Review of The Visit (2015) by Dave C — 16 Jan 2016

Back in form, Shyamalan puts out his best film since Signs and The Village. Some had been wondering if he had fallen off the mark for good, but The Visit proves that he still has more to give.

The premise of the faux documentary has been done before, but M. Night makes it feel wholly original. More to the point, the film is genuinely strange and scary in all the right ways. Further, what feels altogether familiar here is his penchant for building a sense of create vision in to each scene. While the story is simple, it was easy for me to feel like I needed another viewing simply to absorb the passing detail of the frames and sequences. His use of lighting and camera angles is intriguing, and even more compelling is his way of setting the scene intentionally over the top without it ever "feeling" over the top. It feels more like an art-form or a craft, which is what makes M. Night so great as a film director.

Thematically he manages to keep a moral tale intact, exploring the difficult dynamics of family, old age, and forgiveness. I found it equally compelling to consider how he uses these themes to add to the sense of horror that we watch unfold on the screen.

M. Night comes back to the simple story here, which is what aligns it with his older work (which would likely gain the greatest comparison to The Sixth Sense). It is not that he can't handle the complex (see Unbreakable), but I think he does himself a favour by getting back to the basics, giving fans an enjoyable and effective film.