What do Jesus Christ, a foul-mouthed 8-year-old girl with malicious powers, a flock of evil birds and the owner of the Atlanta basketball team have in common? This riddle sounds like the set-up for a lame joke, and that happens to be also the best way to describe "The Visitor": a lame, bad, drawn-out and overlong joke! The biggest mystery to unravel here is WHY so many terrific and experienced actors got lured into signing up to star in this cinematic mess! The cast includes John Huston, Sam Peckinpah (both prominent directors themselves), Lance Henriksen, Glenn Ford, Mel Ferrer, Franco Nero and Shelley Winters. The plot is impossible to summarize, mainly because there are too many story lines and it really doesn't make the slightest bit of sense as a wholesome. The whole thing reverts back to the ancient battle between good and evil, fought out on earth. No less than Jesus Christ is giving us insight (if you can call it that) in the situation, and then he sends out an elderly angel to Atlanta, because that's where the final earthly descendant of the evil sorcerer Zathaar lives. The visiting angel's mission (I think) is to prevent that the woman, named Barbara, bares another child and he drastically succeeds. Then he still has to bring back her other daughter, the sinister Katy, back to the heavens. And there are birds. Lots and lots of birds. "The Visitor" is truly bizarre, but not in a positive way. Many of the action sequences and murderous accidents are clearly inspired by "The Omen" and perhaps the whole concept is even derived from that classic, as well as from "Rosemary's Baby". That would make this film the most ambitiously complex and admirably disguised rip-off ever made, but still a failure nevertheless. There are two notably powerful sequences, one involving an awkward during the young girl's birthday party and the other being the painful death-ride of the investigating police officer. "The Visitor" is an unbearably pretentious film, ridiculously plotted and remarkably boring considering the overload of story elements. The screenplay often feels incomplete and very incoherent. The fantasy elements are beyond lame and the special effects wouldn't even impress a 4-year-old. The cover-image displayed here on the website looks creepy and intriguing, but sadly like in too many cases, it's utterly irrelevant. Trust the rating and user-comments in this particular case: you do not want to see this junk
Review of The Visitor
