The Visit - Blu-ray Review

Details: By Loron Hays; 11 September 2015

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The Visit - Movie Review

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There is something insane about spending time with anyone outside of the inner family circle. Think about it. Hell, some people struggle with spending time with their own spouse and children. If we break spending quality time with strangers we call family or friends down to its basics, that simple idea can be truly terrifying. Admit it. There are some pretty screwed up people in your family, right? This is the domestic nightmare territory of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit.

M. Night who? I get it. It’s been awhile since anyone has taken his “Sixth Sense” act seriously.

The Happening. The Last Airbender. After Earth. Three strikes and you’re out, right? (Hell, there’s more if we count the fouled off ball that was Lady in the Water.) Well, not so fast. Taking to the found footage format as if he’s been doing it successfully for years on end, director M. Night Shyamalan invites audiences to scare and share in the laughs alongside him as he explores our innate fear of the elderly (ha ha) and becoming old. And it works. It’s true, folks. With The Visit, we aren’t laughing AT him so much as we are alongside him.

Featuring two solid performances from Aussie youngsters Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould as Becca and Tyler, The Visit gets started remarkably well. These two siblings – one wants to be a rapper and the other wants to be a filmmaker – are sent by their divorced mother (Kathryn Hahn) on a one-week visit to stay with their Nana and Pop Pop (Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie) while she vacays with her new boyfriend. Thing is, the kids have NEVER met their grandparents due to a long-standing falling out which is only just now being repaired by this chance.

And so the kids get to meet their grandparents for the very first time. An uncomfortable situation gets weird real quick as Becca, the aspiring filmmaker of the two kids, decides to document the weirdness that occurs under the roof of their grandparents’ isolated farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania. You will scream. You will laugh. You will relate. Even normal families can be pretty damn strange, after all.

The horror elements are all there. Nana, around 9:30 each night, gets creepy and crawls around the house in the buff. Pop Pop travels to the woods with an ax. A basement door is never opened. Scratches appear on the walls. And the damned creepiest parts of the flick are played with a humorous vibe that makes it all the more unsettling. While the movie slips in the final moments of its to-be-expected twisty climax, The Visit is far from the grueling bore some might be expecting from a family reunion flick developed by a writer/director/producer who has struggled to make anything of merit for over a decade.

The Visit successfully merges the enticing with the deadly and plays a bit of a mental game with its audience as it swings back and forth from these two positions. The first two-thirds of the film is solid horror/comedy candy that really does satisfy. Of course, Shyamalan has to have his ninth inning shocker and that’s a bit of a sour spot for me. Fortunately, the absolute bizarreness of much of the movie is built upon a bedrock of intensity that is never “phoned-in” by the director. He remains serious about the scares AND the humor and manages to keep our interest in what happens with a collection of effective shock cuts that make for a memorable experience.

M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit is juicy homegrown macabre that is worth a bite or two. It’s a guilty pleasure, for sure. But what the hell?! There’s nothing else out there. America does, after all, love a good comeback story.

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[tab title="Film Details"]

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for disturbing thematic material including terror, violence and some nudity, and for brief language
Runtime: 94 mins
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Writer: M. Night Shyamalan
Cast: Olivia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould, Deanna Dunagan
Genre: Comedy | Horror
Tagline: No one loves you like your grandparents
Memorable Movie Quote: "YAHTZEE!"
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Official Site: http://www.stayinyourroom.com/
Release Date: September 11, 2015
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: January 5, 2016
Synopsis: Shyamalan returns to his roots with the terrifying story of a brother and sister who are sent to their grandparents' remote Pennsylvania farm for a weeklong trip. Once the children discover that the elderly couple is involved in something deeply disturbing, they see their chances of getting back home are growing smaller every day.

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[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]

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Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - January 5, 2016
Screen Formats: 1.85:1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit); Spanish: DTS 5.1; French: DTS 5.1
Discs: 50GB Blu-ray Disc; Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD); UV digital copy; iTunes digital copy; Digital copy; DVD copy; BD-Live
Region Encoding: A

Universal presents this “found footage” film on 1080p without nary a complaint. It’s rather hard to complain when the film is supposed to look like it’s shot on some relatively cheap gear. That being said, The Visit satisfies on blu-ray with a transfer that is sharp and clear and presents shadows that are clearly defined by thick lines and strong details. Colors are also good throughout and provide a nice difference to the rather dreary locale. The sound – presented here in an aesthetically-challenged DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 – is limited in its scope due to the “reality” of its sub-genre but it works as best as it can for a found footage flick.

Supplements:

Commentary:

None

Special Features:

This is as weak as the limited sound design because it contains merely an alternate ending, deleted scenes, photos, and one featurette covering the making of the movie and the challenges the crew faced in trying to film a “real” experience. A DVD copy and a digital copy are included.