reviews the visit

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 .

Deanna Dunagan as Nana
Olivia DeJonge as Rebecca Jamison
Ed Oxenbould as Tyler Jamison
Kathryn Hahn as Mother
Peter McRobbie as Pop-Pop
Benjamin Kanes as Dad
Luke Franco Ciarrocch
M. Night Shyamalan

Cinematography

Maryse Alberti

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Common Sense Says
Parents Say 20 Reviews
Kids Say 83 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Shyamalan's found-footage spooker has teens in peril.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 13+?

Dead bodies, one hanged. Elderly man killed in a shocking way. Some blood. Spook

"F--k" is used once. Other words include "s--t," "ass,&

Minor innuendo involving 13-year-old boy who imagines himself a ladykiller. Nana

Skype is used as part of the plot. Sony laptop shown. A Yahtzee! game, with refe

Adults occasionally smoke cigarettes. A boy mimes "pot smoking" with h

Any Positive Content?

Teens learn to overcome past fears to deal with current situations. They sometim

The main characters are teens (13 and 15) who try their best to survive a bad si

Violence & Scariness

Dead bodies, one hanged. Elderly man killed in a shocking way. Some blood. Spooky images, spooky dialogue, and jump scares. Stabbing with a mirror shard. Teens in jeopardy. Vomiting and poop. A man briefly assaults another man. Rifle briefly shown.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

"F--k" is used once. Other words include "s--t," "ass," "ho," "bitch," "goddamn," "hell," "douche," and possibly "a--hole." Middle finger gesture.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Minor innuendo involving 13-year-old boy who imagines himself a ladykiller. Nana's naked bottom is shown twice.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Skype is used as part of the plot. Sony laptop shown. A Yahtzee! game, with references to toy companies Hasbro and Milton Bradley.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Adults occasionally smoke cigarettes. A boy mimes "pot smoking" with his fingers.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Teens learn to overcome past fears to deal with current situations. They sometimes work together but at other times are forced to split up.

Positive Role Models

The main characters are teens (13 and 15) who try their best to survive a bad situation; they're brave, but their situation isn't one anyone would emulate. The adults in the story aren't particularly admirable.

Parents need to know that The Visit is a found-footage horror movie from director M. Night Shyamalan . There are plenty of spooky images, sounds, and dialogue, as well as jump scares and a small amount of blood and gore. Viewers see dead bodies (including one killed in a rather shocking way), and two teens, 13 and 15, are frequently in peril. The 13-year-old boy fancies himself a ladykiller, which leads to some minor innuendo, and the "Nana" character's naked bottom is shown a couple of times. Language includes a use of "f--k," plus "s--t," "bitch," and more, most frequently spoken by the 13-year-old. Adult characters infrequently smoke cigarettes, and there's a very brief, mimed reference to smoking pot. Shyamalan is a filmmaker whom horror hounds love to hate, but this movie could be a comeback that fans will want to see. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and Kid Reviews

Parents say (20)
Kids say (83)

Based on 20 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Thirteen-year-old Tyler ( Ed Oxenbould ) and 15-year-old Becca (Olivia DeJonge) agree to spend a week with their grandparents while encouraging their mom ( Kathryn Hahn ) to take a vacation with her boyfriend. The kids have never met their grandparents, "Nana" (Deanna Dunagan) and "Pop Pop" (Peter McRobbie), at least partly because when their mother left home 15 years earlier, something terrible apparently happened. At first things seem fine, but then Nana and Pop Pop start behaving strangely. Even if it can all be explained -- Nana gets "sundown" syndrome, and Pop Pop requires adult diapers -- it doesn't quite ease the feeling that something's wrong. Meanwhile, Becca documents their visit on video, hoping to capture something that explains it all.

Is It Any Good?

After several perplexing misfires, writer/director M. Night Shyamalan has scaled back, gone for a lower budget and a lighter tone, and emerged with his most effective movie in over a decade. THE VISIT begins interestingly; the potentially creepy moments can be easily explained away and even laughed off, but the director still manages to create a subtle, creeping dread that steadily builds toward the climax.

Shyamalan uses the found-footage concept with more creativity than most other filmmakers, displaying his usual intriguing grasp of three-dimensional space, as well as empty space. The characters themselves are even aware of certain cinematic theories that could make their "documentary" more interesting. They're refreshingly intelligent and self-aware, and they never blunder stupidly into any situation. If the movie has a drawback, it's that fans will be looking hard for clues to one of Shyamalan's big "twists." As to what it is, or whether there is one, we're not saying.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about The Visit 's violence . How much is shown, and how much is suggested? How did it affect you? What's the impact of media violence on kids?

Tyler considers himself a "ladykiller." Is his dialogue inappropriate for someone his age?

Tyler likes to rap and posts videos of himself. Is he expressing himself, or is he merely seeking fame? What's appealing about fame? Is it OK for kids to start their own online channels?

Movie Details

In theaters : September 11, 2015
On DVD or streaming : January 5, 2016
Cast : Kathryn Hahn , Ed Oxenbould , Olivia DeJonge
Director : M. Night Shyamalan
Inclusion Information : Indian/South Asian directors, Female actors
Studio : Universal Pictures
Genre : Horror
Run time : 94 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : disturbing thematic material including terror, violence and some nudity, and for brief language
Last updated : July 24, 2024

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Movie Review

The Visit review: the most shocking M. Night Shyamalan twist is a good movie

By Bryan Bishop
on September 10, 2015 10:18 am

A decade ago it was impossible to discuss supernatural thrillers without invoking the name of M. Night Shyamalan. After exploding into the popular consciousness with The Sixth Sense , the writer-director staked his claim with carefully crafted follow-ups like Signs and Unbreakable , eventually leading Newsweek to dub him “The Next Spielberg.” But Shyamalan faltered soon thereafter, and by the time his sci-fi adaptation After Earth rolled around two years ago, his name was practically being hidden in studio marketing materials .

With irrelevancy lurking in the shadows, like one of his fictional boogeymen, the director needed to save his career. So Shyamalan switched things up — trying his hand at television with the quirky Wayward Pines , and leaving Hollywood behind altogether for his new movie The Visit . As the filmmaker told us in July , The Visit was a completely self-funded affair, with Shyamalan putting up the money so he could make a smaller film in relative secrecy without the interference of studios or outside influences. The result is the best snapshot we have of Shyamalan the filmmaker as he stands today.

