After experimenting in different genres to no tangible avail with The Last Airbender and After Earth, M. Night Shyamalan is returning to a genre he helped define with the release of upcoming horror film, The Visit, which today debuted its creepy first trailer.
Mixing found footage elements with more traditional camera work, the clip is an unusual melange of genre tropes, and despite our utmost attempts, we haven’t been able to identify any indications of a last-act, Shyamalan-styled twist. How and ever, the core premise of The Visit will center around a young brother and sister who are shipped out their grandparents for the weekend to spend some quality time with their ageing relatives. What could possibly go wrong?
A lot, as it turns out. Enforcing a non-negotiable, lights-out-by-9:30 policy, the grandparents attempt to push the children to a safe distance, but it isn’t long before the young pair notice when things start to go awry. What begins as a seemingly innocuous bump in the night, for instance, results in one of the children walking in on their granddad with a loaded shotgun jammed into his mouth. Things aren’t all what they seem.
With Shyamalan behind the lens and horror maestro Jason Blum producing — hence the found footage sensibilities — The Visit is slated to loom into theaters in September. For now, you can give us your verdict on the first footage using the comments section below. Is this a long-awaited return to form for the director? Time will tell.
Writer/director/producer M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs, Unbreakable) and producer Jason Blum (Paranormal Activity, The Purge and Insidious series) welcome you to Universal Pictures’ The Visit. Shyamalan returns to his roots with the terrifying story of a brother and sister who are sent to their grandparents’ remote Pennsylvania farm for a weeklong trip. Once the children discover that the elderly couple is involved in something deeply disturbing, they see their chances of getting back home are growing smaller every day.