the visit cast imdb

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors.

Now streaming on:

M. Night Shyamalan had his heyday almost 20 years ago. He leapt out of the gate with such confidence he became a champion instantly. And then...something went awry. He became embarrassingly self-serious, his films drowning in pretension and strained allegories. His famous twists felt like a director attempting to re-create the triumph of " The Sixth Sense ," where the twist of the film was so successfully withheld from audiences that people went back to see the film again and again. But now, here comes " The Visit ," a film so purely entertaining that you almost forget how scary it is. With all its terror, "The Visit" is an extremely funny film.

There are too many horror cliches to even list ("gotcha" scares, dark basements, frightened children, mysterious sounds at night, no cellphone reception), but the main cliche is that it is a "found footage" film, a style already wrung dry. But Shyamalan injects adrenaline into it, as well as a frank admission that, yes, it is a cliche, and yes, it is absurd that one would keep filming in moments of such terror, but he uses the main strength of found footage: we are trapped by the perspective of the person holding the camera. Withhold visual information, lull the audience into safety, then turn the camera, and OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT?

"The Visit" starts quietly, with Mom ( Kathryn Hahn ) talking to the camera about running away from home when she was 19: her parents disapproved of her boyfriend. She had two kids with this man who recently left them all for someone new. Mom has a brave demeanor, and funny, too, referring to her kids as "brats" but with mama-bear affection. Her parents cut ties with her, but now they have reached out from their snowy isolated farm and want to know their grandchildren. Mom packs the two kids off on a train for a visit.

Shyamalan breaks up the found footage with still shots of snowy ranks of trees, blazing sunsets, sunrise falling on a stack of logs. There are gigantic blood-red chapter markers: "TUESDAY MORNING", etc. These choices launch us into the overblown operatic horror style while commenting on it at the same time. It ratchets up the dread.

Becca ( Olivia DeJonge ) and Tyler ( Ed Oxenbould ) want to make a film about their mother's lost childhood home, a place they know well from all of her stories. Becca has done her homework about film-making, and instructs her younger brother about "frames" and "mise-en-scène." Tyler, an appealing gregarious kid, keeps stealing the camera to film the inside of his mouth and his improvised raps. Becca sternly reminds him to focus.

The kids are happy to meet their grandparents. They are worried about the effect their grandparents' rejection had on their mother (similar to Cole's worry about his mother's unfinished business with her own parent in "The Sixth Sense"). Becca uses a fairy-tale word to explain what she wants their film to do — it will be an "elixir" to bring home to Mom.

Nana ( Deanna Dunagan ), at first glance, is a Grandma out of a storybook, with a grey bun, an apron, and muffins coming out of the oven every hour. Pop Pop ( Peter McRobbie ) is a taciturn farmer who reminds the kids constantly that he and Nana are "old."

But almost immediately, things get crazy. What is Pop Pop doing out in the barn all the time? Why does Nana ask Becca to clean the oven, insisting that she crawl all the way in ? What are those weird sounds at night from outside their bedroom door? They have a couple of Skype calls with Mom, and she reassures them their grandparents are "weird" but they're also old, and old people are sometimes cranky, sometimes paranoid.

As the weirdness intensifies, Becca and Tyler's film evolves from an origin-story documentary to a mystery-solving investigation. They sneak the camera into the barn, underneath the house, they place it on a cabinet in the living room overnight, hoping to get a glimpse of what happens downstairs after they go to bed. What they see is more than they (and we) bargained for.

Dunagan and McRobbie play their roles with a melodramatic relish, entering into the fairy-tale world of the film. And the kids are great, funny and distinct. Tyler informs his sister that he wants to stop swearing so much, and instead will say the names of female pop singers. The joke is one that never gets old. He falls, and screams, "Sarah McLachlan!" When terrified, he whispers to himself, " Katy Perry ... " Tyler, filming his sister, asks her why she never looks in the mirror. "Your sweater is on backwards." As he grills her, he zooms in on her, keeping her face off-center, blurry grey-trunked trees filling most of the screen. The blur is the mystery around them. Cinematographer Maryse Alberti creates the illusion that the film is being made by kids, but also avoids the nauseating hand-held stuff that dogs the found-footage style.

When the twist comes, and you knew it was coming because Shyamalan is the director, it legitimately shocks. Maybe not as much as "The Sixth Sense" twist, but it is damn close. (The audience I saw it with gasped and some people screamed in terror.) There are references to " Halloween ", "Psycho" (Nana in a rocking chair seen from behind), and, of course, " Paranormal Activity "; the kids have seen a lot of movies, understand the tropes and try to recreate them themselves.

"The Visit" represents Shyamalan cutting loose, lightening up, reveling in the improvisational behavior of the kids, their jokes, their bickering, their closeness. Horror is very close to comedy. Screams of terror often dissolve into hysterical laughter, and he uses that emotional dovetail, its tension and catharsis, in almost every scene. The film is ridiculous on so many levels, the story playing out like the most monstrous version of Hansel & Gretel imaginable, and in that context, "ridiculous" is the highest possible praise.

Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O'Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master's in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

Now playing

Brian Tallerico

Kim's Video

The American Society of Magical Negroes

Robert daniels.

Clint Worthington

You Can Call Me Bill

Film Credits

The Visit (2015)

Rated PG-13 disturbing thematic material including terror, violence and some nudity, and for brief language

Kathryn Hahn as Mother

Ed Oxenbould as Tyler Jamison

Benjamin Kanes as Dad

Peter McRobbie as Pop-Pop

Olivia DeJonge as Rebecca Jamison

Deanna Dunagan as Nana

M. Night Shyamalan

Cinematography

Maryse Alberti
Luke Franco Ciarrocch

Latest blog posts

Ned Benson, Lucy Boynton, and Justin H. Min Want to Play The Greatest Hits for You

Until It’s Too Late: Bertrand Bonello on The Beast

O.J. Simpson Dies: The Rise & Fall of A Superstar

Which Cannes Film Will Win the Palme d’Or? Let’s Rank Their Chances

an image, when javascript is unavailable

Film Review: ‘The Visit’

M. Night Shyamalan returns to thriller filmmaking in the style of low-budget impresario Jason Blum with mixed results.

By Geoff Berkshire

Geoff Berkshire

Associate Editor, Features

Sci-Fi Newbies Hope to Follow in ‘Game of Thrones’ Epic Emmy Footsteps 7 years ago
‘Rectify’ Star J. Smith-Cameron Breaks Down Final Season 7 years ago
Bob Odenkirk Recalls His First Emmy Win 7 years ago

After delivering back-to-back creative and commercial duds in the sci-fi action genre, M. Night Shyamalan retreats to familiar thriller territory with “ The Visit .” As far as happy homecomings go, it beats the one awaiting his characters, though not by much. The story of two teens spending a week with the creepy grandparents they’ve never met unfolds in a mockumentary style that’s new for the filmmaker and old hat for horror auds. Heavier on comic relief (most of it intentional) than genuine scares, this low-budget oddity could score decent opening weekend B.O. and ultimately find a cult following thanks to its freakier twists and turns, but hardly represents a return to form for its one-time Oscar-nominated auteur.

In a way, it’s a relief to see Shyamalan set aside the studio-system excesses of “The Last Airbender” and “After Earth” and get down and dirty with a found-footage-style indie crafted in the spirit of producer Jason Blum’s single location chillers. (Blum actually joined the project after filming wrapped, but it subscribes to his patented “Paranormal Activity” playbook to a T.) Except that the frustrating result winds up on the less haunting end of Shyamalan’s filmography, far south of “The Sixth Sense,” “Signs” and “The Village,” and not even as unsettling as the most effective moments in the hokey “The Happening.”

That’s not to say “The Visit” is necessarily worse than some of those efforts, just a different kind of animal. The simplicity of the premise initially works in the pic’s favor as 15-year-old aspiring documentarian Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and her 13-year-old aspiring-rap-star sibling Tyler (Ed Oxenbould of “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”) say goodbye to their hard-working single mom (Kathryn Hahn, better than the fleeting role deserves), who ships off on a weeklong cruise with her latest boyfriend. The kids travel by train to rural Pennsylvania to meet Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie), the purportedly kindly parents Mom left behind when she took off with her high-school English teacher and caused a permanent rift in the family.

Popular on Variety

Becca plans to turn the whole experience into an Oscar-caliber documentary (proving she sets her sights higher than Shyamalan these days) and also an opportunity to exorcise the personal demons both she and Tyler carry around in the wake of their parents’ separation. Unfortunately for the kids, their grandparents appear to be possessed by demons of another kind — although it takes an awfully long time for them to grow legitimately concerned about Nana’s nasty habit of roaming the house at night, vomiting on the floor and scratching at the walls in the nude, and Pop Pop’s almost-as-bizarre behavior, including stuffing a woodshed full of soiled adult diapers, attacking a stranger on the street and regularly dressing in formal wear for a “costume party” that never materializes.

Ominous warnings to not go into the basement (because of “mold,” you see) and stay in their room after 9:30 (Nana’s “bedtime”) fly right over the heads of our otherwise pop-culture-savvy protagonists. Becca even stubbornly refuses to use her omnipresent camera for nighttime reconnaissance, citing concerns over exploitation and “cinematic standards” — one of the lamest excuses yet to justify dumb decisions in a horror narrative — until the weeklong stay is almost up.

Shyamalan has long been criticized for serving up borderline (or downright) silly premises with a straight face and overtly pretentious atmosphere, but he basically abandons that approach here in favor of a looser, more playful dynamic between his fresh-faced leads. At the same time, there’s a surreal campiness to the grandparents’ seemingly inexplicable behavior, fully embraced by Tony winner Dunagan and Scottish character actor McRobbie, that encourages laughter between ho-hum jump scares. Their antics only reach full-blown menacing in the perverse-by-PG-13-standards third act. (The obligatory reveal of what’s really going on works OK, as long as you don’t question it any more than anyone onscreen ever does.)

