Clearly energised by the experience of shooting a low-budget project free from studio oversight (and reportedly funded out of his own pocket), Shyamalan serves up a found footage flick that serves as a reminder of why the subgenre can be so effective. It helps that the characters are so vibrant where so many horror protagonists are mere cyphers, and that the jabs of horror are joined by an unexpected yet entirely welcome streak of dark humour. What Becca and Tyler find, when they step off the train in a cold, sleepy Pennsylvania town, are a pair of grandparents straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting. Grandma Doris (Deanna Dunagan) has long flowing white hair and twinkling blue eyes. Grandpa Peter (John Jamison) (whom Tyler and Becca call Pop Pop) seems pleasant in the slightly brusque manner of a weather-beaten old guy who’s spent a lifetime chopping up his own firewood. It’s only gradually, as the two youngsters roam their grandparents’ clapboard house, that they realise there might be something sinister about the couple. Through Becca and her roving camera, Shyamalan gently probes at the seams of the horror genre and filmmaking in general. She talks precociously about the techniques of filmmaking and how they can be used to heighten tension, even as Shyamalan makes us aware that certain things are going on outside the brother and sister’s own field of vision. Just as the grandparents seem to enjoy playing increasingly sinister games with the kids, so Shyamalan foreshadows coming events with evident relish, fulfilling some expectations while completely confounding others. Most of all, though, it’s the believably-drawn characters that make The Visit‘s horror so potent. Young wildcard Tyler is the most obviously likeable character, but then the somewhat snooty Rebecca begins to win our affection as we learn more about her. Even their grandparents have a spark of inner life, necessarily furtive and mysterious though they are. By carefully setting up its drama, The Visit’s shocks become all the more effective. Shyamalan’s use of handheld cameras – a contrivance that has rapidly lost much of its power through misuse – has real impact here, and The Visit might have the most interesting deployment of found footage since 2012’s Chronicle. The subjective viewpoint leaves us, like its two protagonists, constantly wondering what lies outside the bedroom door. Our senses are prodded and poked by spectral figures in the distance or lurking at the edge of the frame, while more white-knuckle moments see the camera in the hands of other, less trustworthy characters. A kind of twisted Hansel and Gretel for the YouTube age, The Visit is an arresting, surprising, blackly funny horror film. At the very least, it’ll change the way you think about Yahtzee forever. The Visit is out in UK cinemas on the 11th September. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.