2.5 out of 5 stars

M. Night Shamalayan’s newest movie, The Visit, opens with Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) packing for a weekend with the grandparents they have never met. As soon as they arrive, rules are set about where the two can go in the house and how late they can stay up.

The premise of the movie seemed a little contrived. It was too convenient that their mother goes away on a trip while they decide to meet grandparents for the first time. Becca uses this opportunity to write a documentary about their mother’s childhood.

Shyamalan took a huge risk in taking something that is a positive in many people’s lives, a week at grandparents’ house, and turning it into an evil experience. Immediately, the grandparents are unpleasant. Imagine not knowing your grandparents and meeting them for the first time without your parents there. Awkward. Somehow he did manage to make cookies and milk and a game of hide and seek scary. Even though I was unimpressed by the plot, it was a “hide your face in the crook of your elbow” kind of movie.

Becca and Tyler decide the best way to represent their mother throughout the documentary is by using her favorite song Mocking Bird Yodel by Mary Schneider as background music. It was not typical scary music, but it was creepy and ironic at the same time.

The Visit is a combination of the the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel and the Paranormal Activity saga. Overall, I did not appreciate how grandparents were represented in the movie, but it was suspenseful. Fans of this movie would also enjoy the Paranormal Activity movies and Unfriended. Get showtimesM. Night Shyamalan’s Filmography:

Praying with Anger
Release Date: 1992
Box Office Gross:

Wide Awake
Release Date: 1998
Box Office Gross: $258,212

The Sixth Sense
Release Date: 1999
Box Office Gross: $293,501,675

Stuart Little
Release Date: 1999
Box Office Gross: $140,015,224

The Visit
Release Date: 2015
Box Office Gross: $25,690,000

The Last Airbender
Release Date: 2010
Box Office Gross: $131,564,731

Unbreakable
Release Date: 2000
Box Office Gross: $94,999,143

Signs
Release Date: 2002
Box Office Gross:  $227,965,690

After Earth
Release Date: 2013
Box Office Gross: $60,522,097

The Village
Release Date: 2004
Box Office Gross: $114,195,633

The Happening
Release Date: 2008
Box Office Gross: $64,505,912

Lady in the Water
Release Date: 2006
Box Office Gross: $42,272,747

Devil
Release Date: 2010
Box Office Gross:  $33,583,175

The Four Feathers
Release Date: 2002
Box Office Gross: $18,306,166

source: internet movie database