A “Visit” to the Geriatric Zone

A Review of The Visit, a movie written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan

The Visit is a bizarre 2015 movie with twists of geriatric horror and humorous flashes – I use that term loosely - of insight into the incongruous behaviors of the elderly, supposedly experiencing sun-downing. It opens with an estranged daughter being interview for a family film documentary by precocious daughter Becca (Olivia DeJonge). Becca asks Mom about her relationship with her parents. However, Mom refuses to talk about the actual events which caused the estrangement, leaving us to question why she allows her two children to visit parents she hasn’t contacted in fifteen years. As a parent, I found it strange that the mother, played by Kathyrn Hahn, would allow her children to board a train by themselves to visit grandparents they don’t know and to whom she hasn’t spoken in years. My first question was, “Why didn’t Mom take them to their grandparents to ease the transition and get to know more about her own parents before leaving the kids with them?” My question was well-founded, as the grandparents’ questionable behaviors prove.

Becca and her want-a-be rapper brother, Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), video-document their journey into the sparsely populated mountains and their week-long vacation with Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie). At first, the movie seems like a Blair Witch knockoff and drags on with 9:30 bedtimes and simple, filmed interviews with Nana and Pop Pop. Then it takes a strange twist of humor with Nana playing a frightening game of hide and seek under the house and flashing her buttocks through a torn skirt. I don’t know about other older people, but my knees would never allow that! And Pop Pop hides poopy adult diapers in the shed. Sometimes funny, sometimes startling, the events turn frightening for the children when they decide to hide the camcorder in the living room.

This movie won the Fright Meter Awards for 2015 and was nominated for the Fanogira Chainsaw Awards for Best Wide-Release Film (M. Night Shyamalan) and Best Supporting Actress (Deanna Dunagan), Golden Schmoes Awards for Best Horror Movie of 2015 and Phoenvix Film Critics Society Awards for Best Performance by a Youth (Ed Oxenbould). But frankly, after watching the movie, I couldn’t decide whether I liked it or not. It’s tinged with gerontophobia and moves like a rollercoaster, slow at first, then speeding along an unsettling track only to take a surprising turn at the end. Then I realized that, along the way, there are small interactions between Becca and Tyler that reveal a nurturing relationship and that the ending holds a moral to the story that embraces truth for all of us. In the end, I decided that I like the firm, but I probably won’t watch it again. I don’t recommend for children who still visit aged grandparents, because it is a frightening walk through the geriatric zone. I’m glad I saw The Visit, but I won’t be adding it to my collection, hence the three-star rating. If you have a different opinion, I’d love to hear it!