Browsing my cable guide for something to watch found me on a channel running a few M. Night Shyamalan films. Being a fan of his unique vision I saw one in the list I hadn't seen before. So, I did a bit of online poking to see how it was recieved by the masses and to get an idea on the plot. The reviews were somewhat unkind. They slammed the "paranormal activity" style and claimed the ending was predictable. So instantly I knew I would enjoy this film because those are the attack phrases that I tend to find completely opposite to how I find a film with those critiques.
Before I continue I should warn there will be spoilers. If you haven't seen the film I suggest you give it a viewing. If you like M. Night Shyamalan then it is right in his wheelhouse of filmmaking and worth the time.
It begins right away on a personal video recording devise. So it is in the low budget style of modern video cameras and home editing software. It isn't crappy VCR or reel to reel so it is not choppy nor does it break hard in an armature way. Its filmmaker lead is an older teen who has some film training and a passion for the craft. Her younger brother is an annoying 12 year old who raps horribly but generally anything a 12 year old does is annoying so, I liked the kid pretty early on and forgave his silly interests.
Then I saw this ravishing women on screen! Kathryn Hahn plays the children's mom and I had not even known of this till I saw her face and was like "ohh! That's Agatha! I love her!" and she does a great job in this film too. She plays a dorky mom with some secrets but a need to allow her children to explore her past without interference.
The main portion of the film leaves her behind and we follow the kids alone as they self produce their vacation and explore their grandparents life as well as take in their moms childhood setting. The sister uses film terms and tries to direct the cameras focus and, as a 12 year old boy would do, he completely ignores those and has fun when he has control of the camera. It is a fun dynamic to distract you from the cliff M. Night usually throws us off eventually in his stories.
The grand parents are "old people". In the beginning they come off as quirky and awkward, nothing out of the ordinary. But as the story progresses we 1st get some odd reveals of their character that are explained away after the reveal as more normal elderly issues and not really concerning when in context. M. Night doing what he does, playing with his audience.
Then things start really going off the rails as we see more concerning grandparent behavior. The kids begin to see this too, but kind of still work with what they have. They do begin poking deeper though and recording more. These bring some funny lines and sudden surprises as they turn corners and ask one question too many. I won't spoil those but can say, that oven really gets dirty apparently.
When they finally decide to abandon proper film etiquette and hide a camera in the living room the outcome is a banner moment for me. But 1st, let me give you some of my backstory. I am from the haunted attraction industry and a huge fan of horror films. My senses are numb to scares because my life has been seeing them and then my career was based in creating scare moments. My actors were endlessly attempting to jump scare me in the attraction I worked and not one could get even a flinch out of me. One time a customer found a hidden access door and when I walked through the halls, that customer jumped out at me to scare me. All I did was grab a hold of his shirt and slam him into a wall with a very angry face. Then realize I did not recognize him as my actors so I shoved him down the hall to continue his paid for experience and laughed it off. So the moral of the story for me is, I don't get scared. Until this darn film that is!
When this face popped out of nowhere I did a full manly "AHHHHH" alone in my room with a house full of sleeping humans. Then instantly had the longest belly laugh of 2022 at myself as I clapped to M. Nights achievement of scaring the unscareable haunter. Then I walked the house to be sure I had not woken anyone.
From then on the movie could have been pure garbage and it would get a top rating because you have to be exceptional in your craft to get that effect out of me. Thankfully it did not unravel into garbage. Nor did it become predictable as the critics claimed. If I were to predict its plot twist I would have gone to the white figure with the orange eyes being revealed as real.. or assumed we would find a pond and see the townspeople at the bottom as the side stories hinted at. I was mind blown at where this twist really went, and again, I will not reveal that incase you are reading this without seeing the film and now think "hmm, maybe I should see this before reading reviews? This looks friggan crazy!?!"
The final action helps resolve a lot, unlike traditional home video films, the main characters don't die (hey, I have to spoil something, so this was about the safest to leak out) and two post conclusion scenes help tie up Kathryns loose ends and give us one more rap from the 12 year old. I left it with a real positive feeling.