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Watch The Visit with a subscription on Max, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

The Visit provides horror fans with a satisfying blend of thrills and laughs -- and also signals a welcome return to form for writer-director M. Night Shyamalan.

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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 .

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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

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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.

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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 [ ]

• Films written by Shyamalan
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The Visit is a 2015 American comedy horror film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan . The film stars Olivia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould, Deanna Dunagan, Peter McRobbie and Kathryn Hahn. The film was released in North America on September 11, 2015 by Universal Pictures.

External links [ ]

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• Films directed by M. Night Shyamalan

The Visit (2015)

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.

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• 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 The Farm (2018)
• 2 Brahms Heelshire

The Ending Of The Visit Explained

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.

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The Visit is a 2015 horror film from M. Night Shyamalan . Two children staying with their grandparents while their mother is on vacation realize that something is horribly wrong with Nana and Pop Pop when strange things start happening after 9:30 pm.

No relation to the play or video game of the same name.

This movie provides examples of:

• Subverted when she realizes that her children have been staying with strangers and not their real grandparents. She immediately calls the police and sets out to save them, telling them to escape to the neighbors as soon as possible.
• All There in the Script : The credits gives the names of the grandparents as Marja and Fredrick Jamison (the grandparents) and Claire and Mitchel (the imposters).
• Alone with the Psycho : The entire movie is the children stuck in the house with the two deranged "grandparents".
• An Aesop : Don't hold on to anger so much that you can't forgive/reconcile with someone, especially if they're your loved ones. Or they might end up killed and replaced by escaped mental patients before you get the chance.
• Ate His Gun : Becca walks in on the grandfather seemingly about to do this.
• Arbitrary Skepticism : Becca is adamant that there's nothing abnormal about grandma, even when they see her crawling on the floor and scratching the walls like an animal.
• Ax-Crazy : The grandparents, especially the grandma.
• Bittersweet Ending : Tyler and Becca kill "Nana" and "Pop Pop", but are initially traumatized by what they endured and what they had to do , though the final scene shows they largely grew out of the trauma and they seem better than ever. In addition, their real grandparents are dead and Loretta never got a chance to reconcile with them. She urges Tyler and Becca not to hate their father like she hated her parents.
• Bludgeoned to Death : Tyler kills "Pop Pop" by repeatedly slamming the fridge door on his head until he dies from it.
• Brick Joke : Becca scoffs at Tyler's request for him to rap at the end of the documentary, saying no documentary would dare do it. Not only does Tyler himself rap, but another rap song by East Coast Connection is played over the credits.
• Cassandra Truth : Tyler is the only one convinced in the beginning that something is wrong with the grandparents. Both Becca and their mother insist that "they're just old," and Becca doesn't come around until she finds her nana laughing at nothing in a rocking chair.
• Chekhov's Skill : Tyler's interest in football. Midway through the film, he confesses the reason why he thinks his father left: he froze in the middle of an important peewee league football game, allowing the other team to win. In the end, after freezing up when the grandfather assaults him, he takes the old man down after he threatens Becca, first by tackling him into the kitchen drawers, then slamming the fridge door into his head repeatedly.
• Deadpan Snarker : Becca. Becca: ( after Tyler spits a rap for her documentary ) Yes, 'cause that's exactly what an Oscar-winning documentary has over the end credits. A song about misogyny.
• Disappeared Dad : Becca and Tyler's father ran off with another woman prior to the events of the movie. They both have a lot of pent-up anger towards him because of it.
• Evil Old Folks : Something is most definitely wrong with Nana and Pop Pop.
• Excrement Statement : The fake Pop Pop smears Tyler's face with a used adult diaper.
• Fairytale Motifs : From the trailer and the poster, this seems to be something of a Hansel and Gretel tale. And the ultimate explanation for why everything happens is straight out of Little Red Riding Hood .
• Fan Disservice : The grandmother, oh so much. First flashing a pale, wrinkly naked buttcheek at the children as she turns away, then later scratching at a door like an animal while completely in the nude.
• Foreshadowing : The mundane explanations for the figure under the porch and what is in the woodshed predicts the non-supernatural twist at the end of the film.
• Found Footage Films : The kids are recording their trip and this footage seems to make up most of the film. Surprisingly for this genre, the footage is gorgeously shot, with Becca even setting up camera angles that provide full views of rooms — both resulting in longer, steadier takes than this genre is known for.
• Genre Savvy : Both of the kids, Becca for being an aspiring filmmaker and Tyler being... a 13-year-old, are pretty savvy in regards to what to do when dealing with horror-esque situations.
• Harmful to Minors : The protagonists are two kids who end up getting exposed to appalling violence, including finding the bodies of their murdered grandparents, and having to kill the unstable old couple they're staying with themselves.
• Irony : Becca catches all of the crazy on her cameras and still doesn't notice what is going on right in front of her.
• Insane Equals Violent : Nana's sundowning. She claws at walls and tries stabbing children in their sleep. Downplayed with Pop Pop who only gets violent once he's been exposed.
• Kick the Dog : In the climax, as he's getting ready to kill the boy, "Pop Pop" tells him, "You know what? I never liked you."
• Kill and Replace : The real Nana and Pop Pop were replaced by two of their own patients who were jealous of them and their perfect lives.
• Lampshade Hanging : Becca uses cinematography terms often and describes a scene's actual importance to the plot right after it happens.
• Done intentionally at the end of the climax when the mother's favorite song, a sappy classical string piece, blares as the children soaked in blood and crap flee into their mother's arms.
• Never Got to Say Goodbye : Overlaps with Parting-Words Regret . The mom's parents have been killed, and she never got the chance to reconcile with them.
• Offing the Offspring : Claire is revealed to have killed her own children during a schizophrenic episode, and the visit with the "grandchildren" was meant to be a way to make her feel like a mother again.
• Potty Failure : Pop Pop suffers from incontinence and has to excuse himself during the family game night after an embarrassing and very audible bowel movement.
• Precision F-Strike : Tyler lets one out after killing "Pop Pop" (and subsequently working through his greatest fear) .
• Red Herring : The Shed and the well are ominous and creepy, but they're ultimately irrelevant to the actual plot.
• The Reveal : "Nana" and "Pop Pop" are actually escaped mental patients that killed the real grandparents and stole their identities.
• Running Gag : Tyler decides to substitute curse words with the names of female pop stars.

