The Visitor

These sorts of movies about the birth/rebirth of Satan or some demon are numerous in the horror genre, as is the small town religious freaks that seem to always appear in them. There was nothing distinctly unique about The Visitor, and unfortunately, nothing really stood about about it either. It's not a bad movie, per se, but it's not a good movie, either. It's just sort of there, sitting mindlessly in a crowded pack of other like-minded movies that tend do the same things. I can knit pick; there were inconsistencies and plot holes, pacing was very slow, if not boring. A couple of paper-thin jump scares, typically with a mirror involved. Characters were tired cookie-cutter stereotypes. But that stuff isn't what made this movie fail for me. The main gripe about The Visitor is that other movies like it have done the same sort of things The Visitor set out to do, just a whole lot better. 4/10- not moving the needle either way.

I thought this was pretty interesting for a while. Actually, a long while, but it gets very messy in the later stages. The story of a British man who marries an American woman and they return to her childhood home, a big old thing. The poor guy sees a painting in the house that looks like him. Then he sees more when out and about. Some people in town seem to adore this stranger while others can't get away from him quick enough. The wife seems a bit off and things get very strange for him and he wants to return to London. He should have. This is all about the lead character who is played, I thought, rather well by Finn Jones. He's the best thing about this ultimately mixed bag of a film.

For me the movie male lead actor was too weak . He eventually got better later on as the movie progressed, but because of his continually poor grip on reality the movie tended to drag on for me before finally starting to take on a real sinister air to it. Eventually it started to scare me because I could finally start to see where it was going. It reminded me of the movie Hereditary from 2018 but thankfully not as gory in its portrayal of the darker side of mankind. The acting was very good and the towns people's blissful reverance to the male charactor, and their honor to him for his lifes purpose was most scary to me. I would have scored it higher if the male lead wasn't a drama queen had a stronger presence and not make me think he was going to flake out at any moment. I can see however that the average person wouldn't comprehend the truly divine horror of the plot.

The story is so-so, perhaps even okay-ish when compared to much of the other crap out there. Or - if you will - it's generic (which is better than pure crap). But the acting is so bad that even if the story had been excellent (which it obviously is not, to be clear), the deplorable acting would have undermined it utterly. It's a general problem with this movie, but the main culprit is the male protagonist. He is just absolutely atrocious. He's bad enough when he's reciting lines, but his nonverbal acting is what truly gives him away (as a...well, terrible actor). Sorry, but whatever might have been (possibly - unlikely as it is, but still) saved this movie from being pure crap is blown away by the performance of this guy. He's shockingly bad.

No idea why this little gem gets such a low score! Personaly, I thought it was intriguing and creepy. And while I do agree that the end could have been way better, I don't hate it. This is where the spoiler alert goes into effect - this movie's ending tried to match the atmosphere (and bottom line) from classics like The Omen and Rosemary's baby. And while the idea wasn't bad at all, it could + should have been executed in a more appropriate way. And, in this scenario, appropriate = more devastating. Still, the first 90% of the film deserve an applause. It's engaging, tense, and leaves you with a subtle sense of dread.