Judging from the bonkers mix of horror and comedy that is The Visit , he may have gone totally insane — and that’s a wonderful thing.

The movie follows 15-year-old Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and her younger brother Tyler (a hilarious Ed Oxenbould). Their mother, played by Kathryn Hahn, is still suffering in the wake of her recent divorce, and to give everyone some space, the kids go off for a week to visit their grandparents for the very first time. Nana and Pop Pop (Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie) are warm, if not a bit quirky, at first, but as the visit stretches on, it becomes clear that something is very, very wrong.

Yes, The Visit is a found footage movie, and it’s the first clue that this is a break from the Shyamalan we’ve seen before. As a director, he built his career on meticulously crafted shots and camera moves that carried an almost mathematical precision, but that’s all thrown out the window here. Becca is an aspiring filmmaker, intent on documenting the visit for her mom, and as she enlists Tyler to help, the film takes on a chaotic visual energy that adds a layer of unease when contrasted with Shyamalan’s methodical pace. Where it differs from the Paranormal Activities of the world is that it’s actually beautiful at times; very often Shyamalan simply can’t help but find a gorgeous way to light a scene or evoke a mood, and it keeps the film fresh where the sub-genre has otherwise been pummeled into the ground and left for dead.

But visual technique is only worth so much, and what makes The Visit tick is the two young lead actors, who after a bumpy start settle into their self-conscious, found footage groove. DeJonge is grounded and believable as the older sister, her character endlessly precious and pretentious about her own filmmaking in what feels like Shyamalan having a laugh at himself for once. Oxenbould’s Tyler, on the other end, is the film’s comedic engine; a junior high suburbanite with hip-hop aspirations (he calls himself "T-Diamond Stylus") that deploys a comical adolescent bravado to cover up struggles with his parents’ separation.

Laughs and scares stack in a Jenga of oddball entertainment

That’s the other big surprise here: The Visit is actually funny , and not in a passing joke kind of way. It’s wild and outrageous, stacking laughs and scares atop one another in a giant Jenga of oddball entertainment. Contrasted with the overthought restraint of Shyamalan’s earlier work, The Visit is the Wild West; the kind of movie that uses a character’s unnerving penchant for skulking around nude as both a running joke and surprise scare, and that takes another’s obsessive tendencies and pays them off with a scatalogical gag that had me laughing and cringing in equal measure. It doesn’t always work — the mix is so bizarre that some jokes simply fail to land — but there’s a giddy energy that courses through the movie from beginning to end.

More than anything else, it feels like Shyamalan Unleashed, operating without the weight of expectations for the first time in years. The filmmaker had actually focused on smaller, character-driven films before The Sixth Sense changed his career trajectory, but ever since that early success, his movies seemed to chase the same formula, twist endings and all. The Visit doesn’t seem concerned with living up to those expectations — there’s no mistaking this for a Spielbergian tale — and it’s a fresher story for it.

If The Visit was some midnight movie festival discovery, we’d be talking about its odd weirdness and the potential of its creator; we’d ask if they could take the promise of this small, indie film and transition into the land of big-scale studio movies. Oddly enough, it’s the same question that should be asked of Shyamalan now. But for the moment, he appears to be keeping things small. His next film is set to be another collaboration with Jason Blum, the low-budget horror producer behind Insidious and the Paranormal Activity films, and while people will certainly have higher expectations his next time out, I hope we see more of this weirder, care-free Shyamalan. He may not be making The Sixth Sense anymore, sure, but for the first time in a very long time, he’s making movies that are actually fun .

The Visit opens Friday, September 11th.

Verge Video: The Verge's interview with M. Night Shyamalan

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Review: ‘The Visit’ Is ‘Hansel and Gretel’ With Less Candy and More Camcorders

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By Manohla Dargis

Sept. 10, 2015

In “The Visit,” an amusingly grim fairy tale, floorboards creak, doors squeak and lights lower and sometimes shriek to black. The story, a “Hansel and Gretel” redo for Generation Selfie, has the virtue of simplicity and familiarity: A young brother and sister travel into the deep, dark woods, but where they once innocently held hands, they’re now holding camcorders to record an adventure quickened by anxious laughs, yelps and screams and one shivery long knife. These children don’t need someone else to immortalize their once-upon-a-time; they just point and shoot.

The director M. Night Shyamalan has a fine eye and a nice, natural way with actors, and he has a talent for gently rap-rap-rapping on your nerves. At his best, he skillfully taps the kinds of primitive fears that fuel scary campfire stories and horror flicks; at his worst, he tries too hard to be an auteur instead of just good, letting his overwrought stories and self-consciousness get in the way of his technique. After straining at originality for too long, he has gone back to basics in “The Visit,” with a stripped-down story and scale, a largely unknown (excellent) cast and one of those classically tinged tales of child peril that have reliably spooked audiences for generations.

This Hansel and Gretel come equipped not only with his-and-her cameras but also a Spielbergian family dynamic, featuring a loving if somewhat distracted single mother (Kathryn Hahn) and an absent father. One of those well-meaning women whose desires unwittingly unleash a world of chaos, Mom (as she’s credited) opens the movie with some yammering, squirming like a witness for the prosecution in front of a camera operated by her off-screen daughter, Becca (an appealing Olivia DeJonge). Becca and her younger brother, Tyler (Ed Oxenbould, a charmingly exuberant scene-stealer), are to stay with their maternal grandparents while Mom and her boyfriend go on a cruise, and Becca has decided to make a documentary about the trip, the first of many references to moviemaking.

Movie Review: ‘The Visit’

The times critic manohla dargis reviews “the visit.”.