• Deanna Dunagan's performance as Nana really drives this home. The "hide and seek" sequence is a perfect example of how much of a masterful Mood Whiplash the film can be.
• Snow Means Death : It's winter at the house, and the bleak landscape adds to the creepiness.
• Supernatural-Proof Father : Given a Gender Flip . Mom doesn't believe anything's wrong. At first .
• Too Dumb to Live : Stacey, you know these people are the escaped mental patients. You know that the people living at the house you're visiting haven't been seen for days. You're actively confronting said mental patients. Why are you going to follow them behind the house instead of getting help?
• Wham Line : "Those aren't your grandparents."
• "What Do They Fear?" Episode : Becca is afraid of mirrors and Tyler is afraid of germs. Becca irrationally believes her father left because he didn't think she was his pretty girl anymore. Tyler is obsessed with cleanliness as a method of controlling his life. Both of these get used against them, and they manage to conquer both of them .
• Would Hurt a Child : The "grandparents", big time.
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User history

• American films
• Blinding Edge Pictures
• Blumhouse Productions
• 2010s/Films
• September, 2015/Films
• Theatrically released films
• M. Night Shyamalan
• M. Night Shyamalan/Director
• M. Night Shyamalan/Writer
• Marc Bienstock
• Marc Bienstock/Producer
• Jason Blum/Producer
• Ashwin Rajan
• Ashwin Rajan/Executive producer
• Steven Schneider
• Steven Schneider/Executive producer
• M. Night Shyamalan/Producer
• Maryse Alberti
• Maryse Alberti/Cinematographer
• Luke Ciarrocchi
• Luke Ciarrocchi/Editor
• Olivia DeJonge
• Olivia DeJonge/Actor
• Ed Oxenbould
• Ed Oxenbould/Actor
• Deanna Dunagan
• Deanna Dunagan/Actor
• Peter McRobbie
• Peter McRobbie/Actor
• Kathryn Hahn
• Kathryn Hahn/Actor
• Celia Keenan-Bolger
• Celia Keenan-Bolger/Actor
• Samuel Stricklen
• Samuel Stricklen/Actor
• Patch Darragh
• Patch Darragh/Actor
• Jorge Cordova
• Jorge Cordova/Actor
• Steve Annan
• Steve Annan/Actor
• Benjamin Kanes
• Benjamin Kanes/Actor
• Ocean James
• Ocean James/Actor
• Seamus Moroney
• Seamus Moroney/Actor

The Visit is an American independent feature film of the horror and psycho-thriller genres. It was written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan and produced by Blinding Edge Pictures and Blumhouse Productions . It premiered theatrically in the United States on September 11th , 2015 . The film stars Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould as siblings Becca and Tyler. After their mother wins a cruise vacation, she sends her kids off into the country to spend the time with their grandparents, whom they have never met. Things quickly grow awkward as the seemingly nice elderly couple begin demonstrating some peculiar traits. The onset of senility is the least of their concerns however as Grandma begins scrambling about under the house naked, and Pop Pop begins throwing fits in public.

