VISIONS (2015)

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Kevin Greutert　
Cast:  Isla Fisher, Jim Parsons, Eva Longoria, Gillian Jacobs, Anson Mount
Runtime: 1 hr 22 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Horror and Some Violence)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 17 September 2015

Synopsis: Leaving her hectic city lifestyle behind, young mother-to-be Eveleigh (Isla Fisher) joins her husband David (Anson Mount) at their beautiful new vineyard home only to be plagued by terrifying noises and visions of a sinister hooded figure. No one else hears or sees these hallucinations, not even David, who grows increasingly worried about his wife's well-being. Desperate to prove her sanity, Eveleigh hunts down locals who reveal the haunted history of the vineyard in which she now resides. But when the pieces come together, the answer is far different – and more dangerous to her and her baby – than she ever imagined.

Movie Review:

From the director of Saw IV, Saw VII and Jessabelle, Kevin Greutert, comes Visions written by Lucas Sussman.

The 82 minutes of horror unfolds with the opening credits that are a series of haunting visions upon visions.

Eveleigh (Isla Fisher) is in the ER badly hurt after an accident. She winces at the hurt of injuring a mother and baby and even more when she comes to know that the baby is no more. To drift far from all the bad memories Eveleigh goes on anti-depressants to put the traumatic episode behind. She moves to a vineyard with her supportive husband David (Anson Mount) who ventures into winery. Not just century-old wines but time-old visions start occurring to Eveleigh who is now expecting. She seeks the local medium Helena’s (Joanna Cassidy) help only to find out more than she wants to.

One wouldn’t have seen Fisher in any serious role than this except in Now You See Me where she plays as just a stem role among the boys (like a rose among some thorns) and The Great Gatsby as an unfaithful woman. Fisher plays the central character who is a pregnant woman.

In Visions you would be able to sense roles that fit cleanly. You would recall Fisher from Confessions of a Shopaholic, Now You See Me, and The Great Gatsby playing the preggie mom who begins to see things around her with intuition at its peak. Mount is from Hell on Wheels show and he had undeniably brought his wildness from that show to Visions where he plays to be the husband who had invested their all in a vineyard. Eva Longoria casts as Fisher’s bestie who seems to be an alpha female (no, not a desperate housewife) travelling around the world. Cassidy (a real retro babe) takes forth her eerie good looks to be a local medium in this film and of course, one wouldn’t get to hear her hallmark howling laughter (google it at your own peril) in Visions. Gillian Jacobs is the girl you would recall from the Walk of Shame, HBO’s Girls and NBC’s Community. This time she enters the Visions as a friend to Fisher and who is also into her trimester. What was a lot harder was to maintain a poker face with Jim Parsons of The Big Bang theory as the doctor who administers meds and one would probably sit there wondering if he is going to say “Bazingaa!” anytime soon to break the tensions building up in the plot.

A full-blown horror genre? Not quite. Yes, there is a safe measure of supernatural content. But there is also a mix of suspense, violence, thriller, etc. It was scary; the kind where you keep watching for some plot twist. And it irrefutably falls in the vein of The Others.

The trailer isn’t too inventive for a 2015 horror flick but a reasonable plot could be sniffed out lurking somewhere beneath it if you could excuse the amps of scary scenes planted in the trailer to pull more horror content lovers. It wouldn’t have beckoned eye-rolling for the overly-exaggerated scenes viewed in the trailer. But it sure does feel a lot more different when watching it in the movie itself.

Climax? Very arresting pre-climax as the pieces come together. Although it felt a little hand-fed as Eveleigh’s character would try fitting the pieces together, it was creepily bizarre.

Movie Rating:

(Watch this if you had liked The Others and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle)

Review by Asha Gizelle M