Even if there’s less chance the audience will burst out in fits of inappropriate chuckles, as was often the case in, say, “The Happening” or “Lady in the Water,” Shyamalan still can’t quite pull off the delicate tonal balance he’s after. Once events ultimately do turn violent — and Nana does more than just scamper around the floor or pop up directly in front of the camera — the setpieces are never as scary or suspenseful as they should be. Even worse are the film’s attempts at character-driven drama, including a couple of awkward soul-baring monologues from the otherwise poised young stars, and a ludicrous epilogue that presumes auds will have somehow formed an emotional bond with characters who actually remain skin-deep throughout. One longs to see what a nervier filmmaker could have done with the concept (and a R rating).

The technical package is deliberately less slick than the Shyamalan norm, although scripting Becca as a budding filmmaker interested in mise en scene provides d.p. Maryse Alberti (whose numerous doc credits include multiple Alex Gibney features) an excuse to capture images with a bit more craft than the average found footage thriller. Shyamalan purposefully decided to forego an original score, but the soundtrack is rarely silent between the chattering of the children, a selection of source music and the eerie sound editing that emphasizes every creaking door and loud crash substituting for well-earned frights.

Reviewed at Arclight Cinemas, Hollywood, Sept. 8, 2015. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 94 MIN.

Production: A Universal release of a Blinding Edge Pictures and Blumhouse production. Produced by Jason Blum, Marc Bienstock, M. Night Shyamalan. Executive producers, Steven Schneider, Ashwin Rajan.
Crew: Directed, written by M. Night Shyamalan. Camera (color, HD), Maryse Alberti; editor, Luke Ciarrocchi; music supervisor, Susan Jacobs; production designer, Naaman Marshall; art director, Scott Anderson; set decorator, Christine Wick; costume designer, Amy Westcott; sound (Dolby Digital), David J. Schwartz; supervising sound editor/re-recording mixer, Skip Lievsay; visual effects supervisor, Ruben Rodas; visual effects, Dive VFX; stunt coordinator, Manny Siverio; casting, Douglas Aibel.
With: Olivia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould, Deanna Dunagan, Peter McRobbie, Kathryn Hahn, Celia Keenan-Bolger.

More From Our Brands

Andrew watt waited his entire life to produce pearl jam’s new album ‘dark matter’, aston martin’s fastest-ever vantage makes formula 1® debut, a worrywart’s guide to the 2024 paris olympics, be tough on dirt but gentle on your body with the best soaps for sensitive skin, taylor swift has seen ryan gosling’s ‘all too well’ cover on snl — but does she approve, verify it's you, please log in.

The Visit (2015) Cast and Crew

Movie Recommendations

Featured News

James McAvoy Starring in ‘Speak No Evil’

Movie Reviews

Follow Moviefone

Movie trailers.

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Upcoming Movies and TV shows
Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

What's the Tomatometer®?
Login/signup

Movies in theaters

Opening this week
Top box office
Coming soon to theaters
Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

Fandango at Home
Netflix streaming
Prime Video
Most popular streaming movies
What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

Civil War Link to Civil War
Monkey Man Link to Monkey Man
The First Omen Link to The First Omen

New TV Tonight

The Sympathizer: Season 1
Our Living World: Season 1
Under the Bridge: Season 1
The Spiderwick Chronicles: Season 1
Conan O'Brien Must Go: Season 1
Orlando Bloom: To the Edge: Season 1
The Circle: Season 6
Dinner with the Parents: Season 1
Jane: Season 2

What to know

Critics Consensus

An earnest drama, The Visit gains much emotional power through its fine performances. Read critic reviews

Rate And Review

Super Reviewer

Rate this movie

Oof, that was Rotten.

Meh, it passed the time.

It’s good – I’d recommend it.

So Fresh: Absolute Must See!

What did you think of the movie? (optional)

You're almost there! Just confirm how you got your ticket.

Step 2 of 2

How did you buy your ticket?

Let's get your review verified..

AMCTheatres.com or AMC App New

Cinemark Coming Soon

We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future.

Regal Coming Soon

Theater box office or somewhere else

By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie.

You're almost there! Just confirm how you got your ticket.

The visit photos.

Alex Waters (Hill Harper) has been convicted of rape and sentenced to 25 years in prison, although he maintains he is innocent. Alex is up for parole, dying of AIDS and seeking redemption. As a psychiatrist (Phylicia Rashad) helps him reconcile with his past, he receives visits from the important figures in his life: his older brother (Obba Babatunde), his authoritarian father (Billy Dee Williams) and his loving mother (Marla Gibbs). As he works past his anger, Alex evolves into a new man.