In narrative terms, Mr. Shyamalan keeps it streamlined and simple. Becca and Tyler travel alone to visit their grandparents Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie), whom the children have never met or seen in photos. As Mom tells Becca, she hasn’t been in touch with her parents since she left home years earlier, for reasons she refuses to explain, introducing a mystery that ignites a smoldering ember of doubt. Ms. Hahn, an appealingly disheveled blur, does a nice job of setting the enigmatic scene. With her beseeching eyes, Mom looks as if she’s asking for forgiveness, even as the laughter convulsing her mouth insists everything is all right. (Ms. Hahn, one of those screen presences who pushes and pulls at you, at times brings to mind a softer-edged Karen Black.)

Most of what follows takes place in Nana and Pop Pop’s house, an isolated storybook spread. Mr. Shyamalan sets a nice farmhouse scene, with an interior that looks copied straight from Heartland Monthly, complete with sagging armchairs, plank flooring and a rag rug as big as a Volkswagen. The grandparents, in turn, are pure Grant Wood types: gray, lean, almost stringy and a little hard. If they were older or the movie were, you could imagine them hardscrabbling their way through the Depression or driving a Model T out of Oklahoma. To that end, Ms. Dunagan and Mr. McRobbie at first play it largely straight and opaque, with the kind of tightly wound smiles and controlled gestures that suggest Puritan stock or perhaps madness.

Something weird slithers in, first in a crawlspace and then when Nana asks Becca for help cleaning the mischievously large oven, which was apparently built for roasting pigs and other juicy creatures. A total tease, Mr. Shyamalan has fun deploying such time-tested horror tricks, and conducts an entire orchestra of squeaks and screeches amid the shock cuts and Becca and Tyler’s cockeyed camera angles. He also plays with the filmmaking theme, mostly through Becca, a pretentious baby auteur who throws around terms like mise-en-scène. As the scares gather, though, and she loses directorial control, Becca becomes what she always was: every filmgoer (and critic) who thinks she knows everything about making movies, which may be why Mr. Shyamalan so enjoys tormenting her.

“The Visit” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It’s a hard world for little things.

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‘the visit’: film review.

Grandpa has a dirty secret and Granny goes bump in the night in M. Night Shyamalan’s comic horror-thriller

By Sheri Linden

Sheri Linden

Senior Copy Editor/Film Critic

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A family get-together starts out strange and quickly enters nightmare territory in The Visit , a horror-thriller that turns soiled adult diapers into a motif. Told from a camera-equipped kids’-eye view, M. Night Shyamalan ’s latest is well cast and strong on setting. But the dull thudding that resounds isn’t part of its effective aural design; it’s the ungainly landing of nearly every shock and joke.

Notwithstanding the evidence of Shyamalan’s features since the pitch-perfect Sixth Sense , hope endures among fans that lightning will strike twice. In the wake of bloated recent outings After Earth and The Last Airbender , that hope takes on a particular fervency with this modestly scaled return to straight-up genre fare. That anticipation will drive theatrical business for the feature, as will the lure of sheer horror fun, at least until word-of-mouth stems the box-office tide.

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An earnest drama, The Visit gains much emotional power through its fine performances.

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Two siblings become increasingly frightened by their grandparents' disturbing behavior while visiting them on vacation. Two siblings become increasingly frightened by their grandparents' disturbing behavior while visiting them on vacation. Two siblings become increasingly frightened by their grandparents' disturbing behavior while visiting them on vacation.

M. Night Shyamalan
Olivia DeJonge
Ed Oxenbould
Deanna Dunagan
797 User reviews
438 Critic reviews
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1 win & 14 nominations

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Trivia According to statements made on Twitter, director M. Night Shyamalan prepared three different cuts of the film: one that was "pure comedy," another that was "pure horror," and a final one that "fell somewhere in between."
Goofs The amount of snow covering the landscape varies dramatically from day to day and even between scenes taking place on the same day.

Grandma : Would you mind getting inside the oven to clean it?

Alternate versions In the FX broadcast, to keep the TV-14 rating, the defecation featured in the movie are censored. In addition, two scenes involving nudity is blurred out.
Connections Featured in Late Night with Seth Meyers: Andy Samberg/Kevin Love/M. Night Shyamalan/Abe Laboriel Jr. (2015)
Soundtracks Possession Written by Harry Revel Performed by Les Baxter and His Orchestra and Chorus [Theremin - Dr. Samuel Hoffman ] Courtesy of RCA Records By arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

User reviews 797

kimbg-909-818076
Nov 7, 2015
September 11, 2015 (United States)
United States
Los huéspedes
3049 Merlin Road, Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, USA (Exterior House)
Blinding Edge Pictures
Blumhouse Productions
Neighborhood Film Co.
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$5,000,000 (estimated)
$65,206,105
$25,427,560
Sep 13, 2015
$98,450,062

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 34 minutes
Dolby Digital

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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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Home » Movies » Movie Reviews

The Visit (2015) Review

We review the 2015 movie The Visit, which does not contain any significant spoilers.

M. Night Shyamalan is back – and he really snuck this one in under the radar. The Visit adopts the found footage form of storytelling – a change from Shyamalan’s usual style, though bearing obvious marks of his directorial and writing styles throughout nonetheless – and introduces this horror – akin to the likes of The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity – with a simple premise: a young brother and sister visit their somewhat estranged grandparents as a holiday away, while their parents go on a cruise or something more enjoyable.

The Visit Review and Plot Summary

Before meeting their grandparents for the first time in their lives, Becca, aged 15, and Tyler, 13, are told by their divorced mother, Loretta, that she has not spoken to them for 15 years due to their strong disapproval of her marriage with her high school teacher. Becca and Tyler decide to take a camcorder along with them to make a documentary of their visit. Always a fun idea.

At first, the grandparents generally seem like any other adorable old couple, aside from some suspiciously strange requests – they’re adamantly told they must be in bed by 21:30, and that they also mustn’t go into the basement due to some toxic mould. And, of course, with 21:30 being the prime time at which hunger strikes (this isn’t sarcasm), Becca heads to the kitchen for a snack at which point she is rudely interrupted by the witnessing of her grandma projectile vomiting.

Grandpa – or Pop Pop – tells the kids that grandma – referred to as Nana – merely has a case of the flu, before reminding them of the house rules. The days progress and the kids pick up on instances of noticeably bizarre behaviour being exhibited by their grandparents, including Tyler entering Pop’s shed and happening upon a big pile of shit (akin to The Happening , coincidentally). Becca decides to question Nana about Loretta leaving home to which Nana being screaming and shaking.

