M. Night Shyamalanmight be one of the most recognizable directors of all time. He’s given us some of the most memorable thrillers and surreal horrors of the past three decades with films likeThe Sixth Sense,Signs, andGlass.Shyamalan’s plots are never straightforward, and with them come manymoments that make the audience question reality, feel disturbed into silence, want to throw up, or crack up laughing at how ridiculous the story can get.To list them all here would take longer than anyone has time for, but it is almosta trademark of Shyamalan. To take just a few examples, who could forget the pregnancy inOld, where Kara, at this point portrayed byEliza Scanlen, becomes pregnant and then gives birth in a matter of minutes before the baby starves to death? One of Shyamalan’s most controversial choices seesJames McAvoy’s character start running on all fours because, you know, that’s what people with dissociative identity disorder do of course!
However, my favorite batshit moment from a Shyamalan movie comes inThe Visit, the director’s found footage horror movie that often gets overlooked. When two siblings, Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), go to stay with their grandparents, they discover the frightening truth that these people aren’t their family at all,but escaped patients from a mental institute who have murdered their real grandparents.Not only is it a shocking violation of every boundary humans adhere to,but it’s the use of completely grounded aspects that heightens the real-world disturbancethis moment creates in contrast to other shocking M. Night Shyamalan moments.
Tyler’s Disturbing Moment With Pop Pop is so Shocking Its Almost Laughable in ‘The Visit’
ThroughoutThe Visit, it is shown that Tyler has symptoms of O.C.D. and it repulses him intensely when he finds a pile of soiled diapers from Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie). Although it would weird anyone out, for Tyler, we can immediately gather how distressing this must be for him, as a need for constant cleanliness is a major symptom of his O.C.D. The grand reveal of the old couple’s lies culminates in a moment wherePop Pop takes one of his used diapers and smears it all over Tyler’s face. Tyler stands still, the shock and fear overriding every OCD instinct he has. What is so shocking about this moment to me, compared to some of Shyamalan’s other horrors,is how bluntly this disgusting violation is framed. Rather than a tense and slow reveal like some of the suicides inThe Happening, everything happens so quickly that our jaws fall to the ground and stay there through the movie’s disturbing climax.
Every M. Night Shyamalan Movie, Ranked
Twist and shout.
‘The Visit’s Shocking Moment Effectively Uses the Grounded Rather Than the Supernatural Like Other Shocking Shyamalan Moments
What makes this moment stand out from the many wild beats in Shyamalan’s filmography is how real it feels. Shyamalan is not using anything supernatural here, and the groundedness of the scene adds to the shock value. It doesn’t rely on breaking the rules of physics, biology, or time to deliver shocks; it instead takes reality and forces the darkest parts of it to the surface for us to watch, making the stakes of the moment undeniably disturbing. The framing ofthe found-footage style(even the cinematography is grounded in realism) makes us claustrophobic, forcing us to keep our eyes on the screen as delirium sets in.
The diaper scene stands out from the other wild and unforgettable moments in Shyamalan movies because of how realistic it is. You can’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness of watching a child grow into Beth March in a matter of seconds, only for her to get pregnant just as quickly. Despite Shyamalan’s intentions, the film about the beach that makes you old is hard to take seriously when every tense moment is shrouded in unintentional comedy. Then you have scenes like the Beast on all fours inGlass. While it’s still ridiculous, it’s not something you could affably laugh at. It’s just an unfortunate reminder of the movie’s mishandling of weight topics such as mental illness and DID.The Visitisn’t played too seriously but it’s also not ridiculous, and that’s why this moment has such an impact.
In the end, it’s created an absolutely batshit moment that could genuinely happen to someone. No matter how unlikely it is, it’s still more likely to happen than plants killing us, or a beach breaking the laws of time, or someone gaining some kind of animalistic powers from D.I.D., a slightly problematic plot point in my opinion. It may not be the most unbelievable moment. Still,Tyler’s suffering inThe Visithas got to be, at least in my opinion, the most disturbingly brilliant scene inM. Night Shyamalan’s filmography.
The Visitis currently available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.
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