#60-E: THE VISIT (2015)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

9.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, once, a while ago (but not when it came out)

BEST SEQUENCE

When Becca gets locked in the bedroom with Nana

BEST LINE

"You have to laugh to keep the deep darkies in a cave"

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

68%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"The Visit provides horror fans with a satisfying blend of thrills and laughs -- and also signals a welcome return to form for writer-director M. Night Shyamalan."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"Two siblings become increasingly frightened by their grandparents' disturbing behavior while visiting them on vacation."

DIRECTOR

M. Night Shyamalan

MAIN CAST

Olivia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould, Deanna Dunagan, Peter McRobbie, Kathryn Hahn

THOUGHTS

• It's another found footage movie, full of jump scares, and it works for me. I remember liking it the first time I saw it a few years ago, and I liked it just as much this time, maybe even more than I expected to. There's a smart ramping up of tension throughout, and I forgot how intense the ending gets. As in similar movies, the logic behind the found footage style can be distracting, and even the whole concept strains credulity at times, but it really is a darkly fun little movie, and The Visit doesn't take itself too seriously so I won't either
• Having said all that, 9.5 on the thrill scale feels a tad generous, but I do also think it's scarier than Signs, so here it sits. I would maybe bump Signs down by .5 and give The Visit a 9/10 instead, but I'm not going back to change it; a card laid is a card played, I say
• Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie give two of my favourite performances in an M. Night Shyamalan movie, two extremely well established and accomplished actors having an absolute blast and chewing up the scenery. Incidentally, Deanna Dunagan has won a Tony in the past (for August: Osage County)
• Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould are also pretty good, although they do have to grapple with some of that classic M. Night Shyamalan clunky dialogue (the worst line of the movie is delivered by Becca to Tyler - "I'm telling you it's OK. I downloaded the definition of "Sundowning." You wouldn't understand half the words I'm reading, the word "YOLO" isn't in it.")
• And really, that's about all I have to say about The Visit! A fun little thriller that gets pretty dark and doesn't pull its punches. In fact, there were a few more good sequences worth mentioning that made it hard to choose a best one! Hide-and-seek under the house, Nana walking around puking everywhere, the scratching on the walls and Nana finding the hidden camera, even the climactic Yahtzee game, lots of great moments to choose from!

Up next: Into each life some rain must fall. We've gone through some of the Shyamalan movies that are considered the best; it's time for the worst. Winning (or losing) the readers' poll on Facebook for M. Night Shyamalan's worst film, by a fair margin, it's a movie that I have not seen - The Last Airbender, from 2010

#60-D: THE VILLAGE (2004)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

3

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, several times

BEST SEQUENCE

The scariest part is when Ivy runs into a "Those We Don't Speak Of" in the woods, but this is largely thanks to some effective camerawork. The actual tension is almost entirely deflated due to one of the movie's plot twists

BEST LINE

There aren't any. So instead, you get a Worst Line:

"Um, I'll cry quarts."

- To the best of my knowledge, this has not ever been an expression used in any country or any time period. So why would you write that, M. Night?!    

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

44%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"The Village is appropriately creepy, but Shyamalan's signature twist ending disappoints."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A series of events tests the beliefs of a small isolated countryside village."