Genre: Drama

Original Language: English

Director: Jordan Walker-Pearlman

Producer: Jordan Walker-Pearlman

Box Office (Gross USA): $186.4K

Runtime: 1h 47m

Sound Mix: Surround

Cast & Crew

Hill Harper

Obba Babatundé

Rae Dawn Chong

Billy Dee Williams

Marla Gibbs

Lois Waters

Phylicia Rashad

Talia Shire

David Clennon

Glynn Turman

Efrain Figueroa

Amy Stiller

Jascha Washington

Christopher Babers

Jennifer Freeman

Young Felicia

Guard Enheim

Charmin Lee White

Mrs. Tony Waters

Terrell Mitchell

Enoh Essien

Tony's Daughter

Mr. McDonald

Jordan Lund

Photographer

Jordan Walker-Pearlman

Suzanne Columbia

Executive Producer

Anastasia King

Morris Ruskin

Kosmond Russell

Critic Reviews for The Visit

Audience reviews for the visit.

There are no featured reviews for The Visit because the movie has not released yet ().

Movie & TV guides

Play Daily Tomato Movie Trivia

Discover What to Watch

Rotten Tomatoes Podcasts

Recently, we've done several changes to help out this wiki, from deleting empty pages, improving the navigation, adding a rules page, as well as merging film infoboxes.

You can check out the latest overhauls that we have done on this wiki so far, as well as upcoming updates in our announcement post here .

Horror films
American fantasy films
Films directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Found Footage films
2010s films
Rated PG-13
View history

The Visit is a 2015 American "found footage" style horror-fantasy written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan , and produced by Shyamalan, Jason Blum, Marc Bienstock, Steven Schneider, and Ashwin Rajan.

The film stars Kathryn Hahn, Ed Oxenbould, Peter McRobbie, and Benjamin Kanes. It was released vis Universal Pictures on September 11, 2015.

3.1 Trailers
3.2 Reviews
5 References

Philadelphia teens, 15-year-old Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and her 13-year-old brother Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), prepare for a five-day visit with their maternal grandparents while their divorced mother, Loretta Jamison (Kathryn Hahn) goes on a cruise with her new boyfriend.

The two kids (who have never met their grandparents) intend to film a documentary about their visit. Loretta reveals that she has not spoken to her parents in fifteen years after having married her high-school teacher Corin, of whom her parents disapproved.

The father of Becca and Tyler, Corin left Loretta after ten years for another woman. Loretta tells Becca little about the disagreement she had with her parents that led to their estrangement, suggesting that Becca ask them for the details instead.

Becca and Tyler meet their grandparents (Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie), who Becca refers to as "Nana" and "Pop Pop". At the isolated farmhouse, Becca and Tyler are instructed to never go into the basement because it contains toxic mold, and that bedtime is 9:30 p.m.

An hour past curfew, Becca ventures downstairs for something to eat and sees Nana projectile vomiting, frightening her. She tells Pop Pop, who dismisses it as Nana having the stomach flu. He reminds her not to leave the room after 9:30.

Over the next few days, Becca and Tyler notice their grandparents exhibiting more strange, sometimes frightening behavior. Pop Pop keeps mentioning a white light he sees. When Becca asks Nana about what happened the day Loretta left home, Nana begins shaking and screaming. Pop Pop and Nana are later confronted by a woman who was helped by them in counseling; she goes into the backyard with them but is never seen leaving.

Tyler (concerned about the occurrences) decides to secretly film what happens downstairs at night. Nana discovers the hidden camera, retrieves a large knife and unsuccessfully tries to break into the children's locked bedroom.

When Becca and Tyler view the camera footage of Nana with the knife, they contact their mother via Skype, begging her to come get them. When shown images of Pop Pop and Nana, Loretta panics upon the realization that they are not her parents.

Becca and Tyler attempt to leave the house and end up seeing the woman from earlier hung from a nearby tree. The impostors then trap them and force them to play Yahtzee. Becca sneaks to the basement, where she finds the corpses of the real Pop Pop and Nana, along with uniforms from the mental hospital they worked at, indicating the impostors are escaped patients.

Pop Pop grabs Becca and imprisons her in his bedroom with Nana, who tries to eat her. Becca fatally stabs Nana with a glass shard from a broken mirror, then tries to save Tyler. The Pop Pop imposter reveals to Tyler that the plan was to have a wonderful week "as a family" before dying so that they could reach the white light together.

After Becca's attempts to hold back Pop Pop, Tyler tackles Pop Pop to the floor and repeatedly slams the refrigerator door on his head, killing him. The two escape outside where they are met by their incoming mother and police officers.

In the aftermath, Becca asks Loretta about what happened the day she left home. Loretta states that she had a fight with her parents in which she hit her mother. After that, she left home and ignored their attempts to contact her. Loretta concludes that reconciliation was always possible had she wanted it. She tells Becca not to hold on to anger over her father's abandonment.

