Customer Reviews

The Visitation

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

The term "Christian movie" makes most people cringe. They hear the term applied, assume that the movie is going to be perfectly horrible, and watch it thinking as such. When THE VISITATION came out on DVD, I picked it up. I had enjoyed Frank Peretti's book by the same title a lot, and was very shocked by the ending of the story. And as I settled in to watch the movie, I started getting really excited.

Pretty much, a fallen minister, Travis Jordan, is at the end of his rope, not caring too much about what else happens in the little town around him. But then miracles start happening, people are being healed, and a mysterious stranger has come to town proclaiming love and peace to the people. Travis Jordan, a local veterinarian, and Kyle Sherman, a preacher, are all feeling very uneasy about the goings on, and when they start looking deeper into the situation, they start to find something they never wished they had stumbled onto...

The story does deviate slightly from the book, but the major plot points are intact, and the ending gives the viewer a somewhat disturbing feeling after film's end. The cinematography is amazing, finding perfectly wonderful angles to film, and the cutting is just right to give an intense creepy feel to the film. The acting actually was pretty good, featuring Martin Donovan (Saved!) Randy Travis, Edward Furlong (Terminator 2), and Hilary Tuck (Honey I Shrunk The Kids the Television Series).

As far as CONTENT goes: There is a little bit of cleavage during one scene in the film, there are some very disturbing situations, but nothing incredibly graphic is shown. Blood is about the worst of the gore. There is no language in the film, which is a nice change for movies today.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed THE VISITATION, and I would encourage viewers to remember that movies and books are different entities. (Even parts of LORD OF THE RINGS were altered (or left out completely) from the books...)

If you watch "The Rainmaker" you'll think it's a great movie. If you watch it after you read the novel by John Grisham that it's based on, it will leave you wanting a little more. "The Visitation" is very similar. Frank Peretti's books, including "The Visitation", have the tendency to draw the reader in until they are immersed in the fear that oozes from the pages. The movie doesn't quite accomplish that. Of course, if any movie were to contain all of the elements of a Perreti or Grisham novel, it would be 12 hours long.

Having said that, the story is well told, though there are moments where it leaps ahead unexpectedly. The movie's opening scene introduces three mysterious men who proclaim "He is coming." Through the rest of the movie they lurk in the background, creating an uneasy sense of expectancy.

Martin Donovan and Kelly Lynch are very likable as the main characters and Donovan is convincing in the role of reluctant hero. Randy Travis shows he is actually a good actor and provides most of the comic relief, which is a bit surprising.

Edward Furlong as "The Visitor" is a bit melodramatic, but does a good job of keeping you guessing to the end. The rest of the characters could use a little more development in the movie.

One thing I did find irritating about the movie is a device the screenplay writer (not Peretti) uses during the frightening scenes. It is pretty much a rip-off of "The Ring".

Overall, the movie is somewhat frightening. It's not scary in a horror movie fashion, but more in a Hitchcock kind of way. It's more of a disturbing feeling than a desire to scream. Kind of like "The Secret Window".

While Perreti is recognized as a Christian author the movie is not preachy. There are some religious themes, but they flow with the story. It doesn't force messages into the film that don't fit as is so unfortunate in many otherwise good stories.

The budget for the movie is about $2 million. It looks like it. It doesn't look cheap, but it doesn't compare to the films with five times the money in the coffers. Perreti is currently working on a screen play for "The Oath". I hope this movie has enough success to convince someone to front a little bigger budget for his next project.

It's every author's nightmare: sell your novel to a movie company, have them make the movie adaptation, and end up with it bearing little or no resemblance to the book you wrote. Frank Peretti must have faced this when he sat down to watch "The Visitation", a movie very loosely based on his novel of the same name. Fans clamored for months waiting to see this movie come out after hearing rumors of it on the internet for so long. So how did it stack up?

Well, if you've read the novel, you probably aren't going to like this movie. It bears little resemblance to that story, though many of the characters have the right names from the book. Edward Furlong was an odd choice for Brandon, since the character was so vital to the story and supposed to be a caring leader with charisma and love. Furlong shows a lot of road wear from his days of drug and alcohol abuse, making him a hard man to want to follow, but this hardness ends up coming in helpful as Brandon slides into the evil side.