DIRECTOR

M. Night Shyamalan

MAIN CAST

Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver

THOUGHTS

• You'll have to take me at my word, I did not go into this viewing predisposed to hate The Village as much as I did. I've seen it several times before, including relatively recently, and I don't remember ever reacting so negatively to this movie's ridiculous contrivances. In fact, The Village even holds a small place in my heart as I believe it's the first horror movie I ever saw in the theatre, which is somewhat of a unique experience, being scared communally
• From here on out spoilers follow, as this was also one of the few times I was able to guess the twist ending during the movie - I surmised that it was actually taking place during present day, and not olden times. But it's telling of M. Night Shyamalan's reputation at that point in his career that I didn't make this conclusion based on any clues on the screen or deductions of logic; I just knew to expect a twist, and that was the only one I could think of
• However, it was also this twist that, on this viewing, drove me up the goddamn wall. So the village elders decided to establish a remote village, cut off from the rest of the world, to escape the violence and evil of modern society. Sure, I'm with you so far. In doing so, they decided to live in a simpler, less advanced way, similar to how people lived in the previous century? I'm fine with that too! Perhaps they saw technology or capitalism as contributing to the evils they were trying to escape from, and this way of living would also be necessary to stay isolated. But why, oh why, did the village elders think it was so important to not only pretend they were living in a different century, but to also (and this was what REALLY stuck in my craw) make the deliberate and conscious decision to change their style of speaking?! There was no one in the movie that needed to be deceived in this way, the elders all knew the truth, and everyone else was born and raised in the village. No, in fact, the only people being deceived were us, the audience. And frankly, M. Night, in a twist movie that's not playing fair. It also meant that Shyamalan, who's not a great writer of dialogue on the best days, was hamstringing himself even further with his abysmal attempts to make everything sound antiquated
• But that's not even the only twist that has a negative impact on the movie as a whole! Whatever scary moments there are to be found in this movie come from the appearances of "Those We Don't Speak Of," the creatures that keep the villagers out of the woods and confined to their community. On rewatch, though, the monsters are much less scary if we know they're just the elders wearing costumes. As mentioned above, there are still some effective shots which make good use of the camera's perspective and what we can see in the background (the early sequence in which "Those We Don't Speak Of" enter the village is also pretty effective), but this is definitely a movie that makes the biggest impact on first watch and doesn't really hold up to subsequent viewings
• Last logistical thing I'll gripe about: William Hurt allows (nay, encourages) his daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard, to venture into the woods to fetch medicine in order to save Joaquin Phoenix. The other elders are not on board because she may learn the truth about the world, or the world may learn the truth about them. You know how you avoid this dilemma, William Hurt? You either go yourself, or you send someone who a) already knows the truth and b) CAN SEE
• Speaking of Bryce, she manages to give the best performance. M. Night's terrible stilted dialogue sounds the least stilted coming out of her. On the other hand, the less said about Adrien Brody (fresh off of his Oscar win), the better
• Looking forward, I feel like I'm still going to have conflicted feelings about this movie. There are glimmers of goodness, memories of enjoyable viewing experiences, still lurking in my mind! But something about this viewing broke all of that apart and I yelled at the TV a few times. I leave you with a quote from my wife, which I think sums it all up pretty well: "It is a good twist, regardless of how stupid it is"

Up next: If The Village was the beginning of his spiral, The Visit can probably be considered the start of his resurgence. It's The Visit, from 2015

#60-C: UNBREAKABLE (2000)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

7.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, but only once and pretty recently; I think I may have seen Split before Unbreakable

BEST SEQUENCE

There's something effectively understated about the weightlifting scene, and also the gun scene

BEST LINE

"You didn't break one bone. You don't have a scratch on you."

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

70%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"With a weaker ending, Unbreakable is not as a good as The Sixth Sense. However, it is a quietly suspenseful film that intrigues and engages, taking the audience through unpredictable twists and turns along the way."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A man learns something extraordinary about himself after a devastating accident."

DIRECTOR

M. Night Shyamalan

MAIN CAST

Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Robin Wright, Spencer Treat Clark, Charlayne Woodard

THOUGHTS

• Unbreakable is a better movie than my score of 7.5 might suggest, but it's really not actually all that thrilling. It's methodical and it's patient, and one might even call it slow. It's more interested in exploring the ideas it puts forth rather than using those ideas to justify some whiz-bang action sequences
• In fact, Unbreakable might be of most interest for some people as a very early, somewhat alternative superhero movie (because yes, spoiler alert, Bruce Willis's David Dunn has superpowers). Compared to more mainstream superhero movies, especially what we've been seeing for the last 15 years, the stakes in Unbreakable are much smaller; more intimate, in a way. David Dunn isn't trying to save the world, or even the city of Philadelphia. Once he knows how to use his powers we really just see him save one family. However, this gives his climactic mission an effective realness, a grim relatability that makes us care more about whether or not he succeeds. He's putting himself up against real, authentic evil in humanity, not megalomaniacal grandstanding as seen in so many other superhero movies
• David is also effectively humanized; he's not outwardly or obviously heroic. The first thing we see him do is take off his wedding ring to flirt with a woman, at which he strikes out. His marriage is on the rocks, and he's concerned about a job interview not going well - pretty standard, unexciting issues for a person to have. In fact, as the protagonist of the movie his greatest victory might be the rekindling of his marriage and gaining the admiration of his son
• Again Bruce Willis is quite good in this, giving a very natural performance. This feels like a good time to say, after the announcement of his recent health problems (and likely end to his career), I'm a big fan. We'll be talking about him two more times I believe, and the next time isn't too far away (Pulp Fiction, movie #53), but even just his performances in the Die Hard franchise would firmly place him in the action movie pantheon
• Also to be talked about again soon, Samuel L. Jackson is good in this, but he's mostly used as a plot device and a way for M. Night to explain things. He does manage to give a pretty good performance despite getting some of the clunkier lines in the script
• Lastly, as mentioned above, I have seen Split and I've also seen Glass. Saw them both in the theatre, and not again since. I won't be reviewing either of them, but for what it's worth, Split I liked a lot and I thought James McAvoy was tremendous. Glass, on the other hand, I found disappointing. Feel free to sound off in the comments if you want to make a case for or against either of these movies (and Unbreakable too, of course)

Up next: I think it's safe to say that, for many, this was when M. Night started to wobble, if not jumped the rails outright. But hey, The Village still has its defenders, so we'll be talking about it!