The Visit (2015)

In 1999 M.Night Shyamalan exploded onto the horror/thriller scene and into our hearts with the masterpiece that was the Sixth Sense. A film with one of the most shocking and unexpected twists since Darth Vader turned out to be Luke Skywalker's father or Michael Caine snogged Christopher Reeve - sadly though he never really managed to quite reach the standard again and in fact not only gave us some truly awful stinkers (Lady In The Water) but some complete let-downs of epic proportions (The Village).

However, the twist in M.Night Shyamalan's latest movie THE VISIT is...it doesn't suck.

So the premise - almost "found footage" as most is filmed through our two young star's camera as they are making a documentary. Two young children go to stay with their estranged grandparents in a remote part of the country while their mother goes on holiday for some catching up on her missed youth.

The stay is staggered and jumpy but takes a turn down surreal alley when the grandmother starts leaving her bed at night to exhibit odd behaviours round the house such as running up and down and clawing at the wall while naked.

The grandfather explains that this is a medical condition similar to sleepwalking and appears to be the steady rock until it's revealed that he cannot control his bowels and stores his soiled adult nappies in a big pile in his shed. A little later our children catch him resting his shotgun in his mouth before changing position and sheepishly explaining that he was only cleaning it.

The behaviours get stranger and stranger and the children start to document it all. Something is certainly not right with the old couple and the night time wanderings are just the start.

So now we get to "the twist" - of course I'm not going to tell you what it is here, but being an M.Night Shyamalan movie you will, as I was, be guessing what it might be from the start, and much like The Village I managed to figure it out in about 15 minutes - so the rest of the film was just to wait to see if I was right.

Our characters in The Visit are played greatly, and Shyamalan has seemed to return to his stripped down basics of a film which puts you right in the middle of the action. Plenty of jump-scares ensue and a who pile of moments where you'll actually be puzzled and shocked at what is happening as The Visit turns into surreal thriller and you're never 100% sure which path it might take next.

Creepy and minimalist - a return to form.

7/10 Skulls.