visit grandma movie

The Visit Ending, Explained: What’s Wrong With the Grandparents?

In M. Night Shyamalan’s 2015 horror film, ‘The Visit,’ the audience accompanies a pair of young protagonists on a trip that leads to more menacing outcomes than one expects from a visit to Grandma’s house. After their distant grandparents, Nana and Pop Pop, reach out to teenage sibling duo Becca and Tyler, the pair takes the former up on their invitation for a week-long stay. However, upon arrival, armed with several cameras for Becca’s documentary, the two quickly begin noticing the strange happenings that seem to occur at the house after nightfall. Thus, the kids find themselves fending for themselves as each day unravels more erratic behavior by their aging grandparents, with the night bringing something more sinister.

The found footage film builds a compelling thriller narrative that gradually boosts its suspense until the final act delivers a startling and much-anticipated plot twist that fans have come to expect from the filmmaker. Nonetheless, the same conclusive twist may have left some of the viewers with a few questions. SPOILERS AHEAD!

The Visit Plot Synopsis

In her late teens, Loretta Jamison ran away with a substitute teacher from her high school, Corin, causing a rift between herself and her parents. As a result, years later, after Corin has abandoned his family, Loretta’s 15-year-old daughter, Becca, and 14-year-old Tyler have never met their grandparents. However, their distant relationship stands to change when the old couple reaches out to their grandkids, extending a home-visit invitation. Even though Loretta is against the idea, she doesn’t try to stop her children after they decide to visit her childhood home.

As such, while Loretta leaves for a cruise with her boyfriend, her kids take the train to visit their grandparents with promises of routine Skype calls. Becca, an aspiring filmmaker, decides to document the entire thing in hopes of learning the specifics about her mother and grandparents’ falling out. Consequently, Bella and Fredrick Spencer arrive at the train station on Monday morning to pick up their grandkids with enthusiastic smiles. Their first day together goes smoothly, and as it comes to an end, the kids’ grandpa, Pop Pop, instructs them about a 9:30 bedtime rule.

Although the kids don’t think of it much at first, Becca learns the merit of following through with the rule after she ventures out for a midnight snack and witnesses her Nana, sick and frantically throwing up. Even more frightening, the morning after, the woman abruptly and manically chases the kids under the house’s crawlspace during an impromptu game of hide-n-seek. Throughout the day, the kids’ concern grows further after noticing a few disturbing things about Pop Pop, such as his lack of bowel control and tendency to attack strangers in a fit of paranoia.

The following night, Tyler’s worries grow after he spots Nana wildly scratching at the walls outside the kids’ guest room in a stark state of undress. However, after Becca asks Pop Pop about the older woman’s condition, she receives a plausible answer about Nana’s sundowning issue, establishing her concerning after-hours behavior is similar to sleepwalking.

The explanation satisfies Becca, who attempts to return to her mission to learn about her mother’s relationship with Nana and Pop Pop. Still, she doesn’t make much progress since the topic seems to trigger a violent episode in her grandmother. Meanwhile, Tyler remains weary of his grandparents’ actions and insists they should spy on them by setting up cameras in the living room. Although Becca is initially against the idea, she agrees after walking in on Pop Pop with a rifle’s barrel in his mouth.

Even so, the plan backfires when Nana spots the camera on her nightly manic episode and attempts to break into the kids’ room armed with a knife. Once Becca realizes their lives may be in danger after reviewing the night’s footage, she decides to ask Loretta to pick them up on account of the dangerous circumstances. However, the kids are in for a big surprise when they show the elderly couple to their mother from a window, only to learn that the people they have spent the past few days with are not their grandparents.

The Visit Ending: Who Are The Old Couple? What Did They Do To The Real Grandparents?

As a slow burn of mourning suspense and horror, the film reveals Nana and Pop Pop’s concerning attributes in slow bouts. At first, the behavior that the couple exhibits can be easily explained as a condition of their old age, with sundowning, memory issues, and paranoia forming the baseline. Yet, as the film progresses, the old couple becomes more and more dangerous— first toward themselves and then the kids.

Due to Loretta’s dramatic exit from her parents’ house, the woman seldom speaks to the couple, even as she regularly calls the kids. Furthermore, a seemingly innocent accident damages Becca’s webcam, robbing the mother of any visual cues. Therefore, it isn’t until Thursday morning, when Becca and Tyler have begun fearing for their lives, that Loretta glimpses at the old couple. Consequently, she realizes all this time, her kids have been living with a pair of strangers who are pretending to be their grandparents.

The revelation immediately sets Loretta into action, who tries to contact the cops and reach her kids as soon as possible. In the meantime, she advises her kids to seek help from the neighbors to put distance between themselves and the imposters. Nevertheless, the old couple prevents Becca and Tyler from leaving the house with the idea of a family game night. Thus, with tension in the air, the kids find themselves enduring a game of Yahtzee until the old woman’s incoming mental episode gives Becca an excuse to slip away.

Using the opportunity to explore the house and learn about the imposters, Becca ventures into the forbidden basement, where she suspects her actual grandparents to be. Inside, she finds all the answers to her questions as Becca’s hunch turns out to be true in the worst way possible.

As it would turn out, the imposter old couple is a pair of psychiatric hospital patients, where the actual Bella and Patrick Spencer volunteered. The psychotic couple believed they were from an alien planet, Sinmorfitellia. As such, the pair drowned their own kids inside a well that they believed to hold a passage to the alien planet. For the same reason, they were being under monitoring in the psychic hospital.

Nonetheless, the couple escaped their bounds after the Spencers revealed their plans for a family reunion with their grandkids. Envious of the other couple, the imposters, Claire and Mitchell, killed the former pair and overtook their identities to spend the week with Becca and Tyler. Consequently, the duo managed to evade outsiders anytime they came looking for them at the house and ultimately killed their neighbor, Stacey, when she realized their reality.

Soon after Becca learns this truth, Mitchell locks her up in a room with a psychotic Claire, undergoing her violent episode. Despite their earlier attempts at domestic bliss, the couple’s instincts compel them to harm the children. Nevertheless, before the older woman can choke Becca to death, the girl manages to get her hands on a mirror shard and stabs her attacker to death. Afterward, she rushes to her younger brother’s aid, whom Mitchel is psychologically torturing.

However, with his sister’s element of surprise, Tyler manages to overpower Mitchell, unleashing raw rage and bashing the older man to death by slamming the refrigerator door at his head. Ultimately, after killing the old couple pretending to be their grandparents, Becca and Tyler make it out of the experience alive and reunite with their mother.

Why Did Loretta Stop Talking To Her Parents?

By the film’s end, Loretta’s sore relationship with her parents remains the one last mystery. Arguably, the woman’s reluctance to speak to her parents played a part in the kids’ entrapment since the latter had no point of reference to distinguish their relatives from strangers. Furthermore, part of Becca’s curiosity about her grandparents stemmed from Loretta’s refusal to speak about them to her own kids.

As such, after Becca and Tyler have returned to the safety of their home, Loretta sits down for one last interview for her daughter’s documentary, where she speaks about her past with her parents. When 19-year-old Loretta tried to run away from home with Corin, her high school teacher, the former’s parents wanted to stop her. Nevertheless, the same only resulted in an altercation where Loretta hit her mother, followed by the former’s father hitting his daughter.

