Welcome back, M. Night Shyamalan we've missed you. It's great to welcome back the noted "Sixth Sense" director with a tense, well-made and low-key thriller, and his chilling new low-budget horror film, co-produced with prolific low-budget horror filmmaker Jason Blum, is his best film since 2002's "Signs." Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and younger brother Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) say goodbye to their mother (Kathryn Hahn) as they board a train and head deep into Pennsylvania farm country to meet their estranged maternal grandparents for the first time. Welcomed by Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie), all seems well until the siblings start to notice increasingly strange behavior from the seemingly charming couple. Once the children discover a shocking secret, they begin to wonder if they'll ever make it home. Directed and written by Shyamalan, "The Visit" is devoid of big stars and big twists yet filled with a nice, disturbing atmosphere and humor that's been missing from his films over the years and will certainly have you wondering if your grandparents really are crazy. You'll find some of Shyamalan's trademarks: the chilly Pennsylvania (Shyamalan is a native) locale, some fun old movie references (among them, Michael Myers), plenty of clues and a truly creepy story that is well-handled by the director, including the final plot twist, which unlike other Shyalaman twists, is most surprising because it's revealed so casually and low-key. Most memorable are the two newcomers who ground the film so well, the wistful DeJonge and especially delightful Australian actor Oxenbould (of "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day"), whose original, made-up rap tunes steal the movie (and stay over the credits for the best one), as well as the strange, eerie grandparents, Irish actor McRobbie and in one of the nuttiest turns seen in awhile, Tony-award winner Dunagan as the primary reason to stay in bed after 9:30 pm. Shyalaman also tries to incorporate a semi-touching but mostly maudlin backstory into "The Visit," which is less successful than either its understated humor or its genuinely weird vibe; also the movie's more annoying moments come as it relies on the overused found-footage/let's-film-everything theme and in spite of a somewhat sloppy climax, overall there's enough solid chills to make it work. Shyalaman also loves to layout obvious hints, and there's plenty to keep you guessing in the satisfyingly tense, enjoyably chilling "The Visit," which marks a nice return to form for the director. Definitely worth a look and one of the better horror films of late.
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