Review of The Visit (2015) by Thequietgamer — 02 Feb 2016

A hilarious horror-comedy that makes up for it's lack of frights with plenty of weirdness. It even does gross out horror right. The best part of all is that all of it's pieces are held together by a respectable human element and believable characters.

Regret, anger, and a message of letting go give this horror a bit of heart to go along with it's scares. It's just too bad it's scares aren't actually scary. Then again, maybe it isn't too bad. Even without delivering frights the film manages to maintain tension thanks to it's special brand of weirdness and the constant feeling that things aren't just right. The found-footage style has been done to death at this point in horror movies, but Shyamalan makes it feel fresh and, most importantly, relevant to the plot.

The humor aspect of the film cannot go unrecognized. It's laugh out loud funny at times and goes a log way to making the film feel more believable. Part of what makes it so funny isn't just the crazy weird and disgusting things that happen onscreen; it's the way the characters react to it. Their reactions and responses are believable, adding to the sense of humor. Also, the two young actors are incredible.

So are the older ones. They commit to the level of craziness onscreen with the utmost of devotion. There is something scary about this movie, it's how good these people are at portraying crazy people.

It's got humor, heart, tension, and a lot of weirdness. All of that helps the film overcome the fact that it really isn't all that scary. It also helps that it manages to avoid a significant amount of the leaps in logic often found in horror movies. These kids act like real people in a really dangerous and frightening situation. Yes, they occasionally commit the boneheaded moments that have lead to the piles of bodies we've seen in horror movies over the years (don't go in there stupid!), but this still ranks amongst the most believable horror movies I've ever seen. Another point in it's favor.

This visit gets a 9.4/10 from me.