Therefore, Loretta’s last day on the farm gave birth to several familial complications. Although Loretta’s parents tried to apologize and solve things afterward, the woman continued to avoid them years and years into the future. For the same reason, Loretta imparts a lesson to her daughter to never hold grudges so hard that they end up ruining things. In turn, Becca, who despises her father for abandoning them, decides to learn from her mother’s mistakes. Unlike Loretta, who refused to speak to her parents, leading to regret after their death, Becca chooses to include home videos of her father in the documentary to close the narrative as a sign of her forgiveness.

Read More: Is The Visit Based on a True Story?

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The Visit Explained (Plot And Ending)

The Visit is a 2015  horror   thriller  directed by M. Night Shyamalan. It follows two siblings who visit their estranged grandparents only to discover something is very wrong with them. As the children try to uncover the truth, they are increasingly terrorized by their grandparents’ bizarre behaviour. Here’s the plot and ending of The Visit explained; spoilers ahead.

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Oh, and if this article doesn’t answer all of your questions, drop me a comment or an FB chat message, and I’ll get you the answer .  You can find other film explanations using the search option on top of the site.

Here are links to the key aspects of the movie:

• – The Story
• – Plot Explained
• – Ending Explained
• – The Sense Of Dread
• – Separation, Remorse, and Personal Fears
• – Frequently Asked Questions Answered
• – Wrap Up

What is the story of The Visit?

The Visit is about two kids visiting their grandparents for the first time. They are also going there to hope and rebuild a bridge between their mom and grandparents and help their mom heal after a painful divorce. The movie is in documentary form.

The Visit is one of the most unnerving and realistic horror stories. A good thing about classic horror movies is that, after the movie ends, you can switch it off and go to bed,  knowing that you’re safe . Vampires, ghosts, and demonic powers don’t exist, and even if you are prone to these kinds of esoteric beliefs, there are safeguards. If your home is not built in an Indian burial ground and you haven’t bought any creepy-looking dolls from your local antiquary, you’re perfectly safe.

However, what about the idea of two kids spending five days with two escaped psychiatric ward patients in a remote farmhouse? Now, this is a thought that will send shivers down your spine. It’s a story that sounds not just realistic but real. It’s  something that might have happened in the past  or might happen in the future.

This is  what  The Visit  is all about . This idea, coupled with documentary-form storytelling, is why the movie is so unnerving to watch.

The Visit: Plot Explained

Loretta’s past.

As a young girl, Loretta Jamison fell in love with her high school teacher and decided to skip her hometown with him. Before leaving, she had a heated altercation with her parents and hasn’t seen them since. At the movie’s start, she is a single mom of 15-year-old Becca and 14-year-old Tyler, and she  hasn’t spoken to her parents in 15 years .

What really happened on the day Loretta left?

Loretta’s mom tries to stop her from leaving the house, and Loretta hits her mom, and her dad hits her. Soon after, her parents try to reach out to Loretta, but she refuses to take their calls, and years go by.

Meet The Grandparents

Years later, Loretta’s parents reach out to  meet their grandchildren . The grandparents are, seemingly, wholly reformed and now even help at the local psychiatric hospital. Although initially not too fond of the idea, Loretta is persuaded by the insistence of her children. While she had no intention of visiting the parents, she permitted her children to pay their grandparents a five-day visit.

At The Grandparents’

Their first meeting with Nana and Pop Pop starts on the right foot. They start getting to know each other, and other than a simple generational gap, nothing seems too strange. The only thing that seems off is that they are warned  not to leave the room after 9:30 in the evening .

The kids break this rule, and on the first night, they notice  Nana acting erratically , projectile vomiting, scratching wallpaper with her bare hands, and running around the house on all fours. Grandpa appears paranoid and hides his adult diapers in the garden shed, and the situation escalates each day.

The Visit Ending Explained: What happens in the end?

The ending of Visit has the kids finally showing the elderly couple to Loretta. She, completely horrified, states that  those are not her parents . The pair posing as Pop Pop and Nana are escaped psychiatric institution patients who murdered their grandparents and took their places.

The kids survive, kill their captors, and are found alive and well by their mom and the police. Becca kills Nana with a shard from the mirror, thus symbolically overcoming her fear of her reflection. Tyler kills Pop Pop by repeatedly slamming him in the head with a refrigerator door after overcoming his germaphobia and anxiety about freezing.

The Sense Of Dread

The elements of horror in this movie are just  perfectly executed . First of all, the film is shot as a documentary. Becca is an aspiring filmmaker who records the entire trip with her camera. From time to time, we see an interview of all the characters, which just serves as the perfect vessel for characterization.

No Ghouls or Cults

Another thing that evokes dread is  realism . There are no supernatural beings or demonic forces. It’s just two kids alone in a remote farmstead with two creepy, deranged people. Even in the end, when Loretta finds out what’s happening, it takes her hours to get there with the police. The scariest part is that it’s not that hard to imagine something along those lines really happening.

The  house itself is dread-inducing . The place is old and rustic. Like in The Black Phone soundproofing a room  could have prevented kids from hearing Nana rummaging around the house without a clear idea of what was happening, but this was not the case, as the old couple weren’t that capable.

The  characters  themselves  are perfectly played . Something is unnerving about Pop Pop and Nana from the very first scene. It’s the Uncanny Valley scenario where you feel that something’s off and shakes you to the core, but you have no idea what it is.

Separation, Remorse, and Personal Fears

What this movie does the best is explore the  ugly side of separation, old grudges, and remorse . The main reason why kids are insistent on visiting their grandparents is out of their desire to help their mom.

They see she’s remorseful for never  working things out with her parents . In light of her failed marriage and the affair that caused it to end, she might live with the doubt that her parents were right all along. This makes her decision and altercation with her parents even worse. Reconciling when you know you were wrong is harder than forgiving the person who wronged you.

The Kids’ Perspective

There are personal fears and  traumas of the kids . Tyler, in his childish naivete, is convinced that his father left because he was disappointed in him as a son. Tyler tells Becca that he froze during one game he played, which disappointed his dad so much that he had to leave. While this sounds ridiculous to any adult (and even Becca), it’s a matter of fact to Tyler. As a result of this trauma, Tyler also developed germaphobia. In Becca’s own words, this gives him a greater sense of control.

On the other hand,  Becca refuses to look at herself in the mirror  or stand in front of the camera if she can help it. Both kids  had to overcome their fears to survive , which is a solid and clear metaphor for how these things sometimes turn out in real life.

Frequently Asked Questions Answered

The visit: what’s wrong with the grandparents who are the grandparents.

The people who hosted Becca and Tyler were runaway psychiatric hospital patients who murdered the real grandparents and took their place. Nana’s impostor (Claire) was actually responsible for murdering her children by drowning them in a well. Pop Pop’s impostor (Mitchell) wanted to give Claire a second chance at having kids / being a grandparent.

How did the imposter grandparents know about the kids’ visit?

It appears Claire and Mitchell hear the real Nana and Pop Pop brag about their grandkids’ visit. They also learned that neither the grandparents nor the kids had seen each other. The real grandparents appear to have been consulting in the same hospital Claire and Mitchell were being treated. The two crazies take this opportunity to break out, kill the real grandparents and go to the station to pick up the children.

The Visit: What is Sinmorfitellia?

Claire and Mitchell believe that Sinmorfitellia is an alien planet, and the creatures from there lurk on Earth. They spit into the waters of wells and ponds all day, which can put people into a deep sleep. They take  sleeping with the fishes  quite literally. Long ago, Claire drowned her children believing they would go to Sinmorfitellia.