The cute couple are later confronted by a woman they met through some prior counselling sessions. The three of them are seen going into the backyard by the kids, though they never see the woman leaving. Some clues lead the kids to believe their grandparents killed the woman by hanging, at which point they decide to film their grandparents’ goings-on post-curfew, by recording them with the camera.

They decide to film the grandparents, and Nana discovers the camera. Nana grabs a kitchen knife and heads for Becca and Tyler’s shared bedroom, before trying to unsuccessfully break her way in. Reviewing the footage, the kids see the knife and call Loretta explaining the situation and demanding they be picked up. And here’s where the classic Shyamalan twist comes in – upon being shown images of their grandparents, Loretta, horrified, reveals that the people in said images aren’t her parents.

Suitably shitting themselves, Becca and Tyler try to escape but are forcefully kept in by the increasingly creepy grandparents who they now know to be complete strangers. Becca sneaks into the basement and finds her real grandparents, both dead, with their work uniforms from their jobs at a mental hospital, thus revealing the strangers are escaped patients who broke into the house, murdered their grandparents and assumed their identities ( I mean, seriously – identity theft is not a joke, guys ).

Despite it already being a pretty messed up situation, it soon turns into a shit-uation, when Pop tries to physically and mentally torment Tyler by rubbing a diaper full of shit in his face, after having locked Becca in a room with Nana who spends the duration trying to eat Becca. Tyler decides he’s put up with enough shit and, in a fit of pure rage, kills Pops with the help of the refrigerator door. Becca and Tyler escape, and are greeted by Loretta and the police. The film finishes with a heartfelt family-oriented moral, in which Loretta tells Becca not to hold onto her anger surrounding her father’s abandonment of them.

Is the movie The Visit good?

Despite the found footage style of filming being one of my least favourite in the genre of horror (which I’m already a fairly avid hater of), the film just works; it delves straight into the story, and presents us with two admirable characters with situations we can all relate to – having to spend unwanted time with extended families.

Tyler in particular, however, is a highlight of the film. Ed Oxenbould does a wonderful job of maintaining a genuinely comical and endearing aspect to his character alongside the effectively established mysterious and eerie atmosphere created once the film kicks in. With a range of running gags throughout the film – including replacing curse words during unfortunate events with the names of famous female pop stars, and some genuinely good rapping skills – the film provides a uniquely enjoyable form of side comedy combined with a primary dose of peril.

If there’s anything to complain about in regards to this film, it’s the usual inaccurate trope of people with mental illnesses being dangerous and ridiculous – something we all know Shyamalan has done on more than one occasion, though it’s a problem in the film industry and media in general.

Despite the clearly present issue surrounding mental health in films, The Visit is a film I thoroughly enjoyed. Many claimed this to be Shyamalan’s comeback after the abomination that was After Earth – and I’d agree. Shyamalan manages to use a form of presentation in a horror film which has been equipped time and time again, yet manages to keep it fresh, full of suspense and, of course, inclusive of a healthy dose of twists to ensure it all pays off. And it does.

What did you think of the 2015 movie The Visit? Comment below.

Article by Jonathon Wilson

Jonathon is one of the co-founders of Ready Steady Cut and has been an instrumental part of the team since its inception in 2017. Jonathon has remained involved in all aspects of the site’s operation, mainly dedicated to its content output, remaining one of its primary Entertainment writers while also functioning as our dedicated Commissioning Editor, publishing over 6,500 articles.

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By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Well, it's not in the same league as The Sixth Sense , but director M. Night Shyamalan ends a long dry spell with The Visit. It's a blend of mirth and malice that combines Grimm fairy tales with the found-footage gimmick of Paranormal Activity . A mom (Kathryn Hahn) sends her two kids (Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould), both experts with digital cameras, to visit her estranged parents. It's all smiles until Grandma (Deanna Dunagan, wowza) gets naked and Grandpa (Peter McRobbie) does strange things with his adult diapers. No spoilers, except to say that cheap thrills can still be a blast. Not enough to make up for Shyamalan's awful After Earth , but it's a start.

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The visit review.

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Rebel ridge ending explained by director, how different would star wars have been... if ezra bridger trained luke skywalker, the visit is a fun and kitschy horror parable - though the trademark shyamalan twist will be a big disappoint for many viewers..

The Visit follows Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), two siblings who head out to rural Pennsylvania to document the meeting of their estranged grandparents, last seen when their mother (Kathryn Hahn) left home fifteen years ago. When Becca and Tyler arrive at Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop's (Peter McRobbie) farm, they immediately set about crafting the documentary with the intent of showing how their mother leaving home at a young age echoes the pattern of their own father abandoning them when they needed him the most.

However, as Becca and Tyler focus the lens closer on Nana and Pop Pop the more abnormal their subjects reveal themselves to be. As the week-long visit crawls along, the cracks in the grandparents' good-natured facade widen and widen, finally exploding in a fit of horror that Becca and Tyler must fight to survive.

The latest film from beleaguered filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan, The Visit is a fun and kitschy horror parable - though the trademark Shyamalan twist will be a big disappoint for many viewers.

Shyamalan both wrote and directed The Visit , and as his critics might expect, it's a "blessing and a curse" package. On the directorial front, there isn't much crafting or technique to speak of, due to the found-footage format of the film. Like every movie in the (tired) sub-genre, the found-footage "technique" involves coming up with reasonable scenarios and context for people to be filming themselves - and to continue doing so, even when in peril. While the The Visit does manage to root its voyeuristic perspective in both the narrative themes and the personality matrixes of the two main characters, the format nonetheless feels binding, and in moments of real fright or action the usual shaky cam antics disrupt the viewing experience. In short: if you don't like found-footage, you won't like this found-footage movie.

