A fine cast, a cute cat, and a swell premise are given the further benefit of the involvement of director Richard Franklin and writer Everett De Roche, both of whom have proven themselves before. There are problems that start to rear their head kind of quickly, though, and what they all rather boil down to is that the pacing feels overly swift in every regard, and the movie at large is brusque and forced. These issues apply to Franklin's direction here above all but extend just as much to the writing (dialogue, characters, scene writing, narrative, use of flashbacks, and plot development), acting, editing, and cinematography. This would be troublesome no matter what genre space the title played in, but becomes more so considering that there's a significant psychological element to the proceedings - a thrust that necessarily requires a thoughtful, delicate touch, which 'Visitors' plainly lacks.
The film is still enjoyable as we see it, certainly. There are terrific ideas here, as small as a single scene or line of dialogue that could have been latched onto, and all the fundamentals are in place for a spooky good time. The trouble is that every last piece of it is presented so bluntly, curtly, and loudly that it is stripped of a substantial portion of its power: every nightmare, dream, or vision, further illustration of Georgia losing touch with reality, and otherwise incident; so much of the camerawork, cuts, and sequencing; and even too much of Radha Mitchell's acting, under these conditions. I don't wholly dislike this, but it's no more than half the picture it could have been if a more nuanced, tactful, understated approach had been taken toward every component part. As it stands any possible thrills and chills are diminished, and even basic viewer engagement. Entertainment remains, but how much?
I appreciate the production design and art direction, stunts and effects (even the digital ones, if and when used sparingly), and costume design, hair, and makeup. Franklin illustrates a keen eye at times for shot composition. Though the same isn't necessarily true of how it is employed here, I like Nerida Tyson-Chew's music in and of itself. But why is it that the detached voice of Steven Grives is the one facet of the movie to consistently demonstrate a measure of subtlety? Why is it only well within the last act that it feels like the feature at large is firing on all cylinders? Why does the ending, specifically, represent a complete tonal shift? There was potential here, and there were also too many choices made that shoved that potential into a neat, small, useless box. For everything that 'Visitors' could have been, it ends up being no more than middling, and becomes an exercise in discovering all the ways that the title could have been improved upon. Here is another instance where I'm glad for those who get more out the flick than I do, but I'm just rather disappointed. Check it out if you want, and it's surely best suggested for those who are major fans of someone involved, but there are too many better ways to spend your time to bother much with this.
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