The ending (and most of the picture) is a major deviation from the book. And things go a little too "Green Mile" at a couple of points, but if you're just wanting to watch a good movie, this is a better choice than many. The story is good on its own merit, and spooky in a lot of places it should be. Familiar faces like Kelly Lynch, Randy Travis, and even Priscilla Barnes (from Three's Company) are sprinkled throughout the cast, keeping it from being completely anonymous.

Not the worst picture ever made, but a horrible adaptation of Peretti's excellent story. I understand budget contraints, but there had to be a way to make it a little closer to the novel. As for "Special Features", the only thing is a movie trailer for "The End of the Spear".

Years ago, I read Peretti's "The Visitation" and loved the character development and wary look at American church-ianity. It depicted a town's struggle between a cynical ex-pastor and a charismatic newcomer, a grassroots preacher with a bag of signs and wonders meant to deceive God's people. The story was so-so, but my personal connection with many of Peretti's autobiographical tidbits made it a wonderful read.

When I rented this movie, I expected to be disappointed, to lose most of what I loved about the book. Books into movies generally disappoint me, and when it comes to Christian movies--meaning, low-budget and preachy--the disappointment factor intensifies. (Don't even mention "The Omega Code" or "Left Behind" to me, please.) "The Visitation" actually rises above many of the typical problems, telling an engaging story, using nice camera work and decent visual effects, and enlisting good actors--although Randy Travis' character seems somewhat stiff due to the script. The movie falters in its nonstop use of eerie music in an attempt to heighten fear, rather than trusting the other well-handled elements. While it throws in some wry dialogue between a group of local ministers, it also resorts to a few moments of cliched exorcism and a final plea for redemption that seemed forced, in light of everything else.

Yes, this movie deviates from the book in a number of ways, but the story's elements remain intact. Peretti's thematic point in the book was not to diminish God's miracle power, but to remind believers that a relationship with Jesus is the necessary foundation for discerning between good and evil spirits. While this point is mostly lost in the film, "The Visitation" proves to be an entertaining, sometimes thought-provoking experience.

Though at first appearance, this looks like just another of the many direct to DVD horror movies to come out in the past few years, Visitation deserves another look. The story line is engaging, the acting is refreshingly good, the directing is smart , and the special effects... well, you can't win them all.

Without giving away any spoilers, the story features a young man who bares a resemblance to Jesus coming to a small town. This young man also appears to have supernatural healing powers, and quickly gains a following. Only a few people, including as disaffected ex-preacher, take a second look and don't like what they see. There are signs of angels above and below, a nice mystery, and great character build up.

Overall, this is a nice surprise of a movie. It's not horrific enough to alienate many, and it's not biblical enough to qualify as a `Christian' movie. Yet, it's also not middle of the road. It has enough to make it widely appealing without being washed out or boring.

Recommended for people who like a nice little horror film to fill a sunny afternoon.

I went into "The Visitation" with the preconceived notion that it was some sort of Christian propaganda--just from what I've read about it. I was not familiar with the book and had little knowledge of the movie's story. I was, then, completely surprised that I didn't find it "preachy," nor did I think it had a strong religious agenda whatsoever. It was just a mild supernatural thriller, the context of which just happened to be religious.

And while I thought I might not like "The Visitation," I was pleased to see Martin Donovan in the lead and a bizarre Edward Furlong hamming it up. I was, in equal part, entertained and annoyed with the story, because to really enjoy this film--you have to put your brain on hold. It's an odd situation, really--one that I haven't encountered very often. The thing that keeps this movie from being very good is the same thing that keeps it from being really bad. While that may not initially make sense, let me try to elucidate.

"The Visitation" lacks a certain amount of logic and believability in its plotting. If the story wasn't set in modern day, it definitely would have worked better. But this movie is set in the world of Internet, cell phones, and mass media--and that just raises all kinds of problems. For example, take the "healer" who may be Christ himself. He raises dead dogs, cures paralysis and blindness, eliminates scars. He does become a local celebrity, but does this town exist in a vacuum? In reality, we know a media circus and throngs of believers in a religious fervor would descend upon that town. In the day when a grilled cheese sandwich with the image of Jesus' face makes international news, it seems odd no one is particularly interested in the Second Coming. He has also adopted several different personas within a relatively small geographical area--so if he was ever on TV or the Internet, he would likely have been identified much earlier. In fact, after a slew of "miracles," his first tent meeting is attended only by about 20 people--even Kevin Federline would draw more of a crowd.

