Week Six Film: The Visit (Dir. M. Night Shyamalan) 2015

Sebastian Black                                     Film Studies A Level                   Tuesday 3rd November 2015

The Visit (Dir. M. Night Shyamalan) 2015

The Visit is a horror, thriller film directed & written by M. Night Shyamalan (known for: The Sixth Sense 1999, Unbreakable 2000, Signs 2002, The Village 2004, Lady in the Water 2006, The Happening 2008, The Last Airbender 2010, After earth 2013). The producers that were involved in this film were Marc Bienstock, Jason Blum & M. Night Shyamalan. The Visit stars Olivia DeJonge (Becca), Ed Oxenbould (Tyler), Deanna Dungan (Nana), Peter McRobbie (Pop Pop) & Kathryn Hahn (Mum). The film was released on September 11th 2015 & it was filmed in Philadelphia & Pennsylvania (USA). The budget of this film was approximately $5,000,000 & it grossed $64,367,670 (30th October 2015). The production companies that were involved with this film are Blinding Edge Pictures & Blumhouse Productions. 

This film currently holds no awards or nominations. 

The first key sequence in this film is right at the beginning where the mother is being interviewed & she tells the audience what is going on & why she is being interviewed. This introduction tells the audience that the film is going to be documented by the two children. 

The second key sequence in this film is when Becca & Tyler are told by their Pop Pop that bed time is at 09:30 & he also tells them to not go into the basement because there's toxic mould down there, which seems like an innocent gesture. At first the two take it well, Tyler is a bit confused & Becca being the older sibling explains to Tyler that they are old & need sleep. During this key sequence, we find out that there is something wrong with Nana. Becca wants to go downstairs for cookies however she runs back into the bedroom as she finds Nana projectile vomiting & this makes Becca scared. 

The next key sequence is when Becca interviews Nana & asks her what happened when Becca's mum left. Nana then starts to shake & get angry. This is a key sequence because it tells the audience that something severely wrong happened between the grandparents & the mother. It also keeps the audience in suspense because they want to know what happened between them. 

The forth key sequence is when the children are on Skype with their mother & they explain all the things that they've witnessed & the mother asks to see the grandparents. This scene is a plot twist because the mother tells the children that the two people they've been living with are not their real Nana & Pop Pop, they are in fact impostors. This causes the three (Becca, Tyler & mum) to panic. Their mother tells them that she'll be there as soon as possible & in the meantime, they children have to act natural. 

The fifth key sequence is when Becca goes down to the basement, thinking that her real Nana & Pop Pop might be down there. She starts to look through the bin & finds uniforms of the mental hospital where the real Nana & Pop Pop volunteered (mentioned during the film). Becca then finds the corpse of the real Nana & Pop Pop & she screams. This sequence is important because the audience has an understanding of where the impostors have come from. The impostors murdered Nana & Pop Pop & they are in fact, psychiatric patients that were in the mental hospital however they escaped & took Nana & Pop Pops place & this explains to the audience why "Nana" & "Pop Pop" have been acting really strange. 

The last key sequence is the mother being interviewed (again) & she explains what happened between her & her parents. She tells Becca that they got into a physical fight & that forgiveness was always there for her but she never took it which she now regrets.

I would say a film similar to The Visit would be Stonehearst Asylum (Dir. Brad Anderson) 2014. Stonehearst Asylum is a thriller film. Although the same thing doesn't happen in Stonehearst Asylum, the ideas are similar & the plot twists in Stonehearst Asylum are similar to The Visit.