Rating: 
Summary: Psychological horror
Review: A cursory glance at the DVD cover of the 2003 Radha Mitchell vehicle "Visitors" reminded me of another horror movie at sea film I saw recently: "Ghost Ship." This is not a good thing. I thought "Ghost Ship" was a horrible film that should have went down with all hands on board. Nonetheless, suckered in by the gloomy looking skull on the cover, I popped "Visitors" into the player and sat back to see what would happen. I have a thing for movies set at sea, probably because I've never visited the ocean. The idea of someone like Thor Heyerdahl zipping around the high seas on a handmade raft, or those stories about hardy sailors circumnavigating the world in a sailboat all by their lonesome, appeals to me on a fundamental level. Think of the isolation! Think of the thrilling sensation of taking on the full fury of Mother Nature all by yourself and emerging on the other side to tell the tale! You would need to be psychologically sound to embark on such a daunting journey, don't you think? Well, you need to be just as mentally sound to watch either one of these films because they both are about as interesting as a bag full of life jackets. At least "Visitors" is marginally better than "Ghost Ship."
Georgia Perry (Radha Mitchell) is a hardy sort who has spent her entire life around the water. At the beginning of the film, we learn that dear Georgia is about to set off on a solo journey around the world in her trusty little sailboat. She leaves behind her boyfriend Luke (Domenic Purcell), who will stay in radio contact with her in order to help Georgia overcome any difficulties, and her wheelchair bound father Bill (Ray Barrett). Perry's mother Carolyn (Susannah York) would probably have come down to the wharf to see her daughter off if she hadn't did herself in with razorblades some time before. So, amidst great fanfare Georgia heads off into the great wide open with only her pet cat Taco along for the ride. And she makes fruitful progress too until the wind dies out somewhere near Indonesia. Since the rules of the trip demand that she not use the onboard motor, Georgia must wait until the wind fills her sails. It's really not that big of a deal for someone used to the perils of traveling on the ocean. Georgia whiles away the days and nights sleeping, keeping the vessel afloat during a storm, and occasionally chatting with Luke and her cat (!).
Gradually, sinister incidents begin to wear our heroine down. At first, she hears strange noises. Then ominous fogs roll in and smother the boat. Even more ominous, a chance radio contact with a friend on a passing ship reveals the presence of pirates in the area as well as a warning about strange barnacles appearing on ships in the region, barnacles that Georgia notices infest her own craft. As bad as all of this sounds, it pales in comparison to the raging hallucinations Georgia experiences. She begins seeing her deceased mother and other relatives on the boat, none of whom seem very happy with the hapless sailor. Her mother shrieks, bullies, and threatens her daughter about her past, indicting Georgia for not doing what was necessary to prevent Carolyn from taking her life. As you can expect, Georgia is terrified by these encounters, but she's not willing to fire up the motor and head home. When she starts having horrible flashbacks about the past, particularly one that reveals the real reason her father is in a wheelchair, she still refuses to motor her way back to port. Even the arrival of the pirates does not break down Georgia's spirit. Eventually, Perry discovers why she's experiencing these things and takes steps to learn from them. The ending makes sense in this context.
Obviously, "Visitors" is a film about an internal and an external journey. Too bad the filmmakers couldn't decide whether to make this a straightforward horror picture or a psychological thriller. They drop hints at the former with the weird barnacles, fog, and hallucinations. Is Georgia simply imagining it all or is something supernatural going on? Should we write off her experiences as a bad case of cabin fever and be done with it? The film unfortunately never gives us a definitive answer. If anything the horrific elements seem like a giant red herring designed to throw viewers for a loop and keep us from the real meat of the story, which is the psychological dimension. "Visitors" is a film about earning one's independence, coming to terms with life's traumas, and becoming comfortable in one's own skin. When viewed in this light, the rather cryptic conclusion makes more sense, i.e. a journey to explore one's self is never over. Of course, you may ignore all of this mumbo jumbo, kick back, and enjoy Susannah York's over the top performance as the unstable Carolyn Perry. What's up with the hair? York's coif is the scariest thing in the movie! I won't even get into the telepathic cat thing. It's too much to go into here save to say it is ridiculous.
Overall, "Visitors" isn't really worth going out of your way to watch. Maybe if you stumble over it late one night on cable, but I wouldn't waste time renting it. The only people likely to pick this one up are Radha Mitchell or Susannah York completists. The sole supplements included on the disc are three trailers, one for this film, "Net Games," and "The Navigators." They should put a making of featurette on the special edition release (if it ever gets one, which I doubt) explaining what exactly the producers, director, and writers were trying to accomplish with the film. Stay away if you're looking for hardcore horror.
Rating:
Summary: Decent movie if you can relate
Review: And also one of those that you have to relate to for it to make much sense.
