Jason Blum says people will be pleasantly surprised by Shyamalan’s The Visit

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

I've long wished for a return to form from M. Night Shyamalan; several of his early works including THE SIXTH SENSE and UNBREAKABLE still retain their status amongst my list of favourite films, but unfortunately the once great director can't seem to return to the storyteller that was once labeled as the next Spielberg.

M. Night Shyamalan's latest film, THE VISIT, marks his micro-budgeted return to horror and is being produced by the king of micro-budget horror, Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions. Blum spoke with Hitfix on why M. Night Shyamalan's less-than-stellar standing in the film world has made him all the more excited to get Shyamalan's latest film out there for everyone to see.

I think the backlash kinda made me more excited about it. I really kind of get a kick out of going down the road less traveled, I suppose. …I think he's an incredibly talented filmmaker. I think that every single amazing and talented filmmaker, some of their movies are better than others. I think that's he's slightly getting less in vogue now than he was, which to me is kind of more exciting. And I think when you see "The Visit," and when people see "The Visit," they'll see it's — you know, he's really back to — it feels like one of his earlier movies, and it really feels like one of the Night films that made him who he is. It's really scary, and really gets under your skin. It's more of a…thriller, but it's a terrific movie, I'm really proud of it. And I'm even prouder of it that…I think people will be very pleasantly surprised by it.

Our first trailer for THE VISIT didn't exactly blow me away, the found footage aspect was a bit of a disappointment, but I remain hopeful that I'll be as pleasantly surprised by THE VISIT as Jason Blum seems to think I will be. I will admit to being pleasantly surprise by one of Shyamalan's other recent projects; Wayward Pines, a limited-series which is currently airing on Fox, has ended up being far better than I thought it would be.

Here’s the official synopsis for THE VISIT:

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.

THE VISIT is set for a September 11, 2015 release.