Olivia DeJonge as Becca
Ed Oxenbould as Tyler
Kathryn Hahn as Loretta Jamison
Deanna Dunagan as "Nana"\Maria Bella Jamison
Peter McRobbie as "Pop Pop"\Frederick Spencer Jamison
Benjamin Kanes as Corin
Celia Keenan-Bolger as Stacey
Jon Douglas Rainey, Brian Gildea, Shawn Gonzalez, and Richard Barlow as police
Erica Lynne Marszalek and Shawn Gonzalez as passengers on a train
Michael Mariano as a hairy-chested contestant

Trailers [ ]

Reviews [ ].

References [ ]

1 Civil War
2 Walt Disney Animation Studios

Navajo-language films
Found Footage films
Films of the 2010s
Films directed by M. Night Shyamalan

The Visit (2015)

View history

The Visit is a 2015 American found-footage comedy horror film written, co-produced and directed by M. Night Shyamalan and starring Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould.

5 References
6 External links

Rebecca and Tyler prepare for a week-long stay with their grandparents John and Maribella, while their mother Loretta goes on a cruise with her new boyfriend. The two kids, who have never met their grandparents, intend to film a documentary following them along their VISIT. Loretta has not seen her parents for 15 years, after she eloped with her high-school teacher, who has since left her. She tells Rebecca little about her disagreement with her parents, suggesting that she asked for more details. John and Maribella greet Rebecca and Tyler at the train station. Once they are settled in their grandparents' isolated farmhouse, Rebecca and Tyler are instructed to never go into the basement because it contains toxic mold. That night, John tells Rebecca and Tyler that as he and Maribella are elderly, they go to bed at 9:30 p.m. An hour past "curfew" Rebecca goes into the kitchen for a snack and sees Maribella projectile vomiting. Later Rebecca mentions it to John, who dismisses it saying that Maribella has the stomach flu. Over the next few days, Rebecca and Tyler notice their grandparents exhibiting more strange behavior. When Rebecca asks Maribella what happened the day Loretta left home, Maribella begins to shake it off until Rebecca restrains her. John and Maribella are later confronted by a woman who helps them in counseling; she is seen entering the house but never leaving. Tyler, concerned about the occurrences, decides to secretly film what happens at night. Maribella discovers the hidden camera, retrieves a large knife, and unsuccessfully tries to break into the children's bedroom. When Rebecca and Tyler view the camera footage, they contact their mothers. When shown images of John and Maribella, Loretta panics and says those are not her parents. Rebecca and Tyler attempt to leave the house, but the imposters trap them and force them to "make it the perfect family night" and play yatzee. Rebecca excuses herself and escapes to the basement. There she finds the corpses of the real John and Maribella, along with uniforms from the mental hospital where they worked, concluding that the imposters are probably escaped patients. The fake John grabs Rebecca and imprisons her in a bedroom with fake Maribella, who then tries to eat her. Rebecca stabs fake Maribella with a glass shard, then flees. Rebecca tries to save Tyler, but fake John grabs her. Tyler tackles fake John to the floor, then slams his head in the fridge door until he dies. The two escape outside where they are met by Loretta and police. In the aftermath, Rebecca asks Loretta about what happened the day she left home. Loretta states she had a physical fight with her parents and never VISITED them after that. However, John and Maribella had tried to contact her afterwards, and Loretta concludes that reincolliation was always possible. She tells Rebecca not to hold anger after Robert and hugs her.

Olivia DeJonge as Becca
Ed Oxenbould as Tyler
Deanna Dunagan as Marja Bella Jamison (Claire), also known as "Nana"
Peter McRobbie as Frederick Spencer Jamison (Mitchell), also known as "Pop Pop"
Kathryn Hahn as Loretta Jamison, Becca and Tyler's mother
Patch Darragh as Dr. Sam
Celia Keenan-Bolger as Stacey

File:The Visit-Teaser One Sheet.jpg

References [ ]

External links [ ].

1 Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 (2024)
2 The Farm (2018)
3 Freddy Krueger (original timeline)

Letterboxd — Your life in film

Forgotten username or password ?

Start a new list…
Add all films to a list…
Add all films to watchlist

Add to your films…

Press Tab to complete, Enter to create

A moderator has locked this field.

Add to lists

Where to watch

2015 Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

No one loves you like your grandparents.

The terrifying story of a brother and sister who are sent to their grandparents' remote Pennsylvania farm for a weeklong trip. Once the children discover that the elderly couple is involved in something deeply disturbing, they see their chances of getting back home are growing smaller every day.

Olivia DeJonge Ed Oxenbould Deanna Dunagan Peter McRobbie Kathryn Hahn Celia Keenan-Bolger Samuel Stricklen Patch Darragh Jorge Cordova Steve Annan Benjamin Kanes Ocean James Seamus Moroney Dave Jia Sajida De Leon John Buscemi Richard Barlow Shawn Gonzalez Shelby Lackman

Director Director

M. Night Shyamalan

Producers Producers

M. Night Shyamalan John Burton West Jason Blum

Writer Writer

Casting casting.

