Late to the party with nothing new

kierley77

score 2/10

**Contains Spoilers & Gripes!** I saw the trailer for The Visit and was hooked instantly - it really looked great, had fantastic atmosphere and suspense. Unfortunately it was one of those cases where the guy who edited the trailer should have made the movie as the bar had been set much higher than the finished product came near to delivering.

Firstly this movie is (yet another) "found footage" film, a sub-genre which has arguably overstayed its welcome and I started getting itchy feet within the first few opening scenes. Secondly (based on the trailer)I thought I was in for a supernatural thriller but it's not. That's not to say it's without its moments of suspense and laughs on our trip to Grandma's house but sometimes these laughs feel almost unintentional. Speaking of unintentional, The dialogue of the two young protagonists is clearly the words of a 45 year old man trying to write for what he remembers young teenagers speaking like 20 years ago (and the camera-work for young teenagers with cheap hand-held cameras is almost Hollywood-like cinematography).

Overall a film that's oddly less than the sum of its parts and a clear missed opportunity. It'll be a long time before I get suckered again to see another M Night Shyamalan film.

kierley77 11 September 2015

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3315036/