Amazon Prime has included a small horror gem in the streaming program, which is linked to an amazing story: after several flops, twist master M. Night Shyamalan celebrated with the horror film The Visit his big comeback. And that only came about because he paid for the project himself.
Self-Financed Horror: M. Night Shyamalan regained his former strength with The Visit
The visit to Amazon actually begins quite harmlessly: the two siblings Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) are to spend the holidays with their grandparents. But the longer they are guests in their house, the clearer it becomes that something is wrong with grandma and grandpa. The old people are behaving strangely and making strange rules. Why, for example, are the children not allowed to leave their rooms after 9:30 p.m. at any price?
Universal
The Visit: Grandma and granddaughter
The Visit blossomed into a horror hit in 2015: With a budget of 5 million US dollars, the film grossed over 98 million dollars worldwide. Which was not a matter of course. Because the director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, The Village), known for his narrative twists, had with The Legend of Aang and After Earth before two absolute failures delivered, which fell through with the critics and the public.
As a result, no one was willing to give him large sums of money for a project again. But Shyamalan believed in a little horror film he wanted to make, took one $5 million loan on his own home with property and thus financed The Visit out of his own pocket. A risk that paid off in the end.
On Amazon: What Makes The Visit Horror so Extraordinary
The main strength of The Visit on Amazon Prime lies in the fact that the horror film perfectly combines laughter and shock. At first the found footage style is child’s play, but the camera is increasingly being used to capture spooky things. Child actor Ed Oxenbould convinces as the cheeky little nerve brother and Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie) as cookie bakers soon provide goosebumps even in bright sunshine.
Rarely have pensioners been as scary as they are here.
Universal
The Visit: Ed Oxenbould
As an audience, we balance emotionally on a knife’s edge and constantly ask ourselves whether the fears we have endured will be completely unfounded in the end. And even when we think we’ve gone through all the possibilities of a horror film resolution in our heads, The Visit comes along at the end with a huge twist around the corner that no one predicts. Every dollar spent by M. Night Shyamalan was well spent.
Podcast for horror fans: The 5 best zombie series in the stream
Whether you watch The Last of Us or not, the zombie series genre is more diverse than meets the eye. That’s why we recommend five zombie representatives in the podcast stream that you shouldn’t miss. They can be streamed on Netflix, Disney+, Amazon or even free of charge in the Arte media library.
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Each of the zombie series presented makes something special in its own way. Be it that it takes you to a historical setting, approaches the topic with humor or, as a social drama, deals with how ex-zombies can be reintegrated into society.
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