• 4.1 Grandma's Rules
• 5 Recommendations
• 6 External Links
• 7 References

Two siblings from Philadelphia, 15-year-old Becca and 13-year-old Tyler, prepare for a five-day visit with their grandparents while their divorced mother Loretta goes on a luxurious cruise with her new boyfriend. Loretta reveals that she has not spoken to her parents in 15 years after getting married to her high-school teacher, of whom her parents disapproved. The two kids, who have never met their grandparents, intend to record a documentary film about their visit with a camcorder.

At the train station, Becca and Tyler meet their grandparents for the first time, with Becca referring to them as "Nana" and "Pop Pop". When they arrive at their isolated farmhouse, Becca and Tyler are instructed to never go into the basement because it contains toxic mold, and that bedtime is at 9:30pm, after which they shouldn't leave their room. The first night, an hour past curfew, Becca ventures downstairs for something to eat and sees Nana projectile vomiting all over the house, which frightens her. She tells Pop Pop, who dismisses it as Nana having the stomach flu. He then reminds her not to leave their bedroom after 9:30pm.

Over the next few days, Becca and Tyler notice their grandparents exhibiting more strange and disturbing behavior. Tyler walks into Pop Pop's shed and finds a huge pile of feces. Becca then decides to ask Nana about what happened the day Loretta left home, and 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 (it is later implied that they murdered her and left her dead body to hang from a tree). 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 Loretta once again, begging her to pick them up so they can go home. When she is shown images of Pop Pop and Nana, Loretta panics and reveals to both of them that they are not her parents. Realizing they have been living with strangers all week, Becca and Tyler attempt to leave the house, but the crazed impostors trap them inside and force them to play Yahtzee. Becca later sneaks into the basement, where she finds the corpses of their real grandparents, along with uniforms from the mental hospital they worked at, revealing the impostors were escaped patients: they broke into the grandparents' home, murdering them with a hammer and placing them in the basement alongside pictures of the real grandparents to avoid being recognized. Pop Pop grabs Becca and imprisons her in his bedroom with Nana, who tries to eat her. He then starts to psychologically torment Tyler by smearing his face with his dirty diaper. Becca fatally stabs Nana with a glass shard from a broken mirror, she runs into the kitchen and attacks Pop Pop. As Pop Pop starts to gain the upper hand, Tyler, in a great rage, knocks Pop Pop to the floor and violently kills him by repeatedly slamming the refrigerator door onto his head. The two escape outside unharmed where they are met by their mother and police officers.

In the aftermath, Becca asks Loretta about what happened the day she left home. Loretta states that she got into a huge fight with her parents, in which she hit her mother and was then struck by her father. 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.

• The Visit , The Visit (2015) , and Visit, The (2015) all redirect to this page.
• The Visit plays on the "found footage" movie-making trope as most of the movie is presented through a handheld camera used by Tyler.
• Principal filming on The Visit began on February 19th , 2014 . [1]
• The movie was shot in parts of Royersford, Chester Springs, and Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . [3]
• The Visit closed out of theaters on November 26th , 2015 . [2]
• At its widest release, The Visit was screened in 3,148 theaters. [2]
• The Visit was released on DVD in Region 1 format by Universal Studios on January 5th , 2016 . Additional features include deleted scenes, alternate endings, Becca's photo gallery and a "Making of" featurette. [4]
• There are a total of thirteen credited cast members in this film. Eight of them are male cast members and five of them are female cast members.
• The setting for this film is Philadelphia , Pennsylvania and some rural regions of the state. Set in the modern era.
• This is the first credited acting work for Ocean James , who plays young Becca.
• This is the first credited acting work for Seamus Moroney , who plays young Tyler.