The Visit: What happened to the real grandparents?

Claire and Mitchel killed Nana and Pop Pop and put them in the basement. This information went unnoticed because Becca’s laptop’s camera was damaged by Nana, so Loretta could not confirm the imposters. Claire and Mitchel were not present every time someone came to visit, so no one suspected foul play except Stacey, who received help from the real grandparents. As a result, she is killed.

What did Claire and Mitchel intend to do?

They plan to go to Sinmorfitellia with Becca and Tyler. They all plan to die on that last night and enter the well, which they believe is their path to the alien planet where they can be happy together. This is perhaps why the grandparents hang Stacey outside the house because they don’t care about being caught.

The Visit: What’s wrong with Nana?

We don’t know what caused Nana’s mental illness, but she was crazy enough to kill her two children by putting them in suitcases and drowning them in a pond. It appears she suffers from schizophrenia as she has delusions.

The Visit: Wrap Up

From the standpoint of horror, The Visit has it all. An unnerving realistic scenario, real-life trauma, and an atmosphere of fear. Combine this with  some of the best acting work in the genre  and a documentary-style movie, and you’ve got yourself a real masterpiece.

On the downside, the movie leaves you with a lot of open questions like:

• Considering the kids have never seen the grandparents and are going alone, Loretta didn’t ensure her kids knew what her parents looked like?
• How are Claire and Mitchell out and about so close to the hospital without being caught?
• Considering they are mentally ill, how did Claire and Mitchell plot such a thorough plan? (e.g. strategically damaging the camera of the laptop)
• I understand  Suspension Of Disbelief  in horror films, but neither kids drop their cameras despite the terror they go through only so we, the audience, can get the entire narrative?

What were your thoughts on the plot and ending of the movie The Visit? Drop your comments below!

Stacey is a talented freelance writer passionate about all things pop culture. She has a keen eye for detail and a natural talent for storytelling. She’s a super-fan of Game of Thrones, Cats, and Indie Rock Music and can often be found engrossed in complex films and books. Connect with her on her social media handles to learn more about her work and interests.

‘The Visit’ Ending Explained: Family Reunions Can Be Torture

What's wrong with Grandma?

The Big Picture

• In M. Night Shyamalan's The Visit , the main characters discover that the grandparents they are staying with are actually dangerous imposters.
• The twist is revealed when the children's mother realizes that the people claiming to be their grandparents are strangers who have assumed their identities.
• The climax of the film involves a tense and dangerous confrontation between the children and the imposters, resulting in the reveal of the true identities of the grandparents.

M. Night Shyamalan is considered a master at delivering drop-your-popcorn-level twisty conclusions to his haunting films. People still talk about the end of The Sixth Sense as perhaps one of the greatest twists in the history of modern cinema. The jaw-dropper at the end of Unbreakable ranks close to the top as well. But there is another pretty decent curveball that the director tosses up in a lesser-known movie that is currently streaming on Max. In 2016's The Visit (which is currently streaming on Max ) he plays on the hallowed relationship between children and their doting grandparents. How could Shyamalan toy with the innocence of this? It is an excellent film that deftly blends found footage with the director's signature slow-burning tension to leave audiences with yet another "WTF?" moment . Let's dig into what exactly happens at the end of his underrated movie, The Visit .

Two siblings become increasingly frightened by their grandparents' disturbing behavior while visiting them on vacation.

What is 'The Visit' About?

Young Becca Jamison ( Olivia DeJonge ) and little brother Tyler ( Ed Oxenbould ) are sent away by their divorced mother Loretta ( Kathryn Hahn ) to finally meet and spend some time with their grandparents , Frederick, or Pop Pop ( Peter McRobbie ), and Maria, better known as Nana ( Deanna Dunagan ). They have a nice rural estate away from the hustle and bustle of the city, and it feels like this is going to be a heartwarming story of two generations of the Jamisons getting to know each other. It seems a bit odd that these two preteens have yet to meet their maternal grandparents, but Shyamalan explains that nicely in the first few scenes: Loretta has had a years-long falling out with her parents after leaving the family farm at the age of 19.

M. Night Shyamalan’s Eerie Found Footage Horror Movie Deserves Another Look

Loretta is still estranged from her parents but she wants her children to have a relationship with them — she only wants to go on a cruise with her new boyfriend and needs someone to watch the kids. So, the children have no idea what their Nana and Pop Pop actually look like. And you can feel something amiss from the very beginning of the film as the two precocious but excited kids set off to meet their grandparents. The entire film is told through the kids' (mainly Becca, an aspiring filmmaker) camcorder, as they have decided to document their trip. It's clear right away that Becca resents her father as a result of his abandonment, as she refuses to include any footage of her dad in her film.

Shyamalan Expertly Builds Tension in 'The Visit'

Upon the kids' arrival, Nana and Pop Pop seem like regular grandparents with regular questions like, "Do you like sports?" and "Why are your pants so low?" Nana tends to the chores like cooking and cleaning while Pop Pop handles the more rugged work outdoors like cutting wood. Naturally, Shyamalan tightens the screws immediately when the audience discovers that there is little to no cell phone reception, so he can isolate our four players into a single space. The Grandparents seem fairly easygoing but they have one strict rule — the kids must not come out of their bedroom after 9:30 pm. The very first night, Nana exhibits some bizarre behavior, walking aimlessly through the downstairs portion of the house and vomiting on the floor. However, the next morning she seems to be just fine.

Pop Pop explains to Becca and Tyler that she suffers from "sundowning" which is a very real diagnosis that usually affects the elderly . He tells them that at night Nana gets this feeling that something is in her body and just wants to get out. Pop Pop is clear and coherent, and yet again, we, along with our two young lead characters, assume the grandparents, while odd, are nothing to fear. A Zoom call with Loretta further assuages their fear by explaining away all the strange behavior as part of getting older. It's a back-and-forth that Shyamalan expertly navigates by pushing the audience only so far before reeling it back in with a logical explanation. But soon, things become inexplicably dire and dangerous.

"What's in the shed?" Tyler asks as he looks into the camera while contributing to Becca's documentary . "Is it dead bodies?" What he discovers is a pile of used, discarded adult diapers filled with Pop Pop's excrement. The smell sends Tyler reeling, and he falls out of the shed onto the snowy ground. This time, it's Nana who explains away Pop Pop's odd behavior. She tells her grandson that Pop Pop has incontinence and is so proud that he hides his waste in the shed. At this point, everything seems very odd to say the least, but there is nothing to suggest anything sinister is afoot . Not yet anyway. Even after he attacks a random stranger who he believes is watching him out on the streets on a trip into town, you still just think that maybe Pop Pop may just have a loose screw. However, the sense that these elderly people are something more than doting parents is intensified when Nana leaves Becca inside the oven for several seconds.

What Is the Twist at the End of 'The Visit'?

