M. Night Shyamalan’s Career-Saving Horror Hit Finds New Streaming Home in Time for Spooky Season

The mere mention of director M. Night Shyamalan‘s name in a movie’s publicity material became a risky proposition a decade or so ago, after he delivered the back-to-back critical and commercial disasters The Last Airbender and After Earth. This was an astounding turn of events, considering how strong a brand he’d built for himself in the decade prior. It has taken Shyamalan another ten years to reassert himself as one of Hollywood’s foremost studio auteurs, and the comeback began exactly a decade ago with the found-footage horror film The Visit, which debuted on the Peacock streaming service on October 1.

The Visit followed two siblings paying a visit to their old grandparents’ house in rural Pennsylvania, and discovering terrifying secrets about them. The movie featured his trademark twist ending, and was presented in the found-footage style, which had become hugely popular some years prior thanks to the Paranormal Activity franchise. The Visit is also notable for having been self-funded by Shyamalan, who, after hitting rock bottom in his career, declared that he wanted to have skin in the game going forward. It was picked up by Blumhouse, and distributed by Universal, beginning a successful streak with the studio for Shyamalan that ended only recently.

Produced on a reported budget of $5 million — a massive drop from the $150 million movies that he’d made previously — The Visit earned around $100 million worldwide during its theatrical run. The movie, starring Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould, earned a mixed 68% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus reads, “The Visit provides horror fans with a satisfying blend of thrills and laughs — and also signals a welcome return to form for writer-director M. Night Shyamalan.”

M. Night Shyamalan Is in the Third Act of His Twist-Filled Career

Shyamalan went on to direct the blockbuster hit Split, which was revealed to be a secret sequel to his 2000 film Unbreakable. He capped off the trilogy with the film Glass, which grossed over $230 million worldwide. Shyamalan concluded his partnership with Universal a couple of years ago, with the movie Knock at the Cabin. He has since entered a creative collaboration with Warner Bros., which began with last year’s Trap, which made $80 million worldwide. He is now putting together a supernatural romance movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Phoebe Dynevor.

You can watch The Visit at home, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.