Review of The Visit (2015) by Paul N — 03 Oct 2018

*No Spoilers*: Absolute rubbish from a desperate director who made a couple of decent films after one great one that allowed production money to freely flow his way, until recent years. Aaaand...now this crap-fest. This slimmer production utilizes "found-footage" and shaky-cam styling, which was quite popular among low-budget filmmakers, especially with students and amateurs, at the turn of the millennium 18 years ago. I imagine this was chosen in order to make his lower budget stretch further, as was his choice to not use his usual composer. With so many, low budget indie films out there to inspire, where does Shyamalan take his story or plot?

"The Visit" is shamefully based in discrimination - AGEISM, SANISM, ABLEISM, CLASSISM - wholly expecting us to be entertained by geriatric health problems like incontinence (I kid you not), while using mental illness and dementia in the elderly as a plot device (again, not kidding). How in the world could that make a successful horror and/or comedy? Would Hitchcock's "Psycho" (1960) have been better, by making Norman an 80-year-old with shingles and arthritis? Simply put....the plot and character devices are CRUEL and CHEAP. Since his commercially successful film "The Sixth Sense" (1999), Mr. Shyamalan's usual twist endings have long since become expected, predictable, and often silly. Here the "twist" manages to retain the aforementioned cruelty about the elderly who are mentally and physically ill. Next to children, these very vulnerable people in our society are portrayed to be "evil"; the bad guys who deserve death and our scorn...and apparently laughter. After all, it's sooooo hilarious to watch a sweet grandparent struggle after sundown, as is common in dementia.

It's as if Shyamalan's trying to appeal to certain prepubescent first-world children, who are easily grossed/freaked out by anyone over 60 or who's eligible for AARP movie discounts (careful Shyamalan, you're hitting 50 soon). By extension, there's little-to-no respect or concern for the elders of that type of audience. As an adult who respects the civil rights of, and basic respect entitled to, ALL seniors with health problems, I found this film to be very off-putting, inherently discriminatory and immature, while sad and disgusting at many points during the terrible script (w/ cringeworthy dialogue). Not unlike a certain pathetic character explains in this film, M. Night Shyamalan-a-ding-dong has slapped us across the face...while many early fans ~still~ await his return to quality filmmaking, you can skip "The Visit" and sleep just fine...after 9:30 pm, of course.

Oct. 2018.