A skeptical psychic finds herself 'haunted' on the anniversary of her husbands' death. Compressing 90 minutes into a single sentence hardly does anyone justice but even so, the idea seemed to have merit. The resulting movie, The Visitant, doesn't exploit this merit but it is an OK made for television production.
Set design, in fact all aspects of mise-en-scene are characterized by 'middle classness' and unrelenting neatness. As a consequence, the film is anything but atmospheric.
Cinematography is of the, an actor stands, the camera follows them up; a character sits and the camera follows them down, type. It is adequate but pedestrian. The same summation can be made of the script.
Michelle Simms, as Samantha, plays the lead with conviction but not a great deal of range. She was much better in Red Tide which was of a more thriller than something with a supernatural bent.
The actual haunting is low key. Milk mysteriously sours, the television set suddenly stops, several appliances suddenly come to life - you get the idea. The jump scares are lackluster.
About the 40-minute mark things gets fleetingly more adventurous but it doesn't last.
At the hour mark, there is a slight increase in the complexity of the plot as we move into the denouement, the great reveal.
At an hour and 26 minutes, something finally happens! Yes, with four minutes of screen time to go but that something is not enough to lift the preceding nearly 90 minutes.
Director Jon Binkowski might have taken a few more risks with the material he was working with. There is a sequel, ReVisitant, which is actually a weaker film and even more wearisome.
This all sounds very negative, but no one should feel embarrassed about having The Visitant on their CV. It's just that it leans so heavily towards the bland.
You won't be able to recall a damn thing a day after watching it, but The Visitant, is a harmless way to fill in an hour and half.