"Those aren't your grandparents?" Get the heck out of here! What?! Loretta finally sees the two people claiming to be her parents and tells Becca and Tyler via Skype that they aren't their beloved Nana and Pop Pop, but two complete strangers who have assumed their identities. Loretta immediately calls the police, but it will take hours for help to arrive at the remote farmhouse. Becca and Tyler are going to have to play along with these dangerous imposters. After the most tense and awkward game of Yahtzee in the history of board games, things get really, really ugly. Nana and Pop Pop haven't laid a hand on either of the kids in the movie so far. You can feel the slow and excruciating tension that Shyamalan is building . He knows that the audience is waiting for that "point of no return" moment when it is crystal clear that Becca and Tyler's lives are in danger. Becca manages to escape to the basement to discover the dead bodies of two elderly people murdered. Nana and Pop Pop are escaped mental patients from the nearby psychiatric hospital and have killed the real Jamison grandparents.

What Happens at the End of 'The Visit'?

Pop Pop realizes their cover is blown and becomes physical with Becca. He's upset that Becca is ruining Nana's perfect week as a grandmother. He tells her, "We're all dying today, Becca!" pushing her into a pitch-black upstairs room. Meanwhile, he grabs Tyler and takes him into the kitchen, and does one of the most foul and stomach-turning things ever in a Shyamalan film . He takes his used diaper and shoves it in the boy's face. He knows that Tyler is a germaphobe, and it is the most diabolical and traumatizing thing he could do to the boy. Becca is trapped upstairs with the sundowning Nana, fighting for her own life. After a struggle, Becca grasps a shard of glass from the broken mirror and is able to stab Nana multiple times in the gut.

She breaks the lock on the door and runs downstairs to help Tyler. She pulls "Pop Pop" off her traumatized younger brother. Suddenly, Tyler snaps out of his stupor and releases the pent-up anger of his football tackling lessons with his estranged father. He knocks Pop Pop to the ground and slams the refrigerator door on his head over and over . This is significant because earlier in the movie, Becca ribs Tyler about how he froze up during a big play in a youth football game, and this time he comes through to save Becca in the final kitchen scene conquering his biggest fears.

Loretta and the police arrive and the kids run frantically out of the house. The final scene has Loretta setting the record straight for the documentary about the traumatic moments surrounding her running away from home. 15 years before the events of the film, before Becca was born, Loretta fell out with her parents over her decision to marry her teacher. The argument led to Loretta and her parents getting physical with each other, and she left home that night and never responded to their attempts and pleas to reconnect. It's the most emotional scene in the film as Loretta is feeling a huge amount of guilt at never getting to say she was sorry for the strained relationship between her and her parents or getting to possibly hear an apology for the wrongs they also committed. Loretta tells Becca "Don't hold on to anger! You hear me?" The two then share a meaningful embrace. And the final shot is of the two kids with their dad on a birthday when they were much younger.

The Visit is available to stream on Max in the U.S.

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Movies | ‘The Visit’ review: To Grandmother’s haunted…

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Movies | ‘the visit’ review: to grandmother’s haunted house we go.

Remember what the world was like when anyone last cared about an M. Night Shyamalan movie? George W. Bush was in the White House, Vanessa Carlton was on the radio, and you couldn’t tweet about how cool you thought “Signs” was because Twitter wasn’t even around yet.

The early 2000s seem like several lifetimes ago, especially for the director who soared early in his career with “The Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable” and, yes, “Signs,” and then spiraled into creative free fall through the likes of “The Last Airbender” and “After Earth.” But with the clever, cheeky and only slightly scary horror film “The Visit,” Shyamalan is partying like it’s 2000 all over again.

Fifteen-year-old budding documentary filmmaker Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and her 13-year-old wanna-be rapper brother, Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), are going to visit their grandparents, whom they’ve never seen. Mom (Kathryn Hahn) cut ties with her parents years ago when she ran off with her children’s father — who has since left her for another woman.

Grandfather, aka Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie), and Nana (Deanna Dunagan) have tracked their daughter down online and invited the children to stay for a week at their isolated farm in the Pennsylvania countryside where there’s no cellphone service. That means mom can take a break from parenting to spend some quality time with her boyfriend by going on a cruise. And, if mom and the kids need to talk, there’s always Skype.

Sounds like a good plan? Well, what part of “isolated farm” don’t you understand?

Of course, Pop Pop and Nana turn out to be as creepy as midnight in a graveyard. But it’s good that Becca has brought a couple of cameras and her laptop along to document all the strange things that go bump in the long night.

Since much of the film is from the viewpoint of her cameras, “The Visit” fits into the tiresome found-footage trend, but Shyamalan, who also wrote the script, unexpectedly injects it all with a wily sense of humor that works.

Much of the success of “The Visit” goes to the cast, specifically to the two young Australians DeJonge and especially Oxenbould (“Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”). They display a very real sense of sibling chemistry and an almost improvisatory sense of comic timing that make their interactions a joy to watch even if what’s going on around them is typical haunted-house stuff. Seeing Tyler channel his inner Drake is worth the price of admission alone (be sure to stay for the beginning of the end-credits).

Likewise, McRobbie (“Boardwalk Empire”) and Dunagan (“Just Like a Woman”) play the grandparents with just the right amount of tongue-in-cheek tone without spilling over into overkill. It’s a tightrope everyone manages to walk with skill.

Shyamalan is known for his patented twist endings but, thankfully, he seems less concerned about it this time, instead focusing on telling a good, fun story in place of just conjuring a good gimmick.

Granted, “The Visit” is lightweight. It doesn’t have the emotional resonance of “The Sixth Sense,” but it’s a welcome return to form for a director who seemed doomed to a future of resting on laurels and remembering better days.

With this and “Wayward Pines,” the well-received miniseries he recently produced, Shyamalan definitely has his groove back. Except, this time, everyone can tweet about it.

“The Visit” — Three stars

MPAA rating: PG-13 (for disturbing thematic material including terror, violence and some nudity, and for brief strong language)

Running time: 1:34

Opens: Friday

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Screen Rant

The grandparents in the visit explained: breaking down the twist's clues & reveal.

M. Night Shyamalan's The Visit has a big twist and shocking reveal about the grandparents, and there were many clues to this throughout the movie.

Spoilers for M. Night Shyamalans' The Visit.

• Loretta's strained relationship with her parents and lack of photos and communication were clues to The Visit's twist.
• Becca and Tyler had never met their grandparents before and didn't know what they looked like.
• The grandparents had strange rules, and Nana's odd behavior during hide-and-seek hinted at their true intentions.

M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit has every element that makes a Shyamalan horror movie, including a plot twist that was hinted at throughout the whole movie. After rising to fame in 1999 with The Sixth Sense , M. Night Shyamalan has continued to make movies, mostly horror ones that often include a twist and shocking reveal. Although these elements led to predictable and disappointing reveals and movies, there are others with interesting twists that added to the tension of the story, as was the case of the 2015 found footage horror movie The Visit .

The Visit follows siblings Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), who live with their divorced mother, Loretta (Kathryn Hahn). Loretta hasn’t talked to or seen her parents in 15 years, but when they get into contact with her, Becca and Tyler convince her to let them visit them for a week. As they have never met their grandparents, Becca decides to make a documentary film of the experience. Once with their grandparents at their isolated farmhouse, it all seems normal at first but gets gradually stranger and more disturbing, leading to a shocking reveal: the “grandparents” aren't the real ones, and they killed Loretta’s parents to pose as them .

M. Night Shyamalan's Films Ranked From Absolute Worst To Best (Including Old)

Loretta had no relationship with her parents in the visit, loretta didn’t even take her children to the farm..