On paper, however, The Visit does manage to capture a lot of the richness of classic '70s or early '80s horror, unfortunately wrapping it around a flimsy twist - one that will likely elicit more bad stigma for Shyamalan, the crowned king of flimsy twists. To the movie's credit, Shyamalan does what good horror storytellers are supposed to: he takes a familiar and relatable concept (going to visit your grandparents) and twists it into something unfamiliar and menacing. The Visit indeed has that "campfire ghost story" quality that could've made it an enduring horror parable - so for anyone who likes their fright flicks on that level (read: creepy more than scary or gruesome) this will be a nice fit. The tone of the story is also blessedly kitschy and always self-aware enough to not take itself too seriously, which creates a level of horror/comedy that fans can at least laugh along with (as opposed to at ).

The cast of characters are drawn well enough, though the two main characters may put-off viewers who can't appreciate the level of meta humor in the would-be media stars. Both Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould thankfully polish their characters into genuine modern (pre-)teens, fleshing out the otherwise flat caricatures of pretentious film snob and "ethnically confused" suburban rapper - personas the movie pokes fun at. In certain scenes where more drama and depth are required, both young leads actually deliver quite well, and Shyamalan interjects some genuine heart and drama into the film (though those same dramatic moments, while quality on their own, feel a bit at odds with the otherwise horror kitsch tone of the film).

Deanna Dunagan ( Unforgettable ) and Peter McRobbie ( Daredevil ) jump in with both feet to the roles of Nana and Pop Pop, respectively. Though the movie keeps the oddball old couple at arm's length, the two veteran character actors own every scene they're in, sometimes with just body movements and glances. The Visit only keeps traction because of what Dunagan and McRobbie can deliver; if nothing else, the electricity of what they might do keeps every scene they're in lively and riveting. On the peripheral, Kathryn Hahn pops in for a funny light portrayal as "The Mom," only to have to swing all that funny charm over into some key (overly heavy?) dramatic moments.

In the end, The Visit is fine horror matinée (or future rental) material for fans who don't mind the kitchsy campfire story style of the film. Those hoping for Shyamalan to continue his 'comeback' after the success of Wayward Pines , or for the filmmaker to deliver another twist on par with The Sixth Sense , will end up walking away disappointed.

The Visit is now playing in theaters. It is 94 minutes and is Rated PG-13 for disturbing thematic material including terror, violence and some nudity, and for brief language.

Agree/disagree with this review? Feel free to let us know how you feel in the comment section!

From director M. Night Shyamalan, The Visit follows two siblings who are sent to stay with their estranged grandparents while their mother is out of town on vacation. Realizing that all isn't what it seems during their stay, the siblings set out to find out what is really going on at their grandparents' home. Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould star as Becca and Tyler, with Deanna Dunagan, Peter McRobbie, and Kathryn Hahn making up the rest of the main cast.

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The Visit Review

Could the faux-doc horror thriller The Visit be a return to form for M. Night Shyamalan? Read our review...

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Following a run of disasters/disappointments that included Lady in the Water , The Happening , The Last Airbender, and After Earth , it would be fair to wonder whether M. Night Shyamalan could ever bounce back with another quality directorial effort. Here’s the good news: his new film, The Visit , is a nice big step in the right direction. A horror thriller told in the faux-doc format (more on that later), the movie is economical, tight, creepy, and actually even pretty damn funny. After a string of ponderous bores, this is the director having fun and not taking either himself or the material so seriously. The result is his best film in more than a decade.

The Visit follows a young brother and sister, Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), who go to stay with the grandparents they’ve never met before (Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie) on an extended visit while their mom (Kathryn Hahn) takes her own vacation with a new beau. As soon as they get to Nana and Pop Pop’s isolated farmhouse, however, things quickly take a turn for the strange.

Told not to leave their room after 9:30 pm, the siblings do just that and witness some rather odd sights. But that’s just the start, as Nana and Pop Pop’s behavior becomes even more bizarre, and the two kids wonder if they’ll ever get home.

One thing Shyamalan has always gotten right in his best films, like The Sixth Sense or Unbreakable , is character: his people may sometimes be eccentric but his better-written ones are recognizably human. The kids in The Visit feel real in the way they each deal with their family’s dysfunctional past and with each other: wannabe rap star Tyler can be annoying, but in a natural, almost endearing way, not like the obnoxious kids we find in a lot of genre movies and TV shows (cough, cough, The Strain ). Kathryn Hahn, in her brief scenes, also brings a lot of emotional resonance to the role of the mom, who’s juggling her own conflicted feelings about her estranged parents with her concern for her kids and her desire to enjoy her new relationship.

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The tricky part is bringing the grandparents into all this, but Shyamalan and his two excellent actors make it work, effectively walking the line between comedy and terror. Old people can seem really strange and frightening to kids, and Shyamalan uses this effectively throughout the film as well, making Nana and Pop Pop not completely unsympathetic even when Nana is chasing the kids around a crawlspace like a rabid dog, buttocks flapping in the wind through her torn housecoat. And if that image sounds disturbing, there’s more where that came from. The fun of The Visit is that you never know whether to laugh or gasp at what goes on in that farmhouse, and the director is clearly having a good time keeping you off-balance.

Less interesting is his use of the faux-doc (or found footage, or whatever the hell it’s called these days) format. Becca, an aspiring filmmaker, is ostensibly making a documentary about her and Tyler’s reunion with their grandparents, but as is often the case these days, one occasionally gets pulled out of the movie by the format’s constant distractions: why is someone still holding a camera and filming as they’re being thrown down a flight of stairs, for example? Becca’s interest in filmmaking is a reasonable enough way to introduce the conceit, but the film doesn’t need the gimmick. Even though Shyamalan handles it more skillfully than most, it still feels unnecessary.

But it’s not fatal. In purely technical terms, Shyamalan is not about to let the faux-doc esthetic dominate his movie or his imagery, which remains, for the most part, clearly and confidently framed and shot. And on a narrative level, The Visit sustains a level of weird creepiness throughout. Its scares are earned, as are its laughs, and for the first time in a long time, the trademark Shyamalan twist works well and feels organic to the story and the world built around it.

Like many fine horror movies, The Visit plays like a combination of fractured fairy tale (there’s a lot of Hansel & Gretel here, as one can see just from the trailer ) and waking nightmare. The cast strikes the right tone, the imagery is unsettling and surreal (and, in a few choice spots, squirm-inducingly gross), and the movie makes you care enough about its central characters that you feel more than just a distant disgust, or worse, a sense of comeuppance at what happens to them – the mark of too many genre outings. The Visit doesn’t repeat what Shyamalan did with his early classics, but it finds him a relaxed, playful space where he is clearly enjoying what he is doing again. Let’s hope he comes back here more often.

