The Visit’s thesis as a plea for forgiveness and even redemption, something the characters in the movie call an “elixir”, you wonder if Shyamalan hoped The Visit would be an elixir of his own. It’s not, but it is a start.

C+