Movie night – The Visit (2015)

To start, I am a M.Night.Shyamalan fan. Since 6th Sense and through the lukewarm decade after that. Hehe. I might be a little bias. I love his brand of horror and mystery. But that would imply that all his movies are the same. It’s not. Especially with The Visit. I started watching with low expectations, as his fans would have get accustomed by now.

The experience watching The Visit is one with growing dread that something really bad is going to happen soon, it gets you early in the movie but you insist to sit there trying to uncover what it is before it happens. Of course Mr.Shyamalan left you some clues…you just didn’t think it through. That’s why I keep coming back to his movies. I love how the interest is sown as early as it can and kept you glued to the screen. You’d also given the time to sympathize the characters, understand their story while readying yourself for the ultimate twist at the end. Because The Visit could easily have been a simpler narrative if handed to another director but Mr.Shyamalan executed something more atmospheric and plays with your visceral fear. And let’s not forget it’s a found footage movie…you know how shitty lots of those can be 😝

(Honestly it’s hard to write this without giving away one spoiler word lol)

The movie is lightly introduced with all the main characters, a seemingly happy single mother with her 2 children, whom she will be sending off to her parents’ home for a chance of first reunion. She and her parents cut off their ties since she ran off to marry her lover 15  years ago. The dysfunctional family is thematically discussed and acts as the basis of the characters’ actions later in the movie. The emptiness and vulnerable facade the 2 children put on to survive their parents’ separation are expertly played by young virtually unknown actors Olivia DeJonge (Becca) and Ed Oxenbould (Tyler) (both actors are Australians). These 2 actors are truly the stars of the movie. Becca and Tyler are very charming and witty, with the warmth of their impulsive and childish actions, it makes them very believable characters to root for. The use of the internet slanga and some funny observations of the current teenage trends brought into their conversations also makes them enjoyable to watch. It reinforces the realistic feel of the footage Becca and Tyler took of the whole week over their grandparents, to look at the horrors unfolding though their own eyes.

One thing I felt at the scene in the car when the mother was driving them to the train station at the start of the movie was that it reminded me of a similar scene in The Shining. It’s the same irk from The Shining that the young children would be left at the mercy of mentally unstable adults. And the pale, white, unforgiving snowy setting in a secluded area where there are no immediate neighbours. However this movie is more of a thriller than horror. Ah you see? It’s really hard to not spoil it! If you’re already 30mins into the movie you’d know why. Hold on to that thought, and wait until the end where all your theories are SCREWED. At least half of mine did…lol! Thank you Mr.Shyamalan for another mind challenging thriller-horror. I enjoyed trying to investigate though I fall flat on my face everytime!!

4.5/5 recommended to fans and non fans alike. Critics also gave Mr.Shyamalan a thumbs up for this one (which is rare).

Rotten Tomatoes wrote:

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.

‘A return to form’ guys!! Come and watch the weirdest, perilous one week spent at the grandparents home. Fill your stomach to your heart’s content, run and play around the large yard but do not.ever.leave your room after 9.30pm *evil laugh*

Rated 18+ : Female nudity (back), suggestive scenes

The worst day of the year

(I wrote this in the first hour of hearing the news of my grandmother’s passing on 12 June 2016. It calms me to be able to write it out since at the time I wasn’t with anyone and have none to immediately talk to.)

12 June 2016 – 8.34am

I was coming out of the shower on a cold rainy morning at my house
Still have my towel on my shoulders, intent to pick up the clothes to wear to work for today
I have 15 mins to get ready, as usual
everything was normal
then my phone rings, an unknown number pops up
You know that’s like a bane to me
I never pick up a random phone call, especially in the mornings when I don’t wanna talk to any mortal beings
My cousin answered, crying and told me that she was gone
My initial reaction was huh
I managed to finish the call not screaming or crying although that’s what I feel inside
but it didn’t came out
the shock just enveloped me that I can’t feel a thing
So I tried to tell everybody in my family through whatsapp and in a minute everyone like woke up and call each other

My oldest sister teared up in the call, and it induced me to cry too
I dont know why i can’t cry on my own
I guess I’m still walking down memory lane in my mind
of everything I’ve managed to remember from all the years with this amazing person in my life
My grandmother.
I was actually the one who told my mother that her mother is gone.
6 days previously she had called, as usual, she always call everyone at all times
trying to talk to us, just asking mundane things like have you eaten? What did you took for lunch? What’s for dinner tonight?
You know that sort of thing
I’m used to it and I get annoyed by it. I ignored her calls many times and I just pick up whenever I feel like it
but recently, in this recent weeks, I never missed one. That I’m glad I did. I dragged my hand to pick up the phone (she usually called on both cell phone and house phone)
I’d answer in ridiculously uninterested tone.
that I remembered ghastly now, I couldn’t figure out why couldn’t be nicer.
should’ve ask more than asnwer her..ask about her day…
I could’ve but I didn’t.
there are a million times and opportunities that I could’ve been better….but I didn’t.
and that’s the thought that has been plaguing me since I answered my cousin crying on the other side of the phone
I think i just lost it
I’m beating myself over it.
It was just 1 hour now.
I still can’t believe it.

To think about this year’s Raya celebration without her
it’s unreal
She’s the one who organized everything
and she’d give everyone everything she have to make us happy and insisted to not dine until everyone else is attended to.
I cant believe she’s gone..i can’t!!
on a Sunday morning when i loathed to go to work..I woke up from a dreamy sleep.

I dreamt about another person quiet dear to me.
that’s another story..but I wish I had dreams of her.

To have some connection to the last minutes in her life.
I was doing what i’d be doing every weekday in this god awful routine of work.
I almost wish it’s something special, that it’s not such a random day
to be the day of her passing from this world
because she’s so special. To me and to our family and to everyone who knew her.

I wish there was some of us with her at the time. My relatives who are neighbours with her brought her to the hospital in the early hours of morning
While the rest of us were in our Sunday mornings just getting by the usual…
I wish this day was more special for her…
she was such an amazingly big hearted person
I’m sorry for ignoring the phone calls
I know that you just wanna talk to me and hear my voice
I’m sorry that I was almost always uninterested, although in random moments later I regretted the way that I answered
And planned to call back, to drive to your house about 2.5 hours away..I don’t know why the distance seem too much for me most of the time
but today I hate myself for not being able to act on my thoughts
I just thought about coming there for iftar, this week
but I know I can’t so I’m planning for next week.
but she don’t have another week.
When God has decided for you, nothing can change it.

I need to learn and shove it into my head that don’t let time fool you.
you think that your life is stagnant with no changes, nothing excites you
But time moves. Time always moves.
and with it the age of the people that matters to you, and someday they’ll leave you.
To not wait to make that call, to be there with them…because when that time has come, nothing can bring it back.