After having seen trailer after trailer for it before I could enjoy my YouTube videos a month back, I finally saw "The Visit" in theaters (and as anyone else who has gone from Beloit College to the Luxury 10 on foot would know, I took great pains to do so). I was very impressed, and it just may be my new favorite horror movie.
I personally dislike it when a movie's exposition is too long -- I can only keep learning about the setting and protagonist(s) for so long before I start demanding some plot. If you also dislike that, you'll be happy to know that the exposition of "The Visit" is barely even there. It doesn't really expose much other than Tyler and Becca's personalities and that they will be visiting their grandparents, and it ends before Day One of their visit does. In other words, the scares start on the first night of their visit. Although the lack of prior suspicion and Eh, it's probably nothings was a bit different than what I'm used to and made the story seem less realistic, it was not enough to make me dislike the movie. Quite to the contrary, I would say I liked the movie more for this -- I watched it for the adrenaline rush I knew would come with the jumpscares, and the sooner that comes, the better.
Being a jumpscare lover is probably what contributed the most to my love for this movie. This movie has a ton of jumpscares in it, all of which were executed excellently. I had gasped audibly, squealed a bit, and even actually jumped out of my seat quite a few times during the screening. Although this movie was situation-specific enough that I won't have nightmares about it, I might have nightmares about a certain "rawr" face that the grandmother made during one of the jumpscares. That said, the jumpscares were not the only scary aspect of this movie. I loved the twist near the end, which completely changed the way I saw the grandparents. It was, without a doubt, the icing on the cake -- especially given Becca's willingness to rationalize the grandparents' every action. The buildup to the plot twist leaves the viewer mentally asking questions upon questions upon questions, and when those questions were all answered at once, my jaw hit the floor.
As much as I love "The Visit," I would be loath not to acknowledge its problematic aspects. One of those is anti-Blackness. Tyler, who is white, rapped several times throughout the movie. He was praised for his rap skills and endearingly called "ethnically confused" by his sister, but there was no Black representation to speak of -- except for maybe the flight attendant, who had only a few lines and one appearance throughout the entire movie. Other than him, the cast was entirely white. It is appalling that they can represent something that had its origins in Black culture and even have Tyler rap in AAVE (African American Vernacular English), but not represent Black people.
Another problematic aspect of "The Visit" is its demonization of neurodivergent people (people with mental disorders). The antagonists of the movie were both neurodivergent. They were portrayed as violent, strange, and scary, and their mental disorders were implied to be the only reason why they did what they did. Unfortunately, we do not live in a world where everyone who watches a movie with a character of an oppressed group will think, "This is just one fictional character. Not all people of this demographic are like that, and people of this demographic are still worthy of my respect even if one person from it does that." People tend to generalize oppressed groups based on an impression they get from seeing one person from it, sometimes even if that person is fictitious. Because there were no neurodivergent characters who weren't evil, this movie will have given at least one person the impression that all neurodivergent people are to be feared; that one need not have compassion for them and still see them as a human being. The representation of neurodivergent people as inherently violent, weird, and not to be trusted is a tired trope that I would like to see less of. Why are evil people evil because they're neurodivergent? Personally, I think the movie would have been a lot scarier if the antagonists were not malicious because of their mental disorders, but because they were genuinely evil. "The Visit" was impressive, but its poor representation of neurodivergent people and barely-there representation of Black people was not.