The Visit is out in theaters Friday (September 11).

Don Kaye | @donkaye

Don Kaye is an entertainment journalist by trade and geek by natural design. Born in New York City, currently ensconced in Los Angeles, his earliest childhood memory is…

I write to you all with joyous news: M. Night Shyamalan has nailed the twist! The Visit actually contains a twist I hadn’t thought of throughout the entire film, despite the clues actually being laid out right in front of the audience for all to see. Unfortunately, this comes at a cost, as the rest of The Visit is a shambling mess of a film that tries to be a found-footage horror film, but ends up being one of the most unintentional comedies of the year. Don’t call it scary, don’t call it innovative, and whatever you do – don’t call it a comeback.

Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) are going to visit their grandparents for the first time in their lives, and Becca – an amateur filmmaker – is planning to create a documentary to repair the relationship between her mother ( Kathryn Hahn ) and her estranged parents. Throughout their stay, the kids slowly realize that something’s wrong with Nana and Pop Pop (Deanna Dunagan, Peter McRobbie). Something they can’t put their fingers on is afoot, and they are determined to solve their familial mystery through their twin lenses of investigation. If they survive The Visit , the story they’ll have to tell will be so unbelievable that only live footage would be able to tell it.

Where does one begin to take apart the puzzle box of failure that is The Visit ? Perhaps it’s the characters that feel so one note, the violin they’re being played on has broken. One could say that Shyamalan is trying to construct a meta-commentary by writing such textbook characters as “pretentious young cinephile” and “amateur YouTube rapper” into his found-footage film, but really, all that he’s doing is alienating the audience from his characters. Also, both children are so annoyingly precocious that by time the film’s third act climax starts to kick in, you want them to actually die. This is no fault of the young actors portraying our leads, as they can only do so much with what they’ve been given.

Ultimately, the greatest failing of The Visit is that the story just isn’t all that interesting, and it’s not even a solid ride. For a film that’s being sold as a horror narrative, you actually get the feeling that The Visit is going for more of that neo-Hitchcockian vibe that Shyamalan is known for attempting. By time the actual explanation behind the grandparent’s affliction is revealed, I could not have cared less because the film that preceded the attempted mic drop didn’t fit. The narrative the marketing department was trying to sell to us as an audience doesn’t fit. Nothing fits with this damned twist, which is such a shame because it really was something that was not only plausible, but could have really taken our breath away in the right hands.

If we’re supposed to believe that The Visit was directed by an obnoxiously pretentious teenage girl who thinks she’s Stanley Kubrick by way of Werner Herzog , then the film has succeeded in spades. Unfortunately, this was supposed to be M. Night Shyamalan’s big return to form, and in that respect this film falls flatter than a pancake. Gone is any trace of the “steady hand” we saw in Unbreakable , The Sixth Sense , and even Signs ; and in its place is a man who’s just trying to stay afloat.

There is one silver lining to The Visit though, and that is the fact that you won’t be bored watching this movie. When you’re not laughing at its ineptitude, you’re scowling at how it continues to shoehorn Tyler’s career as a YouTuber down your throat. Either way, you can’t complain that nothing happens in The Visit -- it’s just that nothing interesting or cohesive happens. It’s a trainwreck.

Mike Reyes is the Senior Movie Contributor at CinemaBlend, though that title’s more of a guideline really. Passionate about entertainment since grade school, the movies have always held a special place in his life, which explains his current occupation. Mike graduated from Drew University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, but swore off of running for public office a long time ago. Mike's expertise ranges from James Bond to everything Alita, making for a brilliantly eclectic resume. He fights for the user.

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The vice president — who stopped in the store amid a break from debate prep — was greeted by a cheering crowd of Pittsburgh locals, according to a video clip of the visit .

"I look forward to using my new seasonings from Penzeys Spices in Pittsburgh at our next Sunday family dinner," the vice president posted to X on Sept. 8 after her visit.

At one point during her visit, Harris embraced a Penzeys customer who was in tears and told the woman, "We're going to be fine. We're all in this together." Penzey said the moment was indicative of why he and his company support Harris's campaign.

"Someone who actually gets cooking, someone who's actually cooked for others and shared food, the idea of that person being in the White House is kind of awesome," Penzey said. "Her four years as vice president have prepared her [to be president], but on top of that, she has this other piece of of just caring about others."

Penzey Spices also shared a photo of the visit on its Facebook page , alongside the message, "We are humbled. Please work to make our Vice President our next President. Please get out every vote."

Penzeys catches aflame with right-wing influencers, Trump calls the store 'terrible'

Shortly after Harris's visit, right-wing influencers discovered Penzeys' long history of political activism for themselves — and it came as a surprise to them.

"It started with some of the right-wing bloggers criticizing her and her visit and us," Penzey said, "and then Fox News did sort of a fairly direct piece on us being the ' meanest' spice business in America , which I thought was kind of interesting or maybe even fun."

Many posted online criticizing the "About Republicans" page on the Penzey Spices website, which outlines the company's anti-Republican stances and intentions to include political activism in its business. The statement, authored by Penzey, was posted about two years ago, he said.

Fox News hosts read part of this statement during a segment criticizing Penzeys. Though it was intended as an attack, Penzey said he was actually pleased by the inclusion.

"The heart of [the statement] is how things have gone wrong with the Republican Party, and how it's kind of impossible to solve the problems that America faces while also agreeing with what Republicans say," he said. "They read the core of that statement right to their viewers, which is exactly who I wanted to reach with that. They really said just what I hope they would say to their audience."

Far-right political activist Laura Loomer posted the statement to X, alongside calls to boycott Penzeys Spices:

Meanwhile, people more supportive of Penzeys' stances vowed to begin supporting the company:

On Sept. 9, the former president himself weighed in with a post on Truth Social, using his new "Comrade Kamala" nickname for the vice president, which seeks to falsely label her as a communist.

