‘The Visitor’ (2022) Review – A Bewildering Sight To Behold

Directed By: Justin P. Lange

Starring: Jessica McNamee, Finn Jones, Thomas Francis Murphy

Plot Summary: After a series of tragedies, Robert moves with his wife back to her childhood home. After he discovers an old portrait of a man who looks like him, he goes down a rabbit hole to discover the identity of this mysterious doppelgänger.

The Visitor is baffling at every turn, and it is never good when a movie such as this raises certain questions. Such as, how did this project get funded, what is it trying to say and exactly who is the audience for? While The Visitor is certainly not the worst film this year, it is a giant mess. To any budding filmmakers that may be reading this, can we please take a break from the “small weird towns vs. outsiders” narrative springboard? You may think this is an easy jumping off point, but rarely does it ever work in a way that is successful. It’s not that this template cannot work, it just takes a certain level of polish, talent and most of all originality to pull it off.

Sadly, The Visitor is so bewilderingly bad that it is kind of a sight to behold. In unpacking this unsteady outing, it starts with how the movie clearly wants to be interesting and original, but every thread and plot point feels so predictable it seems like the screenplay was written by an A.I. It is every folk horror film you’ve seen haphazardly stitched together into a patchwork film that is disjointed and confusing. It’s a litter of half-baked ideas that never connect in a way that feels coherent let alone satisfying. Director Justin P. Lange is clearly a big A24 fan (as am I) as you can see the provocative elements thrown about – this is especially true in the inept finale. Visually, the final scene is different than the rest of the film, not to mention it is not set up with any sense of probability. Lange’s film is so woefully bogged down in its own pretentiousness that it’s hard not to check out halfway through the film’s runtime.

This is also a very self-serious film, which doesn’t help matters when you have moments that are so unintentionally funny. The first death in the film is so over-the-top that, despite it being tonally disjointed, made me wish that the rest of the movie leaned in like that. But it doesn’t, sadly. Also, it’s no shocker that a movie with the depth of a mud puddle doesn’t handle its female characters with an ounce of respect. Robert’s wife is portrayed as a nagging shrew. Despite the filmmaker’s intention, you find yourself being on the wife’s side as her frustrations mount stemming from her husband literally going insane over a painting that looks like him.

This escalates to the point where Robert demands they move to London. Keep in mind, this is all over a few paintings, and now he wants to uproot their entire lives. This is compounded by the fact that the wife is pregnant and just lost her father. Seeing how the movie shakes out, you need to demonize her as swiftly and sloppily as possible. At best, this comes off as tired and lazy writing, and at worst as regressive. Honestly, most horror movies just do not write women characters very well, (though that’s getting better) and this could have tried to do better.

The Visitor is a mish-mash of other plot lines, and never remotely gets close to anything original. You hate to be so harsh, yet the movie is utterly forgettable.

The Visitor is currently available on Digital and On Demand platforms courtesy of Paramount and Blumhouse Television. The film will be available to stream on Epix this December. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuNAnj3x4f8]