I was warned. Oh, yes I was…but I had to go see it anyway.

It started off with a change of plans: I had to move the start time of my movie day with my friend to a later time, so we chose to meet up at Metrotown. Her skytrain broke down; she was stuck in Vancouver until the time Everest was having its afternoon showing at Silvercity.

The next movie we could watch: The Visit.

“It’s a bad idea,” we both said…but curiosity got the better of us.

And so began the mundane motion picture that is director and producer M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit. Starring Kathryn Hahn, Peter McRobbie, Deanna Dunagan, Ed Oxenbould and Olivia DeJonge, the film revolves around a documentary made by Rebecca (DeJonge) and Tyler (Oxenbould). This documentary chronicles their visit to Nana (Dunagan) and Pop Pop’s (McRobbie) home.

A movie touted as Shyamalan’s saving grace, it registers as a mediocre effort by the same guy who delivered solid edge-of-your-seat movies like The Sixth Sense and Signs.

I won’t take much of your time here. The movie is a tease: cheap scares and lacklustre lines made me want to take a nap. Everything ‘scary’ was more humorous than terrifying. Also – if you’ve seen all the trailers, you have seen about 75 percent of the movie – you’ve just skipped all the boring parts. Oxenbould’s character also raps a lot in the film (bad idea), but the kid has some shining moments. One of the funniest moments in the movie had Oxenbould running around like his nana…see below (good idea).

Oxenbould and DeJonge are somewhat charming as the two children, but the kids sometimes overact – which induces quite a bit of eye-rolling. Nana and Pop Pop are…well, certifiably weird.

At the end of the day, this is not a scary movie. This is borderline parody; perhaps a ‘classier’ version of Scary Movie, if you will? I wouldn’t go see this in theatres, but I know people are going to see it for all the wrong reasons. (It was number three at the US box office last week; this week it is number two.)

When this *does* come out on home release, this is one of those movies that you can probably watch on a day when you’re home sick, or everything else on your On Demand box is awful…yup.

Save yourself some money. Don’t watch this.