It’s been a long time since The Sixth Sense director M. Night Shyamalan had a box-office hit. In fact, it’s been been nearly a decade. With commercial and critical successes such as The Sixth Sense, Signs and The Village, Shyamalan became known as the master of intense psychological thrillers that kept audiences guessing until the very end.
The Visit is Shyamalan’s first return to the thriller genre since his bomb, The Happening, in 2008. He’s continued to produce a series of big budget flops with the release of The Last Airbender and After Earth. The white washed, under whelming Airbender enraged fans while After Earth simply bored audiences to tears.
Are audiences really ready to forgive Shyamalan and sit through another film penned and directed by him? My gut says: no! Horror and found footage fans will wait for the DVD to come out and if it’s good, his next film will surely be a hit. Only if the early reviews are solid will the movie become an automatic success.
Now, on to what The Visit is about. The Visit is filmed in the popular found-footage format and follows a pair of siblings as they visit with their grandparents for the week. Things get really scary for the youngsters as they notice the disturbing habits of their grandparents late at night and sometimes during the day. Their oblivious mother tells them to relax and stay there although something tells me she will really live to regret that decision.
The film poster for the movie also released this week. The poster playfully says:
Grandma’s Rules:
- Have a great time
- Eat as much as you want
- Don’t ever leave your room after 9:30 PM
Huh?
That last one sounds a bit strange doesn’t it? The Visit will be released in theaters on September 11.
I couldn’t help but wonder why they didn’t go for an October release day, but that may be because that’s such a busy months for horror movies trying to cash in on the Halloween crowd. I, for one, would love to see Shyamalan get his king of psychological horror crown back, but he’s got to be willing to give us thriller fans the perfection we’re looking for. We’re not even looking for something perfect, just something decent please!
Does this trailer make you want to rush to the theater to see The Visit?