The first big red flag in The Visit that pointed at this not being a typical trip to the grandparents’ house was Loretta’s relationship with them. At the beginning of The Visit , Loretta explained that she left her parents’ home after falling in love with Becca and Tyler’s father, whom her parents never approved of. Loretta didn’t share more details at first, but at the end of The Visit , it’s revealed that she had a major argument with her parents in which she hit her mother and her father struck her, and after that, she ignored all their attempts to contact her.

Loretta’s resentment and anger went as far as not showing her children photos of her parents , nor did she make the effort to accompany her children to her parents’ house – after all, it was their first time going there and meeting their grandparents. Loretta’s estranged relationship is one of the biggest and earliest clues to The Visit ’s big twist.

Becca & Tyler Had Never Seen Their Grandparents Before

Becca & tyler had no idea what their grandparents looked like..

Not making them part of her and her children’s lives, and not having any photos of them, made it so Becca and Tyler had no idea of what they actually looked like.

Loretta’s difficult relationship with her parents led to her not talking about them, not making them part of her and her children’s lives, and not having any photos of them, so Becca and Tyler had no idea of what they looked like. This certainly made it easier for the fake grandparents to lure Becca and Tyler in , but it was yet another hint at this not being a normal trip to visit the grandparents.

The Kids Weren’t Allowed To Leave Their Room After 9:30 pm.

The grandparents had a couple of rules that had to be followed..

The first rule was because the “grandparents” were hiding the bodies of the real ones in the basement.

Once at the farm, it seemed like a quiet and calm place and the grandparents seemed pleasant, but they had a couple of rules that Becca and Tyler had to follow. The first one was that they weren’t allowed to go into the basement because it had mold, and the second one was that bedtime was at 9:30 every day, and they weren’t allowed to leave their room after that. The first rule was because the “grandparents” were hiding the bodies of the real ones in the basement, but the second one was more complicated.

Nana acted erratically at night , projectile vomiting, running around the house, crawling like an animal, and ripping the walls while naked, among other disturbing things. Leaving their room after 9:30 pm would have not only endangered Becca and Tyler, but it would have also revealed there was something wrong with the grandparents.

Nana’s Odd Behaviour During Hide-and-Seek

One of the visit’s biggest scarejumps..

With not much to do at the farm, Becca and Tyler decided to play hide and seek under the house, but to their surprise, Nana was also there. Nana chased Tyler and Becca, crawling like an animal , and when they all got out, she acted as if nothing had happened and went back inside the house. That same behavior was repeated later on in the movie, further disturbing Becca and Tyler.

Pop Pop Attacked An Unknown Man On The Street

Pop pop believed he was being followed..

Another red flag in Pop Pop’s behavior (after the reveal of the shed with piles of soiled diapers) was when he and Nana took Becca and Tyler to see the school Loretta attended when she was younger. There, Pop Pop saw a man on the other side of the street and, believing he had been following them for a while, attacked him. It wasn’t until Becca stopped him that Pop Pop realized he didn’t know the man, and though this was brushed off by Becca and Loretta as “old people” behavior, Tyler knew something wasn’t right.

Nana “Accidentally” Covered Becca’s Laptop Camera With Dough

Nana temporarily left becca & tyler without their webcam..

Becca and Tyler kept in touch with Loretta through video calls every day while Loretta was on a cruise with her new boyfriend. One day, Nana apologized to Becca for ruining her laptop as she spilled dough on it and tried to clean it but couldn’t get rid of the dough on the camera. Loretta wasn’t able to see her kids because of this , but it was soon clear Nana did it on purpose so Loretta couldn’t see them and thus tell the kids they weren’t the real grandparents.

Dr. Sam’s Visit To Check On The Grandparents

Dr. sam’s visit was a big clue to what happened to the grandparents..

Had the grandparents been home when Dr. Sam arrived, The Visit would have ended earlier.

During their time at the farm, only two people came to visit. The first one was Dr. Sam, who worked at the same hospital where Becca and Tyler’s grandparents volunteered. The grandparents weren’t around when Dr. Sam arrived, but he told Becca and Tyler that he wanted to check on them as they hadn’t gone to work in a couple of days. Had the grandparents been home when Dr. Sam arrived, The Visit would have ended earlier.

Nana Asked Becca To Clean The Oven

Nana had other intentions..

In one of the most suspenseful and strangest moments in The Visit , Nana suddenly asked Becca to help her clean the back of the oven. Becca did so to help her, but Nana insisted that she reach the far back of it, thus getting in completely. Although Nana didn’t do anything to Becca the first time, the second time she asked her for help she closed the oven to clean the outside and then opened it again, letting Becca out.

This moment is reminiscent of the tale of Hansel & Gretel and how the witch tried to trick Gretel into getting inside the oven.

Stacey’s Visit & Confrontation

Stacey realized these weren’t the real grandparents..

The second visit was from a woman named Stacey, whom Becca and Tyler’s real grandparents had helped in counseling at the hospital. As the grandparents weren’t home when she arrived, she returned later and came face to face with the fake grandparents. Stacey tried to get them to leave with her to take them back to the hospital, but they ended up killing her and hanging her body from a tree. Stacey realized these weren’t Becca and Tyler’s real grandparents , but the siblings didn’t understand her reaction.

Why Nana & Pop Pop Killed The Real Grandparents

Becca & tyler never got to meet their real grandparents..

Nana was revealed to have committed murder in the past, and they were both jealous of the real grandparents’ happiness and the visit of their grandkids.

During Becca and Tyler’s final night at the farm, the truth was unveiled: Nana and Pop Pop were patients at the mental hospital where Becca and Tyler’s grandparents volunteered, and the real ones were murdered by them and their bodies kept in the basement. Nana was revealed to have committed murder in the past, and they were both jealous of the real grandparents’ happiness and the visit of their grandkids , so they killed them and took their place.

Clues like Loretta having no photos of her parents and the kids never having met them were necessary to keep the big reveal of The Visit a secret, while others like Dr. Sam and Stacey’s visit added to the horrors that were about to be unleashed at the farm.

From director M. Night Shyamalan, The Visit follows two siblings who are sent to stay with their estranged grandparents while their mother is out of town on vacation. Realizing that all isn't what it seems during their stay, the siblings set out to find out what is really going on at their grandparents' home. Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould star as Becca and Tyler, with Deanna Dunagan, Peter McRobbie, and Kathryn Hahn making up the rest of the main cast. 

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M. Night Shyamalan’s Scary Grandma Movie The Visit Makes a Scary-Good $25.6 Million

How many times have you been sitting in a darkened movie theater, watching what appears to be a promising trailer for some scary movie, only for the name “M. Night Shyamalan” to adorn the screen at the end, imbuing the room with sighs and moans? That name tends to conjure up in moviegoers a mix of ire and indifference, inspiring writers to pen headlines containing languid jokes about twist endings and dead people and killing word-of-mouth buzz before it starts. Even his most ardent defenders had to shake their heads at the befuddling mess of After Earth . But Shyamalan’s new film, The Visit , a found-footage-style horror-comedy about scary grandparents doing scary things in the barren countryside of Pennsylvania, earned a surprisingly good $25.6 million its opening weekend. Shyamalan self-funded the endeavor using his $5 million directing fee for After Earth , which almost casts that atrocity in a new, more flattering light.