"Comrade Kamala Harris goes to an ultra Left Wing, Trump Hating, spice shop, which I hear has terrible, overpriced product, and calls for 'unity,'" Trump posted.

Penzeys Spices flooded with negative reviews, Yelp disables posting

All of the online attention led to surge of reviews on the company's Yelp page . Many are negative, one-star reviews criticizing its anti-conservative stances, but a fair amount are positive and expressing support for Penzeys' products and politics.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Yelp actually paused reviews of Penzeys because recent public attention had led to people coming to the page "to post their views on the news," a Yelp statement on the company's page read .

"While we don’t take a stand one way or the other when it comes to this incident, we’ve temporarily disabled the posting of content to this page as we work to investigate whether the content you see here reflects actual consumer experiences rather than the recent events," the statement said.

As of Wednesday, Penzeys still held an overall 4.1-star rating out of 2,000 reviews.

About 80 reviews were "not recommended" by Yelp and therefore not factored into the business's overall star rating. These reviews largely focused on criticizing the company's liberal slant.

Penzeys hopes to 'turn orange into gold,' founder says

Though it's too early to tell how boycott efforts and one-star Yelp reviews will affect business, Penzey said he does anticipate losing some customers over the company's support of Harris.

Still, he said Penzeys hopes to "turn orange into gold," referring to the former president's tan .

In response to Trump's accusations of Penzeys selling "terrible overpriced product," Penzey said the company plans to launch a sale in the coming days on all orange-colored spices. The goal is to use the online energy, both positive and negative, to "have some fun and create some sales," he said.

"Business as usual for us is to respond to politics," Penzey added. "We built this business that sort of collects political wind."

Penzeys Spices draws backlash — and support — after Kamala Harris visit

The Wisconsin-based spice shop’s owner is an outspoken supporter of liberal policies and no stranger to conservatives’ ire.

The dust hasn’t yet settled for a spice company whose store got a visit this weekend from Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris .

Following her Saturday stop at the Pittsburgh location of Penzeys Spices, the company has been thrust into the national spotlight. Penzeys is known by many of its fans for its owner’s unapologetic embrace of liberal policies and broadsides against Republicans, and over the weekend, supporters of former president Donald Trump began calling for a boycott and flooding the store’s Yelp page with negative reviews.

The anti-Penzeys campaign was stoked on Sunday, when Fox News offered its hot take. “Vice President Harris is hunkering down in Pittsburgh as she pushes for unity while visiting a spice shop known for mocking Republicans,” “Fox & Friends” host Will Cain said. Co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy dubbed Penzeys “the meanest spice shop in America.”

People flocked to the shop’s Yelp profile to leave one-star blasts, with some claiming to be customers specifically criticizing Penzeys’s liberal politics and others merely complaining about alleged poor service or quality. “If you’re a Republican or just an ordinary conservative you should know that this business & its CEO hates you,” one Yelp user wrote. “Don’t spend your hard earned money at a company that openly hates you.”

On the Yelp page, though, supporters also weighed in, leaving raves of their own to counteract the poor ratings. One fan noted that those expressing outrage probably weren’t customers to begin with. “You will not go out of business without their support,” she wrote. “They didn’t support you anyway and are in their feelings. There are plenty others that appreciate what you’re doing.”

The Wisconsin-based company’s owner and founder, Bill Penzey, said in an interview with The Washington Post that although he’s getting some nasty emails, the good that’s come from the visit has so far outweighed them. “I’m used to that sort of puffer fish thing they do, where they put it in all caps and use horrible language to try and make it seem like they’re larger than they are,” he said. “At the same time, there’s so much good, positive stuff that it overwhelms it.”

The actual impact on the business is difficult to quantify. Website sales were way up Monday, Penzey said, and more people have signed up for the newsletter than have unsubscribed. But he noted that in his business, you might not notice right away if customers have left. “If customers quit you, it’s a slow process for that money to not show up. But if people are excited by what happens, they come to your website, or they visit your stores right away.”

Still, you can’t buy advertising like the image that Harris posted on her Instagram page , in which she beams as she checks out at the Penzeys register, with a giant sign behind her bearing one of the brand’s mantras: “Kind.” And Penzey’s takeaway — the thing he’ll remember about this episode long after the angry emails have stopped — was the hug the vice president gave a crying customer, which was captured in a video that has been viewed millions of times.

Penzey shared it on Sunday, in one of his regular email newsletters to customers. “There are good reasons the views spread like wildfire,” he wrote. “She’s a cook. She cares. And in our store, built to celebrate the kindness at the heart of cooking … the goodness of the moment went off the charts.”

Harris, he said, embodies the message that he’s tried for years to spread. “We’ve been about getting back to that idea of cooking as an act of caring, an act of kindness that you do for the people around you,” he said. “And it was just so perfect to have her be in our store and see that woman in tears and just hugging her.”

But he also told customers that the backlash has been fierce. “Never has the media of the right tried as hard to boycott us or ‘Bud Light’ us as they are trying right now,” he wrote, citing the conservative boycott of the beer brand after it partnered with transgender comedian and activist Dylan Mulvaney.

While some Republicans on social media and elsewhere were aghast to discover the company’s left-leaning bent, for its customers, it was nothing new. Penzeys newsletters are often peppered with political musings and calls to protect democracy and to vote. The company has named products in whimsical odes to news moments: The description of an “Outrage of Love” blend cites the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. “When does a party end and fascism begin?” it asks. “When good people give up on being Outraged.” A salt-free “Justice” mix promises to improve foods’ flavors: “even scrambled eggs become something remarkable when Liberally Seasoned with Justice.”

Penzeys boasts a page on its website titled “About Republicans” that denounces the party’s “slow decline” while insisting that there’s no personal ill will intended. “Going forward we would still be glad to have you as customers, but we’re done pretending the Republican Party’s embrace of cruelty, racism, Covid lies, climate change denial, and threats to democracy are anything other than the risks they legitimately are,” it reads. “If you need us to pretend you are not creating the hurt you are creating in order for you to continue to be our customer, I’m sad to say you might be happier elsewhere.”

