Grade: B
At this point, I suspect M. Night Shyamalan’s movies are occasions for people to find others who have also seen it and talk about “how cool that twist was.” In his new film The Visit, there is a twist provided for us about 75% of the way through, almost as a courtesy. It’s the least interesting plot development. It was like there were two movies, with the first three-quarters being a marvelously absorbing psychological thriller, with a quartet of lead performances who sell the material admirably, beautiful wintry locations, and the fine sound effects and foley work we have come to expect from Shyamalan’s team. (Seriously, is the sound of wind blowing through tree branches ever scarier than in one of his films?) There is a moment during one of the interview scenes that I thought was brilliant. It is when “Nana” is telling a story about a pond, and all I’ll say is Shyamalan gives us a particular set-up where he makes us think we know where things are going, only to completely yank the rug out from under us. I smiled. I love it when I’m toyed with like that. It reminded me of a scene in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive where there’s some heated dialogue, but then we see a script in a character’s hand and we realize they are just running lines for an audition. Sadly, once the sucker-punch twist is revealed, The Visit delves into lame slasher fare. There is a shameless scene at the end where a couple of characters are freestyle rapping and making jokes about all that transpired, whereas they’d more realistically be at the beginning of many months and years of therapy, with hardly the slightest inclination to be making light of what they had just gone through. But hey, wasn’t that twist cool?
Grade: B
Film Reviews by Mark 
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