Major spoiler so don't read further if you haven't seen the movie to form your own opinion.
It's common, if not the rule, for people who are devoid of human contact to begin making their own reality, and most of that reality will come from their past, or from things they imagine could happen. What have you done wrong, what could you have done differently, what could possibly happen if left to your wildest imagination. In a situation like this, wildest imagination is really all you have.
This is not a horror movie. It's a psychological thriller about being forced to confront your fears and deal with your own personal demons. If you have personal demons, then you will understand the movie. If you don't, then you're going to be wondering what happened even after the movie is finished.
I loved the ending. It was as it should have been.
Rating: 
Summary: Story Elements Weren?t A Proper Fit
Review: Australian Georgia Perry (Radha Mitchell) sets out on a nonstop solo voyage around the world determined to be the first woman to make it aboard a yacht. She has to follow the following rules: no human contact save for over the radio, no landfall, and no engines or she'll be disqualified. Three quarters of the way into her voyage the wind dies stranding her in the middle of the ocean.
While the Leander sits dead in the water, barnacles and algae begin collecting on the hull and growing inside the bilges. This is not supposed to happen in the middle of an ocean. Her vapor detector keeps going off as well. With only her cat for company, she starts experiencing paranormal phenomenon.Georgia speaks to Robby aboard the Nordic Prince. He tells her that one of his crewmen hanged himself in the bilges. Later he tries to get a warning to her about the bilges but she looses his signal. It seemed to me that the filmmakers had two different ideas for the causation of the hallucinations but they never followed up on either. It could have been a really good horror picture or adventure film if they'd cut the horror element. Overall it was confusing and has no real resolution to the paranormal phenomenon. Not recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Story Elements Weren¿t A Proper Fit
Review: Australian Georgia Perry (Radha Mitchell) sets out on a nonstop solo voyage around the world determined to be the first woman to make it aboard a yacht. She has to follow the following rules: no human contact save for over the radio, no landfall, and no engines or she'll be disqualified. Three quarters of the way into her voyage the wind dies stranding her in the middle of the ocean.
While the Leander sits dead in the water, barnacles and algae begin collecting on the hull and growing inside the bilges. This is not supposed to happen in the middle of an ocean. Her vapor detector keeps going off as well. With only her cat for company, she starts experiencing paranormal phenomenon. Georgia speaks to Robby aboard the Nordic Prince. He tells her that one of his crewmen hanged himself in the bilges. Later he tries to get a warning to her about the bilges but she looses his signal. It seemed to me that the filmmakers had two different ideas for the causation of the hallucinations but they never followed up on either. It could have been a really good horror picture or adventure film if they'd cut the horror element. Overall it was confusing and has no real resolution to the paranormal phenomenon. Not recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: UNWELCOME GUESTS
Review: Psychobabble is the main ingredient of this "psychological chiller" from down under. Radha Mitchell (Pitch Black)plays a daring young lass who sets out to sail around the world and finds herself out of commission when the wind decides to take a vacation. Meanwhile, after spending so much time alone on the vessel, she's starting to have what could either be hallucinations or visitations from various sources: her mother who committed suicide; her father who dies while she's on the journey; pirates; a pirate she killed who keeps coming back; three ladies who are also dead; and she talks to her cat whom we hear talk back. Director Richard Franklin never focuses on the reality or unreality of these visitors, and one is left digging through immense amounts of Mitchell's guilt over her father's accident which not only paralyzed him but also made him impotent; over her emotionally blackmailing mama who slit her wrists in a convalescent home; her guilt over having an affair with an Indonesian hunk; and of course, the movie's sole purpose seems to be to have Mitchell extricate herself from these guilts. While there are some effectively creepy scenes, VISITORS fails on either being a tense psychothriller or a lukewarm horror thriller. No commitment from the writer or director leaves Mitchell in deep water, despite her competent performance. Susannah York is delightfully campy as the mom; Ray Barrett appropriately paternal as her pop; and Domenic Purcell as her lover and partner, Luke, could use some vitamins to energize his understated performance.
Artsy to the point of irritation, VISITORS doesn't chill, thrill or entertain.
