Name : James Rocchi / Alias : TheWrap
Startling but never terrifying, "The Visit" may make a little money, but it does not mark a return to long-lost greatness for Shyamalan. It's more of the same, presented on a smaller, cheaper canvas where you can see every flaw all the more clearly.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
While the production values are simple, the script is sneakily complex. Like the best horror merchants, Shyamalan exploits our secret fears - in this case, of old age, ill health and dementia.

Name : David Edelstein / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
An unoriginal faux-doc horror picture that actually works like a demonic charm.

Name : Tom Huddleston / Alias : Time Out
The result is a bizarre, conflicted mess, horrifying when it's trying to be funny, oddly appealing when it turns the screws.

Name : Richard Brody / Alias : New Yorker
For all its intelligence and craft, M. Night Shyamalan's foray into the genre of found-footage horror has the feeling of homework done well.

Name : Michael O'Sullivan / Alias : Washington Post
An effective if flawed psychological thriller, a modest campfire story with a solid, genuinely startling twist that is likely to restore the faith of some of [Shyamalan's] critics.

Name : Alan Scherstuhl / Alias : Village Voice
The best studio horror flick in recent years, combining the but-what's-in-those-shadows? immersion of The Conjuring, James Wan's basement-wandering simulator, with the crack scripting and meta-cinematic surprises of Shyamalan's best early films.

Name : Sara Stewart / Alias : New York Post
Dunagan and McRobbie have a blast in their respective roles, alternating between everyday grandparent oddities and behavior that wouldn't be out of place at the Overlook Hotel. And overall, the young duo makes an affable pair of narrators.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
Isn't the whole handheld "real-video" thing kind of old by now? Isn't the Shyamalanian-twist thing kind of old by now, too?

Name : Geoff Berkshire / Alias : Variety
Even if there's less chance the audience will burst out in fits of inappropriate chuckles, as was often the case in, say, "The Happening" or "Lady in the Water," Shyamalan still can't quite pull off the delicate tonal balance he's after.

Name : Cary Darling / Alias : Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
The Visit is lightweight and 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 remembering better days.

Name : Ignatiy Vishnevetsky / Alias : AV Club
Following a creative low period that found the director trying his hand at effects-driven fantasy and sci-fi, it can't help but come across as a comeback.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
Alas, it's a dopey, only mildly chilling, uneasy mix of horror and dark comedy, scoring few points in either category.

Name : Peter Hall / Alias : New York Daily News
A messed-up fairy tale that often nails the sweet spot between scaring us and letting us laugh at how scared we are. It's crowd-pleasing horror, the kind that can push moviegoers to the edge of their seats and send them to the water cooler the next day.

Name : Bruce Demara / Alias : Toronto Star
M. Night Shyamalan's latest film may well have been his last chance at redemption. Fortunately, he rises to the challenge and makes The Visit good, scary fun.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
Not in the same league as The Sixth Sense, but Shyamalan ends a long dry spell with The Visit. No spoilers, except to say that cheap thrills can still be a blast.

Name : Rene Rodriguez / Alias : Miami Herald
Here is a movie in which old people are scary because they're senile and icky and incontinent and do baffling things. And they're, you know, so old and wrinkly.

Name : Wesley Morris / Alias : Grantland
It was fun watching this with a gasping and screaming audience. For horror-goers, the comparative competence must hit the spot. But there's nothing new here - and what I sensed for 94 minutes was compromise.

Name : Peter Hartlaub / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
Much like Shyamalan's flawed/interesting films "Signs" and "The Village," the filmmaker promises more than he can deliver.

Name : Tom Long / Alias : Detroit News
There's undeniable fun in watching a couple of veteran actors get strange with two newcomers. "The Visit" may be worth one.

Name : Brian Truitt / Alias : USA Today
The low-budget thriller deftly mixes horror-movie moments, pure strangeness and comedy like a family-friendly David Lynch effort as it takes audiences on one really oddball trip to grandma's house.

Name : Tom Russo / Alias : Boston Globe
A relentlessly tense journey into the bizarre, with jolts that linger and some nicely played melancholy. What's more, the movie is often surprisingly, wickedly funny .

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
Despite a promising premise and effective "Shyamalan twist", this low-budget horror film still underwhelms.

Name : Manohla Dargis / Alias : New York Times
The director M. Night Shyamalan has a fine eye and a nice, natural way with actors, and he has a talent for gently rap-rap-rapping on your nerves.

Name : Christopher Orr / Alias : The Atlantic
It is with some surprise-and perhaps even a hint of disappointment-that I must report that The Visit is merely mediocre and not the breathtaking calamity that we've come to anticipate from its author.

Name : Steve Tilley / Alias : Toronto Sun
Fortunately, The Visit has a lot of (intentional!) laughs between the creepy bits and jump scares, and never takes itself too seriously.

Name : Clark Collis / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Suffice to say that the result is an effective scare machine and a semi-return to form for its creator.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
It's creepy, sure, but not very enjoyable, basement or no.

Name : Randy Cordova / Alias : Arizona Republic
A scary fun-house ride that expertly blends jittery tension and laugh-out-loud humor, it will make you forgive the filmmaker for such major time-wasters as "Lady in the Water," "After Earth" and "The Happening."

Name : Brad Wheeler / Alias : Globe and Mail
I hear Hollywood whispers. I feel something is amiss. I see dead directorial reputations. And I smell a comeback.

Name : Randy Myers / Alias : San Jose Mercury News
Frightfully fun, with Shyamalan relentless toying with us and cramming in horror genre references.

Name : Michael Sragow / Alias : Los Angeles Times
The honorable tradition of American moviemakers wringing laughs and gasps from bucolic lunatics dates back to "Murder, He Says" (1945). Unfortunately, "The Visit" isn't part of it.

Name : Ben Sachs / Alias : Chicago Reader
[Shyamalan's] manipulation of tone is impressive - he gets you to laugh at the grandparents' strange behavior, only to shift gears into horror when you least expect it.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
By remaining a smartly staged thriller rather than a formula shocker, it does quite well with precisely what it set out to do: play on all our fears like a Steinway grand piano.

Name : Guy Lodge / Alias : Variety
Affectionately honoring the everyday quirks of Bond's stories, while subtly updating their middle-class London milieu, King's film may divide loyal Paddingtophiles with its high-stakes caper plot, but their enraptured kids won't care a whit.

Name : Dave Calhoun / Alias : Time Out
This first-ever movie take on Peru's furriest export is a cuddly triumph.