I’m not a fan of scary things. I get scared when someone taps me on the shoulder when I’m not expecting it, but sometimes even when I am expecting it. I’m just a very jumpy and scared person. So when I volunteered to write a review of the horror movie night that Student Government planned for the sophomores, it didn’t click that I’d have to watch my first horror movie ever. And of course, it was “The Visit,” which I heard was absolutely terrifying.
With all that being said, it’s a given that I was really nervous walking into the library at 7:30 at night, in the dark, the night of the movie. I was terrified. I looked to all of my friends, and Mrs. Baker, and said, “This is such a bad idea. I am screwed. I’m just going to ditch my article and leave. Bye.” But I didn’t. I actually stayed and watched the movie all the way through! I was pretty impressed with myself, honestly.
And, spoiler alert, I was so much more nervous than I should have been. The movie wasn’t even that scary, honestly. Here’s the thing: I give the sophomore SGA representatives (Emma Henry, Sloan Duvall, Risha Ranjan, Henry Mandell, and Eden Nenshati) a lot of credit. This year, much more than last year, I feel that they’re making a real effort to bring our form closer together to have more fun, and so far they’ve done a great job.
Homecoming was a blast, and the idea of the advisee Olympics is clever and creative. The movie night in general was a really good idea, and I give props to the five of them for creating a fun event.
The turnout for the night was a little smaller than I expected, but I have the feeling it was due to the fact that it was a horror movie, which people tend to either love or hate. But the night as a whole was really fun despite the small number of people.
Now let me get started with “The Visit.” Like I said, I hated the idea of even watching horror movies, and this was one in particular that I did not want to watch. But it actually wasn’t that bad.
To give you some background, the movie is about these two kids, ages 13 and 15, who are going to their grandparents’ house for the first time ever. Their mom, whose husband left her when the kids were young, hasn’t seen her parents in 30-some years, after getting in a fight with them at 19.
The movie consists of found footage, with the teenage girl, Becca, as an aspiring filmmaker aiming to make a movie about meeting her grandparents for the first time.
That’s where the movie takes a sharp turn.
The grandparents end up being extremely strange. The grandmother does strange things after dark, and the grandfather says some questionable things. Becca and Tyler feel like it’s abnormal, but still decide to stay in the name of making an interesting movie and not interrupting their mom on her vacation.
I thought the point of view was creative but lost the opportunity for a few more scares, as it was hard for things to sneak up on viewers because the camera captured it.
When I watched the movie, I was laughing almost the entire time. I thought the jump scares were poorly thought out, and some of the things that the grandparents did–like telling Becca to get in the oven–were more funny than scary. At first I thought that it was because it was just poorly written, but I figured out later that it was written to be funny with a creepy air rather than scary with some humor.
As a whole, I thought the movie was entertaining. It wasn’t an extremely well-written or hard-hitting movie, but it was fun to watch, especially with friends, which brings me back to SGA and the night as a whole.
I really enjoyed what they did with the night. I had a really fun time hanging out with my grade as we bonded over being only slightly terrified.
It was also nice to have a form-wide event, as we haven’t had one since we were freshmen.
It was nice to have the opportunity to talk to people we wouldn’t normally talk to.The idea was clever, and I hope that student government continues to have similar events to make an effort to make the school and my grade closer.
