Texan Mosaic

by:NICOLE TRUGILLO/Editor-in-Chief

There are many horror movie clichés that producers include in their movies.

I’m going to be blunt and get straight to the point. “The Visit” is a poor excuse for a horror movie, and the biggest cliché is that it’s a film that circles around a “found footage” style.

Is anyone else getting exhausted from these films?

When I first watched the trailer for the movie, I was excited, because it seemed interesting. During the weekend, I decided to check it out. Thank goodness I didn’t waste any money on watching this poor excuse for a horror film, because I almost fell asleep through half of it. The plot is interesting, and that’s the only reason why I finished the movie.

The film starts off with mom (Kathryn Hahn) talking into a camera and explaining how she ran away from home when she was a teenager. She then goes on and explains how her children Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) are going to be visiting their grandparents for a week.

The next scene has lettering reading “TUESDAY MORNING,” which every horror movie expert knows means that there is going to be creepy things happening later on in the film.

Becca instructs Tyler and explains that  she wants to make a film for their mom about her childhood and do interviews with their grandparents. Tyler, being the immature 13-year-old, steals the camera once and awhile, making the audience laugh with his immature personality. But Becca constantly tells him to focus, and he eventually gets the hang of it.

Both Becca and Tyler are happy to meet their grandparents and relieved that they treat them kindly because of the circumstances of what happened in the past with their mom. But something is strange about them.

Nana (Deanna Dunagan) is the cliché grandmother. She always wear her gray hair in a bun, she bakes and makes sure the grandchildren are well fed. Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie) is a farmer who keeps reminding the grandchildren that he and Nana are old, but he has a great sense of humor. The only rule is Becca and Tyler have to be in bed before 9:30 p.m. The bedtime does sound a little strange, but it only adds to the strangeness that is about to happen.

There is one incident when Tyler investigates why Pop Pop always goes into the barn and keeps it locked. The results will literally make you vomit. Nana, on the other hand, has a weird obsession with Becca cleaning the oven and her getting “all the way into the oven.”

One night, Becca and Tyler hear strange noises coming from their bedroom, and when they open the door they see Nana crawling around and bending in ways no human should ever do.

Yes, there are some parts that will make you flinch and jump from your seat. But this film will definitely not give you nightmares. It was more of a comedy, and Oxenbould takes the award for that. He plays the annoying and immature teenager who everyone adores and hates at the same time. DeJouge also plays the role of big sister very well.

“The Visit” was released in theaters on Sept. 11, and it has been a huge disappointment. The trailer makes it seem like a horror film, and the genre is listed as horror as well. Whoever is in charge of that should be fired, because this film is more of a comedy, not a horror film.

Director M. Night Shyamalan should be ashamed of this movie. He worked on “The Sixth Sense, “Signs,” and “The Happening.” I really enjoyed those movies, but I can’t say the same for “The Visit.”

Let me give some advice for future directors, writers, and producers. The “home video, found footage” films are dead. They are a thing of the past, so stop overusing them because you’re not fooling anyone. It is not a scare tactic; it’s a tactic for moviegoers to not watch the movie. I probably speak for every horror movie lover when I say this.

Think outside the box when writing horror movies, and stop using the first-person camera view, or I will turn the other way and not give the movie a chance.

I give this film one star (only because of the humor) out of five.