Video: M. Night Shyamalan Talks The Visit

Writer and director M. Night Shyamalan makes a return to horror with this Friday’s The Visit

Hitting theaters this Friday, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit tells the story of Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), two children who go to visit their grandparents (Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie) for a week. Seems like a typical fairy tale – except they’ve never actually met them. Their mother (Kathryn Hahn), who is on vacation during the visit, stopped speaking to them years ago and this is an attempt to make a new connection. Things don’t go quite as planned, of course. There is something very wrong with Nana and Pop Pop. Maybe it’s age – or maybe it’s something else.

We recently got a chance to chat with M. Night Shyamalan, producer Jason Blum and Kathryn Hahn about the film, the blend of horror and comedy and the themes it’s based on. Shyamalan told us about finding children who could not only carry a film, but could also rap. He talked about the fairy tale themes in the film (one of which you can spot in the trailer) and the surprising and twisted love story. Blum talked about balancing the humor and the scares, while Hahn talked about doing a small film and how it was performance driven.

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 opens in theaters on September 11.