Fun Facts [ ]

• The tagline for this film is "No one loves you like your grandparents".
• In a post credit scene, Tyler performs a freestyle rap recounting the events of their visit.
• Other horror films of note that were also released in 2015 include The Exorcism of Molly Hartley and Sinister II .

Grandma's Rules [ ]

• Have a great time.
• East as much as you want.
• Don't ever leave your room after 9:30 pm.

Recommendations [ ]

External links [ ], references [ ].

• ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 IMDB; The Visit (2015) ; Box office & business.
• ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Box Office Mojo; The Visit (2015) ; Total Lifetime Grosses & Domestic Summary.
• ↑ IMDB; The Visit (2015) ; Filming locations.
• ↑ Amazon.com; The Visit (2015) ; DVD . Product details.

Keywords [ ]

Corpse ; Hammer ; Knife ; Mental health facility ; Mental patient ; Pennsylvania ; Philadelphia ; Train

• 2 Bubba Sawyer
• 3 Female frontal nudity

• Edit source

The film was released in North America on September 11, 2015 by Universal Pictures. The film received overall mixed reviews, though some viewed it as a comeback for Shyamalan. It was a box office success, grossing $98.5 million worldwide against its $5 million budget.

• 3 Production
• 4 References
• 5 External Links

Two siblings from Philadelphia, 15-year-old Becca and 13-year-old Tyler prepare for a five-day visit with their grandparents, while their divorced mother Loretta goes on a luxurious cruise with her new boyfriend. Loretta reveals that she has not spoken to her parents in fifteen years after getting married to her high-school teacher, of whom her parents disapproved. The two kids, who have never met their grandparents, intend to record a documentary film about their visit with a camcorder.

At the train station, Becca and Tyler meet their grandparents for the first time, whom Becca refers to as "Nana" and "Pop Pop". When they arrive at their isolated farmhouse, Becca and Tyler are instructed to never go into the basement because it contains toxic mold, and that bedtime is at 9:30pm, after which they shouldn't leave their room. The first night, an hour past curfew, Becca ventures downstairs for something to eat and sees Nana projectile vomiting all over the house, which frightens her. She tells Pop Pop, who dismisses it as Nana having the stomach flu. He then reminds her not to leave their bedroom after 9:30pm.

Over the next few days, Becca and Tyler notice their grandparents exhibiting more strange and disturbing behavior. Tyler walks into Pop Pop's shed and finds a huge pile of feces. Becca then decides to ask Nana about what happened the day Loretta left home, and 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 (it is later implied that they murdered her and left her dead body to hang from a tree). 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 Loretta once again, begging her to pick them up so they can go home. When she is shown images of Pop Pop and Nana, Loretta panics and reveals to both of them that they are not her parents. Realizing they have been living with strangers all week, Becca and Tyler attempt to leave the house, but the crazed impostors trap them inside and force them to play Yahtzee. Becca later sneaks into the basement, where she finds the corpses of their real grandparents, along with uniforms from the mental hospital they worked at, revealing the impostors are escaped patients. Pop Pop grabs Becca and imprisons her in his bedroom with Nana, who tries to eat her. He then started to psychologically torment Tyler by smearing his face with his dirty diaper. Becca fatally stabs Nana with a glass shard from a broken mirror, she runs into the kitchen and tackles Pop Pop. As Pop Pop starts to get the upper hand, Tyler attacks him and knocks him to the floor and repeatedly slams the refrigerator door onto his head, killing him. The two escape outside unharmed where they are met by their mother and police officers.

In the aftermath, Becca asks Loretta about what happened the day she left home. Loretta states that she got into a huge fight with her parents, in which she hit her mother and was then struck by her father. 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. The film ends as Tyler, to his sister's dismay, performs a freestyle rap recounting the events of their visit.

• Olivia DeJonge  as Becca Jamison
• Ed Oxenbould  as Tyler Jamison
• Deanna Dunagan  as Maria Bella Jamison
• Peter McRobbie  as Frederick Spencer Jamison
• Kathryn Hahn  as Loretta Jamison
• Celia Keenan-Bolger  as Stacey
• Benjamin Kanes  as Corin

Production [ ]

Filming began on February 19, 2014, under the preliminary title  Sundowning . Sundowning is the increased restlessness and confusion of some dementia patients during the afternoon and evening. M. Night Shyamalan's Blinding Edge Pictures was the production company, with Shyamalan and Marc Bienstock producing, and Steven Schneider and Ashwin Rajan as executive producers. Later on, producer Jason Blum and his company Blumhouse Productions were included in the credits. Although thousands of American children were auditioned for the film's two lead roles of Becca and Tyler, in what Shyamalan later characterized as a "total fluke", he eventually selected a pair of relatively unknown Australian juvenile actors, Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould, to portray the film's dual Philadelphia-native teenage protagonists.