Though The Perfect Guy beat The Visit by $1 million for the top spot this weekend, Shyamalan’s film has received far better reviews. Plus, it actually earned more money on Saturday than it did on Friday — 15 percent more, which is one of the best weekend multipliers for a horror film in the last 20 years. ( The Sixth Sense remains the epitome of a crazy-good opening weekend, with each subsequent day besting the previous day for a $26.6 million total opening weekend; it made over $20 million each week for the next five weeks and stayed in the top ten for 15 weeks.) The only twist here is that The Visit had the second-worst wide-release weekend opening of Shyamalan’s career, behind only the super-weird, sorta underrated 2006 fantasy film Lady in the Water (though The Visit ’s budget is approximately 1/14 that of Lady in the Water ).

The rest of the weekend box office is less exciting than the return of well-reviewed Shyamalan. War Room put the fear of God in audiences again, filling its collection plate with $7.4 million, while A Walk in the Woods took the path to a modest $4.6 million. Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation refuses to leave the top five (I’ve used up all my clinging-to-plane jokes by now), making another $4.1 million in its seventh week for a $188.1 million cume, while Straight Outta Compton made $4 million for $155.7 million in five weeks. The indie rom-com Sleeping With Other People seduced IFC moviegoers for over $103,000 across five screens.

• m. night shyamalan
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The Ending Of The Visit Explained

Contains spoilers for  The Visit

M. Night Shyamalan is notorious for using dramatic twists towards the endings of his films, some of which are pulled off perfectly and add an extra layer of depth to a sprawling story (hello, Split ). Some of the director's other offerings simply keep the audience on their toes rather than having any extra subtext or hidden meaning. Shyamalan's 2015 found-footage horror-comedy  The Visit , which he wrote and directed, definitely fits in the latter category, aiming for style over substance.

The Visit follows 15-year-old Becca Jamison (Olivia DeJonge) and her 13-year-old brother Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) when they spend the week with their mother's estranged parents, who live in another town. Loretta (played by WandaVision 's Kathryn Hahn ) never explained to her children why she separated herself away from her parents, but clearly hopes the weekend could help bring the family back together.

Although The Visit occasionally toys with themes of abandonment and fear of the unknown, it wasn't particularly well-received by critics on its initial release, as many struggled with its bizarre comedic tone in the found-footage style. So, after Tyler and his camera record a number of disturbing occurrences like Nana (Deanna Dunagan) projectile-vomiting in the middle of the night and discovering "Pop Pop"'s (Peter McRobbie) mountain of used diapers, it soon becomes clear that something isn't right with the grandparents.

Here's the ending of  The Visit  explained.

The Visit's twist plays on expectations

Because Shyamalan sets up the idea of the separation between Loretta and her parents very early on — and doesn't show their faces before Becca and Tyler meet them — the film automatically creates a false sense of security. Even more so since the found-footage style restricts the use of typical exposition methods like flashbacks or other scenes which would indicate that Nana and Pop Pop aren't who they say they are. Audiences have no reason to expect that they're actually two escapees from a local psychiatric facility.

The pieces all come together once Becca discovers her  real grandparents' corpses in the basement, along with some uniforms from the psychiatric hospital. It confirms "Nana" and "Pop-Pop" escaped from the institution and murdered the Jamisons because they were a similar age, making it easy to hide their whereabouts from the authorities. And they would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling kids.)

However, after a video call from Loretta reveals that the pair aren't her parents, the children are forced to keep up appearances — but the unhinged duo start to taunt the siblings. Tyler in particular is forced to face his fear of germs as "Pop Pop" wipes dirty diapers in his face. The germophobia is something Shyamalan threads through Tyler's character throughout The Visit,  and the encounter with "Pop Pop" is a basic attempt of showing he's gone through some kind of trial-by-fire to get over his fears.

But the Jamison kids don't take things lying down: They fight back in vicious fashion — a subversion of yet another expectation that young teens might would wait for adults or law enforcement officers to arrive before doing away with their tormentors.

Its real message is about reconciliation

By the time Becca stabs "Nana" to death and Tyler has repeatedly slammed "Pop-Pop"'s head with the refrigerator door, their mother and the police do arrive to pick up the pieces. In a last-ditch attempt at adding an emotional undertone, Shyamalan reveals Loretta left home after a huge argument with her parents. She hit her mother, and her father hit her in return. But Loretta explains that reconciliation was always on the table if she had stopped being so stubborn and just reached out. One could take a domino-effect perspective and even say that Loretta's stubbornness about not reconnecting and her sustained distance from her parents put them in exactly the vulnerable position they needed to be for "Nana" and "Pop-Pop" to murder them. 

Loretta's confession actually mirrors something "Pop-Pop" told Tyler (before his run-in with the refrigerator door): that he and "Nana" wanted to spend one week as a normal family before dying. They should've thought about that before murdering a pair of innocent grandparents, but here we are. 

So, is The Visit  trying to say that if we don't keep our families together, they'll be replaced by imposters and terrify our children? Well, probably not. The Visit tries to deliver a message about breaking away from old habits, working through your fears, and stop being so stubborn over arguments that don't have any consequences in the long-run. Whether it actually sticks the landing on all of those points is still up for debate.

'The Visit' Trailer: Kid, Don't Get In That Oven

What if the gingerbread house witch in the story of Hansel and Gretel was the kids' actual grandmother? That concept looks like part of the inspiration for The Visit , the new film from writer/director M. Night Shyamalan . In the film, two siblings are sent off to visit their grandparents, and while the strictly-enforced 9:30pm bedtime seems weird right off the bat, the kids soon find that something is very definitely not right. There are late-night noises, strange behavior, and eventually some much weirder goings-on.

Check out The Visit trailer below. There's even the beginning of a "kid in the oven" scene here, just to tie up the connection with the old Brothers Grimm tale.

My first question after watching this trailer is: "so, is The Visit found-footage, or not?" We know the movie teams Shyamalan with Jason Blum, known for found-footage horror, and this trailer definitely has some found-footage hallmarks. But at other times it appears to be shot like a traditional film.

Also, while there could well be a twist of some kind towards the end of this film, the trailer makes The Visit look like a straight-up thriller – there's really no disguising how weird this situation is. So that could be different.

Trailer via Universal. The Visit opens in September.

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.

Shyamalan produces The Visit through his Blinding Edge Pictures, while Blum produces through his Blumhouse Productions alongside Marc Bienstock (Quarantine 2: Terminal). Steven Schneider (Insidious) and Ashwin Rajan (Devil) executive produce the thriller.

Entertainment

Is 'The Visit's Sundowning A Real Disorder?

Before I begin, I would like to make one thing deeply clear: I would not recommend looking to horror films as a tool to learn more about the intricacies of neuropsychology. M. Night Shyamalan's new film The Visit is no exception. That said, the film does reference the very real neurodegenerative disease "sundowning," and for that, it deserves some attention. So, what is sundowning , and is it anything like we see in the film?

If you don't recall, here's how sundowning is referenced in the film: When 15-year-old Becca and eight-year-old Tyler go to visit their elderly grandparents, whom they've never met, they become acutely aware that their grandmother, Doris, begins to act rather erratically when night falls. After Becca witnesses Doris projectile vomiting one night and clawing at the walls in the nude, her grandfather reveals that Doris suffers from "sundowning." Becca looks into the disease online, and shares with her brother that, yes, it is a legit condition that can affect the elderly due to "chemical reactions" in the brain that are triggered by the lack of sunlight. Doris' increasingly violent behavior — laughing to herself, asking Becca to get inside the oven to "clean it," grabbing a knife to stab the children — is explained away by the disease for much of the film.