Douglas Aibel

Editor Editor

Luke Ciarrocchi

Cinematography Cinematography

Maryse Alberti

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Brian Moon Sebastian Mazzola

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Steven Schneider Ashwin Rajan

Camera Operator Camera Operator

Peter Nolan

Production Design Production Design

Naaman Marshall

Art Direction Art Direction

Scott G. Anderson

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Christine Wick

Special Effects Special Effects

Dane Wilson

Visual Effects Visual Effects

Jennifer Wessner Bob Lowery

Stunts Stunts

Drew Leary Laurie Singer

Sound Sound

Skip Lievsay

Costume Design Costume Design

Amy Westcott

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Teresa Morgan

Blumhouse Productions Blinding Edge Pictures Universal Pictures dentsu

Releases by Date

10 sep 2015, 11 sep 2015, 17 sep 2015, 24 sep 2015, 25 sep 2015, 07 oct 2015, 08 oct 2015, 15 oct 2015, 22 oct 2015, 23 oct 2015, 19 nov 2015, 26 nov 2015, 11 dec 2015, 09 feb 2016, 16 aug 2022, 01 feb 2016, 23 feb 2016, 16 mar 2016, releases by country.

Theatrical M
Theatrical 14A
Physical 15
Theatrical 12
Digital VOD
Physical 12 DVD & Blu-Ray
Digital 12 Netflix
Theatrical 15A

Netherlands

Theatrical 16
Physical 16 DVD, Blu ray
Theatrical M/16

South Korea

Theatrical 15
Theatrical 15+
Theatrical PG-13

94 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by sexualjumanji ★★★★½ 9

Just called my grandparents and told them to fuck off forever.

Review by 𝚮𝖆𝖗𝖑𝖊𝖖𝖚𝖎𝖓𝖆𝖉𝖊 ❤️‍🔥 ★★★ 34

>5 minutes in >the kid starts rapping >I add this to my films that made me happy I’m childless list >9 minutes in >it happens again >I google "how to make sure you don't get pregnant" >89 minutes in >IT RAPS ONCE MORE >I decide sex is never worth the risk

📝 Shyamalan: ranked

Review by maria ★★ 17

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

bold of m. night shyamalan to include a scene where a diaper full of shit is being shoved into someone's face to symbolize how much shit he's gonna be shoving into our faces for the next 94 minutes

Review by ˗ˏˋ suspirliam ˊˎ˗ ★★★ 1

WHAT IN THE TAYLOR SWIFT WAS THAT

Review by cait ★★★ 6

if m. night wanted me to sympathise with the kids why did he make one of them a freestyle rapper. how am i supposed to find any sympathy towards that. little freak deserved everything that happened

Review by gab🦕 ★★★★ 6

you cannot convince me that this isn’t a comedy

Review by adambolt ★★½

I'm gonna act like this whenever my grandkids stay over just to fuck with them

Review by WraithApe ★★★ 23

Yo.. yo.. yo..

M. Night Shyamalan comin at ya with an alarmin yarn about Pop Pop and Nana livin the good life in homedown manor

Enter Becca and her litle bro far from a pro wannabe rapper T. Diamond Stylus Stubbin his toe with an 'Oh Mylie Cyrus!' droppin the mic with a 'HO'

Got a ringside seat M. Night finds footage thru documentary conceit Set-up's begun take it back to film school, 101 Establishing shot, set-up again zoom lens, cross cut, mise-en-scène

Goin meta with Becca but Nana's still gonna get her Makin night moves outside the door Sundown fright on a lower floor red eyes fed by satanic delight

Pop's runnin shit like dystentry Pilin up diapers like…

Review by SilentDawn ★★★★½ 16

The works of M. Night Shyamalan, no matter the quality, are each on a quest of searching mystery and eventual discovery. All of his films are bursting with uneasy traps and elusive secrets, and it is these traits in which Shyamalan's fame was built upon. To say he had a dry spell is a massive understatement, but as soon as The Visit flares up with its opening shot, a startling vision immediately makes its presence known.

I felt like I was home again.

The Visit , while advertised as a silly and creepy chiller, is more of an insane boiling pot of family turmoil and batshit antics. It's a bewildering mix of humor, horror, and heart-wrenching dramatic impact, and each…

Review by Josh Lewis ★★★★ 4

"Old people sometimes have troubles with their body" "People leave. They find something better."

Doesn't quite have the scope of his early work but probably the most vital found footage filmmaking has felt in... ever? Shyamalan's visual grace & intelligence blends really well with the cheap, modern ageism Hansel & Gretal exploitation movie he's making here and he very effectively uses the immediacy inherent to the form to sneak real sudden thrills into some of his usual themes of familial breakdown/estrangement and masking/physically overcoming emotional trauma. There are a number of very creepily conceived shocks but weirdly enough the film is much more emotionally clear & cathartic than it is scary by the end. It totally works though so I have trouble seeing this as a bad thing.

