The Visit is a movie about forgiveness. It’s a simple story with simple characters, but it has something important to say. And it works because there’s a sincerity that underpins the whole film that makes this feel like more than just a sermon. This is something that matters to the filmmaker.

Night Shyamalan has always been sincere in his work, though it hasn’t always worked out well for him; arguably his two most notorious outings, Lady in the Water and The Happening, both dealt with issues that clearly mattered a lot to him personally.

But while those were made by a director at the apex of his popularity, here we have an offering from a man on the ropes, the butt of endless jokes, struggling to prove that he’s still got something to say that’s worth hearing.

The story centers on Becca and Tyler, a brother and sister who head off to stay with their grandparents so their mother can go on a cruise. The movie makes a point to tell us that this was their idea; it’s a small thing, but it’s important. This isn’t a mother packing off her children because she’s sick of them, but rather two children who understand that their hardworking single mother needs some time to herself.

At the outset we’re told that their mother hasn’t seen her parents in a long time, not since the day she angrily stormed out of the house as a teenager. The movie we’re watching is Becca’s attempt to reconcile her mother with her grandparents, to capture the moments that will bring the family back together.

And that, more than anything, is what makes The Visit special. So often in a found footage film there comes a point where we wonder, why these people are filming all this stuff? Are they really that narcissistic? Wouldn’t it be easier to run away from the monster if you put down the camera? But with The Visit we know that every edit, every shot, is motivated by Becca’s need to mend her mother’s broken relationship with her parents.

But her mother isn’t the only one with a broken relationship. As the film plays out we learn that Becca and Tyler both resent their father for leaving them and their mother. It’s significant that the father isn’t a character in the film. We have no insight into why he left, and he’s never brought back into their lives, yet Becca and Tyler’s journey is a path to forgiving him. It’s a great reminder that forgiveness is not primarily for the benefit of the forgiven, but for the forgiver.

The plot itself, a mystery about why Becca and Tyler’s grandparents are acting so strangely, plays out in an interesting and compelling way, but it falters because it doesn’t fully support the larger themes of the film. Even so, the twists and turns the story takes are compelling enough on their own, and while the horror elements won’t impress most fans of the genre, fans of M. Night Shyamalan’s early work will find him back in full form.

The Visit isn’t a home run. But it doesn’t have to be. It proves that M. Night Shyamalan is still a director with something to say that’s worth hearing. It’s still not okay that he made Mark Walhberg talk to a plastic plant. But maybe we can find it in our hearts to forgive him.



Albert lives in Florida where the humidity has driven him halfway to madness, and his children have finished the job. He is the author of The Mulch Pile and A Prairie Home Apocalypse or: What the Dog Saw .

To hear more of our thoughts on The Visit check out Episode 185 of the Human Echoes Podcast.