References [ ]

• M. Night Shyamalan Hard At Work On New Supernatural Thriller
• M. Night Shyamalan is Now Filming Microbudget Horror 'Sundowning'
• M. Night Shyamalan's Low Budget 'Sundowning' Plot & Cast Revealed
• M. Night Shyamalan’s THE VISIT Trailer Attached To UNFRIENDED; First Poster In Theaters
• How Aussie kids Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould survived the scares of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit
• Interview M. Night Shyamalan On ‘The Visit,’ His First True Horror Film!
• M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘The Visit’ Has “Disturbing Thematic Material”
• Review: M. Night Shyamalan's 'The Visit' Is A Glorious Return To Form
• Review: ‘The Visit’ Is ‘Hansel and Gretel’ With Less Candy and More Camcorders

External Links [ ]

• The Visit on Wikipedia
• The Visit on IMDb
• The Visit on Facebook
• 1 The Horde
• 2 Mr. Glass
• 3 Casey Cooke

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

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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The Visit (2015 American film)

The Visit is a 2015 film about two siblings who become increasingly frightened by their grandparents' disturbing behavior while visiting them on vacation.

• 1 Becca Jamison
• 2 Tyler Jamison
• 8 External links

Becca Jamison

• [to the camera] I can't sleep. I need Nana's cookies. I'm gonna turn a personal addiction into a positive cinematic moment.
• [after scaring Tyler; satisfied] We're even.

Tyler Jamison

• Any other crazy bitch-ass fucking people here?
• [finds a fly-ridden heap of dirty diapers on a table in the shed] Holy SHIT! Holy Mother of Sarah McLachlan! Nana... what the HELL?
• [after rapping about his ordeal with the fake grandparents, also his last lines] OH, Shania Twain, bitches!
• Would you mind getting inside the oven to clean it?
• I'm gonna get you!
• [when he's caught with a gun] I was just cleaning it.
• We're all dying today, Becca.
• [to Tyler] I never liked you anyway.
• You're blind... you're blind. I am the exposer. I am a seer. I see the veiny, deformed... face of the world.
• Grandma's Rules: 1. Have a great time. 2. Eat as much as you want. 3. Don't ever leave your room after 9:30 pm.
• No one loves you like your grandparents.
• Olivia DeJonge - Becca Jamison
• Ed Oxenbould - Tyler Jamison
• Deanna Dunagan - Maria Bella Jamison ("Nana")
• Peter McRobbie - Frederick Spencer Jamison ("Pop Pop")
• Kathryn Hahn - Loretta Jamison, Becca and Tyler's mother
• Celia Keenan-Bolger - Stacey
• Benjamin Kanes - Corin, Becca and Tyler's father

External links

• The Visit quotes at the Internet Movie Database
• The Visit (2015 American film) at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Visit at Mojo

• Found footage films
• Psychological horror films
• Screenplays by M. Night Shyamalan
• Thriller films
• Films directed by M. Night Shyamalan
• Films about psychopaths
• Films set in Pennsylvania

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The Visit: Where Was M. Night Shyamalan’s Horror Movie Shot?

Helmed by director M. Night Shyamalan, ‘The Visit’ is a thrilling found-footage film that follows siblings Becca and Tyler as they visit their grandparents, and notice their increasingly disturbing behavior. After arriving at their grandparents’ quaint countryside home, Becca and Tyler are delighted to be able to spend time with them after so long. A day of delightful catching up later, Pop Pop puts the two to sleep and strongly suggests that they not leave their room after nine-thirty. Later that night the children hear loud bangs and scratchings. Soon the elders’ strange behaviour leaks over to the daytime, making the siblings concerned for their safety, but failing to convince their mother to pick them up.

The 2015 film’s tension builds steadily as the siblings uncover dark family secrets and struggle to survive in a house filled with eerie mysteries . ‘The Visit’ delivers a compelling blend of psychological horror and thrilling situations, using its simple backdrop and premise to create terrifying circumstances. The chilling story is contrasted heavily by its seemingly mundane backdrop, which is later revealed to hide disturbing realities within its layers. Thus the atmospheric tension built throughout the tale may spark curiosity in some regarding its real-world filming sites.