Review by Gonzo ★★★½ 47

▶ 2015 Movie Rankings

▶ RANKED: M. Night Shyamalan

Is it better than Mad Max: Fury Road ? Even a (very welcome and long-awaited) Shyamalan resurgence can't top the chrome juggernaut.

Wait, wait, wait, hold up, hold up... Shyamalan made a good movie?! M. Night Shyamalan? What?! Yes, people, believe it. Your favorite punching bag is back with a vengeance. It's not as great as The Sixth Sense or Unbreakable , but it's a step in the right direction.

Is there a twist? It's Shyamalan. Of course, there's a twist.

Is the twist predictable? I saw it coming from the get-go. It's a pretty good twist though. It's the sort that doesn't ruin the fun even if you do guess it early…

Review by Neil Bahadur ★★★★½ 11

Unbelievable. Probably my 2nd favourite Shyamalan...one of the great films where everything you thought was right turns out to be wrong, and certainly the scariest film Shyamalan has made. There is explosive digital formalism, cameras seem to be attached to bodies and in moments of intense, quick movement the frame is obscured by flinging hair and occasional ruptures in the image of a human face; abstractions which could be only captured by the size of consumer grade cameras. In a way, it's inspiring because of that.

But much of this movie's terror comes from the opposite of Shyamalan's earlier tendencies, that we should believe in ghosts and demons ala Dreyer or Tourneur. Rather, people are terrifying, and even worse, family.…

Similar Films

Select your preferred poster

Upgrade to remove ads.

Letterboxd is an independent service created by a small team, and we rely mostly on the support of our members to maintain our site and apps. Please consider upgrading to a Pro account —for less than a couple bucks a month, you’ll get cool additional features like all-time and annual stats pages ( example ), the ability to select (and filter by) your favorite streaming services, and no ads!

The Ending Of The Visit Explained

The Visit M. Night Shyamalan Olivia DeJonge Deanna Dunagan

Contains spoilers for The Visit

M. Night Shyamalan is notorious for using dramatic twists towards the endings of his films, some of which are pulled off perfectly and add an extra layer of depth to a sprawling story (hello, Split ). Some of the director's other offerings simply keep the audience on their toes rather than having any extra subtext or hidden meaning. Shyamalan's 2015 found-footage horror-comedy The Visit , which he wrote and directed, definitely fits in the latter category, aiming for style over substance.

The Visit follows 15-year-old Becca Jamison (Olivia DeJonge) and her 13-year-old brother Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) when they spend the week with their mother's estranged parents, who live in another town. Loretta (played by WandaVision 's Kathryn Hahn ) never explained to her children why she separated herself away from her parents, but clearly hopes the weekend could help bring the family back together.

Although The Visit occasionally toys with themes of abandonment and fear of the unknown, it wasn't particularly well-received by critics on its initial release, as many struggled with its bizarre comedic tone in the found-footage style. So, after Tyler and his camera record a number of disturbing occurrences like Nana (Deanna Dunagan) projectile-vomiting in the middle of the night and discovering "Pop Pop"'s (Peter McRobbie) mountain of used diapers, it soon becomes clear that something isn't right with the grandparents.

Here's the ending of The Visit explained.

The Visit's twist plays on expectations

Because Shyamalan sets up the idea of the separation between Loretta and her parents very early on — and doesn't show their faces before Becca and Tyler meet them — the film automatically creates a false sense of security. Even more so since the found-footage style restricts the use of typical exposition methods like flashbacks or other scenes which would indicate that Nana and Pop Pop aren't who they say they are. Audiences have no reason to expect that they're actually two escapees from a local psychiatric facility.

The pieces all come together once Becca discovers her real grandparents' corpses in the basement, along with some uniforms from the psychiatric hospital. It confirms "Nana" and "Pop-Pop" escaped from the institution and murdered the Jamisons because they were a similar age, making it easy to hide their whereabouts from the authorities. And they would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling kids.)

However, after a video call from Loretta reveals that the pair aren't her parents, the children are forced to keep up appearances — but the unhinged duo start to taunt the siblings. Tyler in particular is forced to face his fear of germs as "Pop Pop" wipes dirty diapers in his face. The germophobia is something Shyamalan threads through Tyler's character throughout The Visit, and the encounter with "Pop Pop" is a basic attempt of showing he's gone through some kind of trial-by-fire to get over his fears.

But the Jamison kids don't take things lying down: They fight back in vicious fashion — a subversion of yet another expectation that young teens might would wait for adults or law enforcement officers to arrive before doing away with their tormentors.

Its real message is about reconciliation

By the time Becca stabs "Nana" to death and Tyler has repeatedly slammed "Pop-Pop"'s head with the refrigerator door, their mother and the police do arrive to pick up the pieces. In a last-ditch attempt at adding an emotional undertone, Shyamalan reveals Loretta left home after a huge argument with her parents. She hit her mother, and her father hit her in return. But Loretta explains that reconciliation was always on the table if she had stopped being so stubborn and just reached out. One could take a domino-effect perspective and even say that Loretta's stubbornness about not reconnecting and her sustained distance from her parents put them in exactly the vulnerable position they needed to be for "Nana" and "Pop-Pop" to murder them.

