The Visitation
Title: The Visitation
Director: Robby Henson
Year: 2006
Rating: PG-13
The Visitation in a nutshell: A small town is enraptured by the presence of a young man with healing powers, played by greasy-faced, rat’s-nest haired Edward Furlong. Edward fuckin’ Furlong, folks.
The Visitation belongs to that genre of religious-themed horror movies that focus on a main character who has lost faith and only regains it upon the realization that the Devil does exist. The Exorcist and The Prophecy were great examples of this. This movie? Not so much. In fact, hardly at all.
Synopsis: As I said, Edward Furlong plays a young stranger named Brandon Nichols, who beguiles a small town into thinking he’s been touched by God. His proof is the ability to raise dogs from the dead and heal the ailments of anyone who asks, shown through jittery, nausea-inducing camerawork to clearly tell us something WEIRD is going on.
In a short amount of time, every townsperson becomes his personal bitch, the only notable holdout being Travis Jordon, a former priest who lost his faith in God after his wife was murdered. Although Travis now proclaims to be an atheist, he becomes suspicious that Brandon’s gifts are actually a facade for evil, and that his true purpose may be in stealing people’s souls. All I can say is, no shit Sherlock.
The Good: Martin Donovan is pretty good as Travis, the jaded priest, though his broad forehead and widely-spaced eyes remind me of a shark. It would have been interesting to see him cast as Brandon instead of Furlong.
The Bad: Continuity errors (during one scene, when the point of view is switching between two characters, the sky through the window shifts from day to night), sparsely-drawn characters (belligerent sheriff who should not be trusted with a gun, Jesus-crazy wife who speaks in tongues, clueless outsider who moved to a small town for a safer environment), and Edward Furlong. Who the hell decided casting him would be a good idea? Brandon Nichols should have been an ambiguous figure, not someone who looks like they just cleaned the vomit off their shirt after last night’s binge. And with the acting range of exactly two modes: Prozac haze and screaming like he’s trying to pass a kidney stone.
On a more technical note, the effects were pretty bad, too. As in, ’stuff pale blue contact lenses in the actors’ eyes to show they are possessed and use green smoke and flying black specks to represent the actual demons’ bad.
Rating: C. Your average, shallow horror movie, made a little bit worse by the presence of Furlong.