The Visit Filming Locations

‘The Visit’ was filmed mainly in Philadelphia, Chester Springs, and Royersford, Pennsylvania, with a few scenes shot in Miami, Florida. Principal photography began on February 19, 2014, under the tentative title, ‘Sundowning,’ and was wrapped up in about a month by March 21 of the same year. In an interview , writer-director Shyamalan marveled at finding the ideal actors to bring his story to life, saying, “This might be my perfect constellation of actors, it’s as if these people were the people that I wrote.” Let’s examine the sites seen throughout the film and their real-life counterparts.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Situated along the banks of the Delaware River, the city of Philadelphia has a brief appearance in ‘The Visit,’ primarily at the beginning and end of the film. When the siblings are dropped off at the train station by their mother, the site is actually the 30th Street Station at 3001 Market Street. Officially known as William H. Gray III 30th Street Station, the prominent intermodal transit station is defined by its grand classical entrance held up with Roman pillars.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ed Oxenbould (@edoxenbould)

Chester Springs, Pennsylvania

Filming for the grandparents’ house and its exterior scenes was carried out on 3049 Merlin Road, in the unincorporated community of Chester Springs in Chester County. The community lies west of Philadelphia, and its serene snow-covered landscape can be spotted early in ‘The Visit’ as the siblings travel to their grandparents’ house.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Visit (@thevisitmovie)

Royersford, Pennsylvania

Nestled along the Schuylkill River, the borough of Royersford stood in for much of the town seen in the film as the characters left the house. Shooting for these scenes was done on 330 Main Street, its small-town charm imbuing the narrative with a pleasant departure from the claustrophobic situations at the elders’ house. Further filming was done on location at 705 Washington Street, which is a quintessential suburban neighborhood.

#Royersford Ambulance crew with @MNightShyamalan . #Sundowning pic.twitter.com/SXR9zKWr9X — Matt Stehman 🇺🇸🇺🇦🌻 (@MattStehman) February 20, 2014

When the grandfather takes the siblings out to a school, shooting for the sequence was done at the 5/6 Grade Center on 833 South Lewis Road. After their visit, whilst returning, they begin to play a game of pointing out at buildings and guessing their stories. The children point to a large, red-bricked complex lined with white windows. The grandfather ominously reveals the structure to be the Maple Shade Psychiatric Hospital, where he had supposedly volunteered at an earlier point in time. The structure is actually the Royersford Spring Company on 98 Main Street which manufactures automotive parts and springs.

Miami, Florida

For a couple of scenes on a cruise ship, the film crew ventured onboard the Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas for a few days in Miami. The city’s bustling seaport, PortMiami, stands as the Cruise Capital of the World, welcoming millions of passengers annually to embark on voyages to exotic destinations. The cruise ship, Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas, was used as a set for ‘The Visit.’ A casting call for extras announced the need for upscale cruise wear and skills related to activities carried out on the ship, such as wakeboarding and rock wall climbing.

Adam Goldstein tours the set of @MNightShyamalan 's new film shooting scenes onboard Allure of the Seas. pic.twitter.com/WzCG5RtzCp — Royal Caribbean Public Relations (@RoyalCaribPR) April 7, 2014

Read More:  Is The Visit Based on a True Story?

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• Trivia While being distributed by a major studio (Warner Bros), Trap was allowed to resume filming under an interim agreement during the SAG-AFTRA strike as M. Night Shyamalan independently finances his own films.

Cooper : Psst! Cooper.

Vendor : Jamie.

Cooper : What's with all the police trucks outside and the cameras everywhere, Jamie?

Vendor : I'm not supposed to tell.

Cooper : Something happening?

Vendor : Don't rat me out.

Cooper : I won't.

Vendor : You know the Butcher? That freakin' nutjob that goes around just chopping people up? Well, the feds or whatever heard that he's gonna be here today, so they set up a trap for him. This whole concert? It's a trap. They're watching all the exits, checking everyone that leaves. There's no way to get out of here. It's kinda dope, right?

• Connections Referenced in IMDb Explains: All About Horror in 2024 (2023)
• When will Trap be released? Powered by Alexa
• August 2, 2024 (United States)
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Good Grades
• Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (FirstOntario Center)
• Blinding Edge Pictures
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 45 minutes

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