Loretta's confession actually mirrors something "Pop-Pop" told Tyler (before his run-in with the refrigerator door): that he and "Nana" wanted to spend one week as a normal family before dying. They should've thought about that before murdering a pair of innocent grandparents, but here we are.

So, is The Visit trying to say that if we don't keep our families together, they'll be replaced by imposters and terrify our children? Well, probably not. The Visit tries to deliver a message about breaking away from old habits, working through your fears, and stop being so stubborn over arguments that don't have any consequences in the long-run. Whether it actually sticks the landing on all of those points is still up for debate.

PG-13 | thrillers | 1 HR 34 MIN | 2015

A teen and her little brother travel to meet their grandparents whose behavior soon takes a bizarre and scary turn. Olivia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould, Deanna Dunagan, Peter McRobbie and Kathryn Hahn star.

SNL: Ryan Gosling Sings an Ode to Barbenheimer in a Parody of Taylor Swift's "All Too Well"

Gosling also gets a special visit from Kate McKinnon and Emily Blunt.

The Big Picture

Ryan Gosling's return to SNL was iconic, with a hilarious monologue and cold open setting the tone for a fantastic episode.
A classic UFO sketch with Gosling and Kate McKinnon returned, bringing laughs and charm to the show once again.
Gosling said farewell to his role as Ken in Barbie in a musical monologue, featuring Emily Blunt and Taylor Swift's "All Too Well."

This week's Saturday Night Live brought us Ryan Gosling back as host with musical guest Chris Stapleton, and it was wonderful to have him return to the show. Gosling's opening monologue and cold open really set the tone in the best way, promising a fantastic episode as he continues to ride the Barbenheimer high right into his new movie The Fall Guy . The episode kicked off with a returning sketch that we know and love!

The series used Gosling's iconic role as Ken to its advantage and the way that he can charm an audience to start the episode with a bang. Gosling consistently proves that he is one of the best hosts the show has had — it's always hilarious when even the cast members can't keep a straight face. This episode was instantly one of the funniest of the year so far, and his monologue will go down as one of the show's best!

Your Favorite Alien Abductees Return for an Out-of-This-World Cold Open

Gosling has some iconic sketches on Saturday Night Live already built into his repertoire. One of them is a UFO sketch that he did years ago with Kate McKinnon . Just when you think that it might not happen, the show itself kicked off with a brand-new edition of the sketch with McKinnon returning! The cold open took us back into the set-up that we know and love.

Gosling was part of a crew of people who were taken by aliens and brought to space. McKinnon, of course, had a very different experience than Gosling and Sarah Sherman with the aliens, getting a more gritty version of alien abduction. Listening to them all talk about Gosling's genitalia and how the aliens reacted to it was genuinely hilarious. Kicking off the entire episode by bringing one of our all-time favorite sketches back was pretty incredible.

Ryan Gosling's Epic Farewell to Ken

What is better than Gosling just delivering a funny monologue? Gosling singing, of course! In his monologue, Gosling decided that it was time to say farewell to his now Oscar-nominated role of Ken in the film Barbie . There to promote his film The Fall Guy , Gosling decided instead that it was time to say goodbye to everyone's favorite blonde boyfriend. But when Emily Blunt appears, she's upset that he didn't focus on their film and doing stunts instead.

However, after Blunt attempts to pivot the conversation to The Fall Guy , Gosling asks her if she misses her time in Oppenheimer and the summer of Barbenheimer, leading to her joining in on the song, and singing farewell to Kitty. It was hilarious, perfect, and all set to Taylor Swift 's "All Too Well" and making it a perfect monologue for Gosling.

The full episode of Saturday Night Live is available to stream on Peacock in the U.S.

Saturday Night Live

A famous guest host stars in parodies and sketches created by the cast of this witty show.

Watch on Peacock

Cast & crew

The Watchers

A young artist gets stranded in an extensive, immaculate forest in western Ireland, where, after finding shelter, she becomes trapped alongside three strangers, stalked by mysterious creatur... Read all A young artist gets stranded in an extensive, immaculate forest in western Ireland, where, after finding shelter, she becomes trapped alongside three strangers, stalked by mysterious creatures each night. A young artist gets stranded in an extensive, immaculate forest in western Ireland, where, after finding shelter, she becomes trapped alongside three strangers, stalked by mysterious creatures each night.

Ishana Shyamalan
Dakota Fanning
Olwen Fouéré
Georgina Campbell

Mina's Mother

Little Girl

All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

Trivia Based on the book of the same name by A.M. Shine who also co-wrote the script.
Connections Referenced in All About: All About Horror in 2024 (2023)