So while this is completely implausible, it is just this that keeps the movie from completely derailing. By keeping things localized, the film is able to present itself as a tidy little thriller. The deranged and gullible townspeople provide a lot of amusement, especially the more overwrought they become. I'm not sure I ever understood just what the villain's agenda was--I know he needed a kill, I'm not sure why he had to torment the town (he didn't do that any other time). It's never made clear what is different in this instance. Ultimately, though, I actually enjoyed most of this film as a cheesy bit of fluff. It's fun in a campy, bad movie sort of way--and I'd probably even recommend it.

You could do worse, and when you see the movie, I hope you'll understand my title to this review. KGHarris, 11/06.

The Visitation is a fairly interesting movie concerning a sort of mixture of demonic possession and faith healing. Edward Furlong stars as Christ-like faith healer who mesmerizes a small town into believing that he is a returning Jesus through the healing of various forms of illness and disabilities merely by the use of touch. The protagonists in the movie are several doubters with clerical backgrounds in different Christian faiths and others who have abandoned their beliefs altogether who see him as a false prophet and do not buy into his veneer of altruism. It turns out that the fake prophet has a dark agenda which is motivated by his hatred of the town due to their failure years ago to remove him from the household of an abusive father and his own subsequent covenant with the devil who offered him a sanctuary in return for human sacrifices. The fake prophet has some frightening accomplices which help him and herald his forthcoming and there are some pretty good supernatural shocks during the course of the movie. All in all I have seen better movies of this genre and I have seen worse.

It is difficult to expect this 103 minutes long movie to cram in 30 chapters. Each chapter does average around 17 pages long. The fact that this movie has any suspense at all is surprising, because it is so much faster paced than the original novel. But yes, this movie is intense and certainly has some suspense.

It's a first-time experience repeated. My favorite attribute of the book was how there was way, way more beneath the surface than there appeared. Reading it a second time is still great, but the finding-out is gone. The movie has all the same characters (though some of their characteristics have been traded-off with others) and scenery, but enough of the little changes will cause the viewer to have to wonder what other changes the initial story-changes will cause. That's awesome! How often do you have to re-figure a mystery of a story you already know, unless you have a bad memory (but then, how could you compare the movie to the book anyway)?

The movie is not perfect, so it isn't five-star. But, i'm thinking it is one of my new favorites nonetheless. As for how knowing the book effects one's take on the movie: having an alternate version in the back of one's mind to allow him/her to know a few what-ifs makes either experience more enjoyable.

I knew when I watched *The Visitation* that I had read a book of a similar plot. I was right when I read the reviews here...from Frank E. Peretti's "The Visitation". It had been YEARS since I've read the book. He became quite popular with the release of "This Present Darkness" and "Piercing the Darkness", which involved battles between angels and demons.

I trust the other reviewers when they say that *The Visitation* deviated BIG TIME from the book. Remember that "The Visitation" was a Christian novel. (I have the book somewhere in the basement.) Even though the movie was "Christian" in a sense, there were some elements that were removed to make it less "preachy". Recalling the story, I was disappointed that there were no battles between angels and demons. I guess that was too "preachy". One will not actually see a demon here, other than flies coming out of people's mouths when rebuked or eyes being of an unnatural color.

Nonetheless, it was an interesting movie to watch. There were a couple of scenes that will give you a little jump. There isn't anything too gory like you would see on CSI.

Simple movie with a simple plot...

A Christian author whose story is done well for the big screen! I loved the book, in fact, I've enjoyed every Frank Peretti book that I have read. The Visitation is interesting for Christians in that it challenges Christians to think about the emphasis placed on miracles and miracle workers. The Visitation should be interesting for non-Christians in that no religion is required to enjoy this Supernatural Thriller.
I thought Randy Travis did a superb job. And the main protagonist--the movie Travis--came off good, though was a bit better in the book, yet one has to be willing to allow for time constraints and the fact that books can rarely be portrayed as movies without some changes. I actually thought some of the changes improved the story. The antagonist was even more disturbing in the movie. The tension was good throughout, the visual effects were decent, the story well done. It is difficult to reveal much of the story without spoiling it for those who have not read the book, I will just add for Christians that the movie might be described as the positives of Christianity, measured against abuses done by those claiming to be Christians, with supernatural involvement throughout. I would like like to have seen more of the spiritual warfare Peretti is famous for in his stories, but I understand that this was not aimed specifically at Christians, but rather for anyone enjoying a great story with spiritual overtones that are not "in your face". If you enjoy Stephen King type stories, or other, Supernatural Thrillers--you will likely want to see this one.