But, how does sundowning affect sufferers in real life?

This is likely obvious, but it's hardly like what's seen in the film. According to WebMD , sundowning is actually a side effect for those suffering from a form of dementia, likely Alzheimer's Disease. It causes the sufferer to be increasingly confused and agitated in the later hours of the night, and those who have witnessed the condition in loved ones often report sufferers exhibiting symptoms of frustration, irritation, disorientation, suspicion, hallucinations, yelling, and exhaustion, amongst other things. Violent outbursts — which Doris suffered from — are not listed as a symptom.

This is all seen in the film — but the parts where Doris is crawling around the house as if she were possessed by a demon are not at all typical of the disease. As the Mayo Clinic reports , symptoms of the phenomenon are actually set off by "fatigue, low lighting, increased shadows, disruption of the body's "internal clock," [and] difficulty separating reality from dreams." Episodes can last hours into the night, which causes the sufferer to feel greatly fatigued and restless — both feelings that can unfortunately worsen the symptoms of sundowning, leading to a rather vicious circle.

According to informational videos from the Alzheimer Society of Ontario , strategies to lessen the severity of episodes range from no napping — which encourages the sufferer to actually sleep at night — to avoiding caffeine, increasing lighting, and partaking in calming activities.

In some senses, the portrayal of "sundowning" in The Visit is rather accurate — Doris is often increasingly confused at nights, and prone to erratic behavior in low lighting (remember when she chased Becca and Tyler as they were playing hide-and-seek under the house?). However, I'm fairly certain that her increasingly violent behavior, as well as her psychopathic tendencies, can actually be chocked up to a different disorder. As the film reveals ( spoiler alert! ), Doris and John aren't actually Doris and John — instead, they are escaped patients from the mental hospital that the real Doris and John used to volunteer at every Tuesday and Thursday. When fake Doris and John heard how excited the real Doris and John were to finally meet their grandkids, they escaped and killed the couple so that they could spend a picturesque week together like a real family (the reason for this, as fake John later explains to Becca, is because fake Doris killed her own children years ago, so she "deserved" a week to feel like a real grandmother).

Based off of this explanation, it's not out of the realm of possibility that fake Doris suffered from other mental disorders in addition to dementia.

Once again, taking any actual scientific information from a film that was created with the intent to scare audiences is not something I would recommend — but learning more about a real life disease that affects many elderly patients as a result of seeing the film is definitely not a bad move.

The Visit hits theaters Sept. 11.

Image: Universal Pictures

Movie Reviews

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“Grandma” is a modestly scaled character comedy-drama that winds up exerting an almost shockingly strong emotional force by the end. I walked into a screening of the film a mild skeptic, and I left nearly in tears, and grateful for where writer-director Paul Weitz and a remarkable cast led by Lily Tomlin took me.

Written and directed by Paul Weitz, whose well-intentioned but spotty track record (prior films include “ Admission ,” “ Being Flynn ,” and “About A Boy,” which for me ran a gamut from mildly enjoyable to actively irritating) was part of what lowered my expectations, “Grandma" opens with Tomlin’s character, Elle, an aged poet with a strong feminist cult rep, apparently, being super unpleasant to Olivia ( Judy Greer ), the younger girlfriend she’s dumping. Left alone in her house, she sits in a commencement cap and gown looking over old photographs; the shutting out of Olivia, the viewer can infer, isn’t the only loss Elle has recently suffered. Turning up at the door is Elle’s curly-headed, gaminesque granddaughter Sage (Julia Garner). Sage is in a non-gaminesque predicament: pregnant, broke, and scheduled to have an abortion in about eight hours.

Why Sage hasn’t gone to her own mom, from whom Elle is somewhat estranged, why Elle herself only has about forty bucks available at the moment, why Elle and Sage set out in a perhaps-not-impeccably maintained vintage Dodge: all these are questions answered in ways that are best actually seen, rather than described in a review. I really didn’t think Weitz had this kind of screenplay in him. It’s incredibly literate—the movie actually has more pertinent things to communicate about both the inner and outer life of a writer than the unfortunately-much-bruited “ The End of the Tour ” does—and amusingly literary, with one character dropping the word “solipsist” as an epithet in a funny argument scene. He divides the scenes as chapters, with their titles typed in lower case on a simulation of fine bond paper. Sage and Elle get to know each other better, even as Elle can’t get over the fact that her granddaughter’s never heard of "The Feminine Mystique." But Elle’s politics and aesthetics get shaken up at the same time as their quest for cash begins “rattling the skeletons” of the characters’ respective pasts.

At the outset I was kind of concerned that the movie was making a point of evoking Elle’s counterculture values the better to caricature them for comedic purposes. But no. The movie examines those values, not entirely uncritically, but it also largely ends up affirming them, particularly with respect to women’s rights. One of the film’s most striking scenes, titled “the ogre,” finds Elle, who’s lived as a lesbian for longer than her granddaughter’s been alive, meeting up with an old acquaintance, Karl, played by an initially genial Sam Elliott . The scene’s almost a pocket history of the 1960s—its glories and its foibles. And Elliott gives a performance that sets the movie on emotional fire. It’s absolutely spectacular stuff. By the time this scene turns up, it’s clear that this movie is not one that seeks to use the one-time edginess of Tomlin’s comedic persona as a repository for sentimentality, but rather to set it afire and let it burn. This is a much neater film than those in which Tomlin worked with director Robert Altman , but its commitment to emotional truth is as strong as any Altman movie you could name. And it holds true to that commitment with the introduction of Sage’s mom, played beautifully by Marcia Gay Harden .

Is this a political movie? Well, in the United States, any movie in which abortion is treated as a standard medical procedure performed by trained and concerned medical professionals as opposed to Something Not Done, or a Traumatic Life Ruining Moment, is by definition a political movie. For that reason alone the movie will attract controversy; it approaches women’s self-determination without even the vaguest hint of apology. I don’t want to set the comments section on fire but I’ve got to say I’m entirely sympathetic to this perspective. But the politics—including the way the movie doesn’t just “pass” the “Bechdel Test” but gets 100 on it—are only a part of this really special movie. The other part is, yes, the humanity. The way the movie shows the toll taken by bonds sundered, and the healing made possible by bonds that are restored, however tentatively. And there’s also humor, and plenty of it. While brief in running time, “Grandma” is a small movie that doesn’t feel slight. 

Glenn Kenny

Glenn Kenny was the chief film critic of Premiere magazine for almost half of its existence. He has written for a host of other publications and resides in Brooklyn. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Classic Tales for Quality Time: 15 Kids’ Films to Enjoy with Grandma

Posted: October 1, 2023 | Last updated: April 6, 2024

Watching films with a family member can be a great way to have fun memories, but it can be challenging when the family members have decades between them and can’t decide what suits them.

Luckily, we’ve compiled a list of movies kids can enjoy with their grandmothers. From timeless classics to modern favorites, these 15 films will bring joy and laughter to the kids and grandma’s movie night.

1. Aladdin (1992)

Aladdin is a classic Disney film that folks of all ages can enjoy. The lovable street urchin falls in love with the beautiful princess Jasmine who’s out of his league. To keep her love, he must face the evil Sultan Jafar. Aside from the beautiful story, the catchy songs make the film a masterpiece.