Penzey told The Post he was pleased to have those words included in the Fox News segment. “Friday starts like a normal day,” he wrote in his Sunday newsletter. “Saturday the future President of the United States hugged our customers in our Pittsburgh store. Sunday the words I so wanted every Fox viewer to hear being read on Fox, by Fox straight to all their viewers. What a weekend.”

In 2019, the company was the largest buyer of Facebook advertising on either side of the debate over Trump’s impeachment — other than Trump himself. At the time, Penzey told The Post that supporting calls for impeachment was good for business. “I’m running ads to run a business,” he said in an interview. “And so much of that is using your business to radiate your values.”

In addition to calls for a boycott, there were others who used the moment to promote the brand. “I’m going to start buying spices from @PenzeysSpices ASAP,” one user wrote on X . “As a small biz owner, I appreciate the honesty, tenacity” and bravery Penzey showed.

Penzeys previously lost subscribers based on its owner’s outspokenness. In 2022, Penzey said the boycotts that followed his messages about Republicans being racist led to losing some 40,000 newsletter subscribers, although the effort resulted in 30,000 new people signing up.

Meanwhile, Public Square , the Donald Trump Jr.-backed online platform that describes itself as being for “businesses who respect traditional American values” used the moment to boost its own alternatives.

“Ditch businesses like Penzeys that are so bought into the woke culture that they blatantly discriminate against common sense Americans and conservatives,” the company posted on X . “We have dozens of great spice companies on PublicSquare.com that would never cancel you for your political views.”

Penzey, though, has been here before, and he said he knows that his way of doing business isn’t for everyone: “You put yourself out there, and there can be a real cost to it.”

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Indiana Initiates Review Into Former Team Physician Brad Bomba Sr.

Todd golden | 5 hours ago.

Indiana Hoosiers

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana University has initiated a review into former men’s basketball team doctor Dr. Brad Bomba Sr. after the university was informed of alleged abuse that occurred from an unidentified athlete several decades ago.

The university released a statement on the matter late Wednesday afternoon:

“Indiana University maintains a core set of values that guide our actions in pursuit of our mission as the state of Indiana’s flagship university. Among those values are an unwavering commitment to integrity and ethical conduct, the relentless search for truth, a respect for the dignity of others, and accountability for the human resources and relationships entrusted to IU. It is these bedrock values that compel the institution to share an allegation brought forward by a former student-athlete.

The university recently received a letter from legal counsel on behalf of a former IU men’s basketball student-athlete, who competed at IU several decades ago. The letter includes specific allegations against Dr. Brad Bomba, Sr., who served as a contracted physician for IU athletic teams, including the men’s basketball program for several decades, concluding in the late 1990s. The former student-athlete alleges that he was subjected to inappropriate prostate and rectal exams during annual physicals with Dr. Bomba, Sr., something that he also alleges was a practice for all basketball student-athletes assigned to Dr. Bomba, Sr. for physical examinations.

In response to learning of the allegation, the university retained Jones Day, an international law firm with experience in sensitive and similar investigations, to conduct an independent review. The review will include witness interviews, a review of available documentation and engagement with medical experts to determine: 1) the background facts related to the annual physicals of IU student athletes conducted by Dr. Bomba, Sr.; 2) if the conduct was appropriate, necessary, or within the standard of care; and 3) what medical professionals and athletic department or university officials were aware of the conduct and, if warranted, what action did they take.

To be clear, this is a fully independent and comprehensive investigation that will follow the facts. Indiana University will abide by its findings and take any warranted actions. To protect the integrity of the investigation, the institution will refrain from further comment while the review is ongoing.

Jones Day has established a phone number (888-392-2296) and email ([email protected]) for anyone wishing to provide information — anonymously, if desired.

We ask for the IU community to have patience as we search for the truth and to have confidence that the university’s actions will be consistent with our values.”

Bomba is a member of the Indiana Athletics Hall of Fame. An end on the football team in the 1950s, he served as team physician for all of Indiana’s teams from 1962-70. He began serving as basketball physician in 1979 and stayed in that capacity into the late 1990s.

Abuse allegations from the past have occurred at other universities in relation to their athletic departments and athletes.

A notable example is at Michigan, where former doctor Robert Anderson was a team physician from 1966-2003 and who was later found guilty of mass sexual abuse. During visits with athletes, Anderson subjected victims to unnecessary genital and rectal examinations. Anderson also abused non-athletes. In total, he was accused of assaulting 2,100 people. Anderson died in 2008 before the abuse was publicly known.

In 2022, Michigan agreed to a $490 million settlement to 1,050 victims. It is considered one of the largest sex abuse cases in history. Multiple Michigan officials knew about the abuse according to a report commissioned by the University of Michigan.

TODD GOLDEN

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Components of pharmacist-led medication reviews and their relationship to outcomes: a systematic review and narrative synthesis.

Craske ME, Hardeman W, Steel N, et al. Components of pharmacist-led medication reviews and their relationship to outcomes: a systematic review and narrative synthesis. BMJ Qual Saf. 2024;Epub Jul 16. doi:10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017283.

At several points during a hospital stay, a patient may receive a medication review with a pharmacist to reduce the risk of medication errors. This review characterizes themes and components of pharmacist-led medication reviews associated with positive patient outcomes . Patient involvement in goal setting was identified as a successful component that would benefit from additional research.

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Interdisciplinary collaboration across secondary and primary care to improve medication safety in the elderly (The IMMENSE study) - a randomized controlled trial. November 30, 2022

Criteria for the selection of paediatric patients susceptible to reconciliation error. November 16, 2022

Analysis of pharmacist-identified medication-related problems at two United Kingdom hospitals: a prospective observational study. March 18, 2020

Impact of pharmacist involvement in the transitional care of high-risk patients through medication reconciliation, medication education, and postdischarge call-backs (IPITCH Study). February 3, 2016

Results of the Medications At Transitions and Clinical Handoffs (MATCH) study: an analysis of medication reconciliation errors and risk factors at hospital admission. March 17, 2010

Medication safety in acute care in Australia: where are we now? Part 2: a review of strategies and activities for improving medication safety 2002-2008. October 14, 2009

ISMP medication error report analysis. May 7, 2008

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The Visit. 94 minutes ‧ PG-13 ‧ 2015. 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 ...
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