2. Toy Story (1995)

Take a trip to infinity and beyond with Toy Story ! This beloved Pixar film introduces us to Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and many lovable toys that come to life. It’s a tale that showcases the importance of loyalty and the joy of friendship. Toy Story is a movie that will leave both kids and grandparents smiling.

3. Finding Nemo (2003)

Dive into the ocean’s depths with the movie Finding Nemo , even though it is animation. This heartwarming adventure follows a clownfish named Marlin as he searches for his lost son, Nemo.

Along the way, they encounter the forgetful Dory, among other “helpful” characters. This movie teaches bravery and shows the lengths one would go to for their family.

4. A Goofy Movie (1995)

This movie is centered on Goofy and his teenage son, Max, as they embark on a hilarious road trip. It explores the experience of the father-son relationship while on a road trip and emphasizes the importance of embracing one’s true self.

A Goofy Movie offers powerful messages in its plot, heartwarming characters, and rib-cracking moments. It’s a film that will bring generations together in laughter and nostalgia.

5. Coco (2017)

Coco is a breathtaking cinematic gem crafted by Pixar. The film revolves around Miguel’s journey into the vibrant Land of the Dead. Overcome with the zeal to be great, he explores his family’s hidden musical history.

This enchanting tale of love, memory, and following one’s passion will leave a lasting impression on viewers.

6. Castle In The Sky (1986)

Castle in the Sky is an adventure movie that will appeal to lovers of this genre. The movie is about young Pazu and Sheeta, who journey through a fantastical world of floating castles, sky pirates, and ancient mysteries. This thrilling tale of friendship will keep the entire family reeling from excitement.

7. The Fox and the Hound

While a little sad, this classic Disney movie is sure to delight grandparents and kids alike. The beautiful, old-style animation and cute characters will entertain even the most discerning of movie fans. 

8. My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

My Neighbor Totoro is a film about two sisters who move to the countryside with their father. As they explore their new home, they encounter magical creatures who keep them company while in the town.

It’s a delightful tale filled with friendship, imagination, and wonders of nature.

9. The Emperor’s New Groove (2000)

The Emperor’s New Groove is an animated comedy movie about a young emperor transformed into a llama to regain his throne. This film has colorful characters and entertaining adventures for the young and old.

10. The Iron Giant (1999)

This animated movie is about a young boy who befriends a giant robot from outer space. It explores friendship, acceptance, and the power of choice. It’s a captivating film one will appreciate for its endearing characters and powerful messages.

11. Madagascar (2005)

Madagascar is a fun-filled, animated adventure film that follows a group of animals. While trying to escape captivity, they unexpectedly find themselves in the wild.

Starring characters like Alex and Marty, this movie’s sparkling humor is one reason it is among the most loved in the animation world.

12. Rango (2011)

Rango is one movie with an excellent plot and stunning visuals. It is about the adventures of a chameleon, the sheriff of a wild town. The film contains clever references and witty dialogue, and the animation is top-notch.

13. A Bug’s Life (1998)

A Bug’s Life is an animated film that takes you into the miniature world of ants. The plot centers on their struggle against a group of menacing grasshoppers. This film offers endearing characters, beautiful animation, and a heartwarming story about courage and teamwork.

14. The Lego Movie (2014)

The Lego Movie is a great movie for the entire family, with jokes that will be funny for so many age ranges. Plus, a lot of the characters are voiced by a lot of popular actors including Will Arnett, Chris Pratt, Will Ferrel, and Elizabeth Banks. 

15. The Mitchell’s vs. the Machines (2021)

The Mitchell’s vs. the Machines is such a fun movie about family dynamics and trying to find a common ground with the people you love the most. When a family road trip turns into a world-saving mission, this family will have to figure out their strengths as a family in order to save themselves and the world.

Source: Reddit. 

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Margot Robbie working on Monopoly board game movie

After taking on the plastic, fantastic world of Barbie Land , producer  Margot Robbie  is heading to the rich terrain of  Monopoly .

Robbie’s company LuckyChap and her partners Tom Ackerley and Josie McNamara are producing a live-action feature film based on the ubiquitous real estate-inspired board game. Hasbro Entertainment, the backers of Monopoly, will also produce.

Lionsgate extended its development rights to the board game with its purchase of eOne, which was completed in December 2023. According to the studio, Monopoly is the world’s most popular board game brand, with 99% global awareness. It’s available in more than 100 countries across the globe, selling nearly half a billion copies going back to 1935.

It’s unclear how Robbie and company plan to spin a narrative story from the two-dimensional world of Monopoly. (Who will portray the game’s mascot, Rich Uncle Pennybags? Will they pass Go? Will they collect $200?) It’s no surprise, though, as to why Lionsgate thought of them to take on the challenge. LuckyChap recently produced a little blockbuster called “Barbie,” which was based on the beloved Mattel doll and became the highest-grossing movie of 2023 with $1.4 billion globally.

Without sharing any details, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chair Adam Fogelson hinted that LuckyChap has “a clear point of view” on the upcoming “Monopoly” movie. He made the announcement at CinemaCon, the annual movie theater trade show that’s currently taking place in Las Vegas. A packed house of cinema owners in the Colosseum at Caesars Palace loudly cheered at the news.

“I could not imagine a better production team for this beloved and iconic brand than LuckyChap,” Fogelson said. “They are exceptional producers who choose their projects with great thought and care, and join Monopoly with a clear point of view. We are tremendously excited to be working with the entire LuckyChap team on what we all believe can be their next blockbuster.”

LuckyChap, whose prior projects include “I, Tonya” and “Promising Young Woman,” has been in high demand after the blockbuster success of “Barbie.” It most recently backed the Sundance coming-of-age film “My Old Ass,” which sold to Amazon MGM Studios for $15 million. Up next, the company is producing Wilde’s new Christmas comedy “Naughty” for Universal Pictures.

“Monopoly is a top property — pun fully intended,” said LuckyChap. “Like all of the best IP, this game has resonated worldwide for generations, and we are so excited to bring this game to life alongside the wonderful teams involved at Lionsgate and Hasbro.”

Hasbro Entertainment’s head of film Zev Foreman said, “As one of the most iconic games in the world, Monopoly provides an incredible platform for storytelling opportunities. We are thrilled to have the unique vision of LuckyChap and Lionsgate alongside us to bring this historic piece of popular culture to the big screen.”

James Myers is overseeing “Monopoly” on behalf of the studio. Robert Melnik led the studio’s dealmaking.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

When 93-year-old Thelma Post gets duped by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson, she sets out on a treacherous quest across the city to reclaim what was taken from her. When 93-year-old Thelma Post gets duped by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson, she sets out on a treacherous quest across the city to reclaim what was taken from her. When 93-year-old Thelma Post gets duped by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson, she sets out on a treacherous quest across the city to reclaim what was taken from her.

• Josh Margolin
• June Squibb
• Fred Hechinger
• Richard Roundtree
• 3 User reviews
• 39 Critic reviews
• 76 Metascore
• 1 win & 1 nomination

• Woman at Post Office

• Detective Morgan

• Gloria ('Annie')

• Theater Director

• Starey Gary

• Woman at Gas Station

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia June Squibb 's first starring film role in her decades-spanning career.
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User reviews 3

• armando-fumagalli
• Jan 24, 2024
• How long will Thelma be? Powered by Alexa
• June 21, 2024 (United States)
• Switzerland
• United States
• Invention Studios
• Zurich Avenue
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 37 minutes

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