Rating:
Summary: Psychological Thriller of "Pitch Black"s Radha Mitchell
Review: Radha Mitchell (quite impressive in "Pitch Black" against Vin Diesel) stars in this Australian psychological thriller. The co-stars include Suzannah York ("Superman II") and an Aussie veteran Ray Barrett. The director is Richard Franklin, possibly best known so-so thriller "Psycho II." Georgia Perry (Radha Mitchell) is on the last log of the first sole female around-the-world cruise by a yacht. She is not to set foot on the land during the course, and if she uses the engine, she is disqualified instantly. But now her yacht is not moving at all, because of the dead calm that seemingly stopped everything around the ship. She can only talk to her cat (her only partner), and to the finace waiting for her in Australia through the radio. However, Georgia hears some strange sound, and sees the figures of the person(s) who should never be on board. What does that mean? "The Visitors" is not a horror film. The film actually tries to include many factors -- thrills, symbolism, meaning of life, etc. -- and achieves none of them. The reference to poetry (S.T. Coleridge) is clumsy or insignificant, and the frequent flashbacks to the heroine's past only detract the claustrophobic suspence of the story. Possibly as psychological thriller it works best, but also it misses potential that the orginal premise has. Incredibly, there are many (at least three) scenes in which Radha Mitchell's character is in bikini (but her skin does not seem tanned much). How the filmmakers thought about the scenes, I leave it to you, but it certainly does not hurt. Radha Mitchell shows pretty good acting as the lead, and her meeting with her beloved dad (Ray Barrett) is even touching. Suzannah York's nervous mom is also convincingly portrayed, so while watching I started to think that the filmmakers should have thrown away any "horror" part of the film, and the end result would have been much better. As it is, "The Visitors" remains as it is, just an OK thriller. If you really want to see a thriller on the lonely boat, see the Aussie film "Dead Calm" starring Nicole Kidman and Billy Zane. That was really scary.
Rating:
Summary: Psychological Thriller of "Pitch Black"s Radha Mitchell
Review: Radha Mitchell (quite impressive in "Pitch Black" against Vin Diesel) stars in this Australian psychological thriller. The co-stars include Suzannah York ("Superman II") and an Aussie veteran Ray Barrett. The director is Richard Franklin, possibly best known so-so thriller "Psycho II." Georgia Perry (Radha Mitchell) is on the last log of the first sole female around-the-world cruise by a yacht. She is not to set foot on the land during the course, and if she uses the engine, she is disqualified instantly. But now her yacht is not moving at all, because of the dead calm that seemingly stopped everything around the ship. She can only talk to her cat (her only partner), and to the finace waiting for her in Australia through the radio. However, Georgia hears some strange sound, and sees the figures of the person(s) who should never be on board. What does that mean? "The Visitors" is not a horror film. The film actually tries to include many factors -- thrills, symbolism, meaning of life, etc. -- and achieves none of them. The reference to poetry (S.T. Coleridge) is clumsy or insignificant, and the frequent flashbacks to the heroine's past only detract the claustrophobic suspence of the story. Possibly as psychological thriller it works best, but also it misses potential that the orginal premise has. Incredibly, there are many (at least three) scenes in which Radha Mitchell's character is in bikini (but her skin does not seem tanned much). How the filmmakers thought about the scenes, I leave it to you, but it certainly does not hurt. Radha Mitchell shows pretty good acting as the lead, and her meeting with her beloved dad (Ray Barrett) is even touching. Suzannah York's nervous mom is also convincingly portrayed, so while watching I started to think that the filmmakers should have thrown away any "horror" part of the film, and the end result would have been much better. As it is, "The Visitors" remains as it is, just an OK thriller. If you really want to see a thriller on the lonely boat, see the Aussie film "Dead Calm" starring Nicole Kidman and Billy Zane. That was really scary.
Rating:
Summary: Psychological Thriller of "Pitch Black"s Radha Mitchell
Review: Radha Mitchell (quite impressive in "Pitch Black" against Vin Diesel) stars in this Australian psychological thriller. The co-stars include Suzannah York ("Superman II") and an Aussie veteran Ray Barrett. The director is Richard Franklin, possibly best known so-so thriller "Psycho II." Georgia Perry (Radha Mitchell) is on the last log of the first sole female around-the-world cruise by a yacht. She is not to set foot on the land during the course, and if she uses the engine, she is disqualified instantly. But now her yacht is not moving at all, because of the dead calm that seemingly stopped everything around the ship. She can only talk to her cat (her only partner), and to the finace waiting for her in Australia through the radio. However, Georgia hears some strange sound, and sees the figures of the person(s) who should never be on board. What does that mean? "The Visitors" is not a horror film. The film actually tries to include many factors -- thrills, symbolism, meaning of life, etc. -- and achieves none of them. The reference to poetry (S.T. Coleridge) is clumsy or insignificant, and the frequent flashbacks to the heroine's past only detract the claustrophobic suspence of the story. Possibly as psychological thriller it works best, but also it misses potential that the orginal premise has. Incredibly, there are many (at least three) scenes in which Radha Mitchell's character is in bikini (but her skin does not seem tanned much). How the filmmakers thought about the scenes, I leave it to you, but it certainly does not hurt. Radha Mitchell shows pretty good acting as the lead, and her meeting with her beloved dad (Ray Barrett) is even touching. Suzannah York's nervous mom is also convincingly portrayed, so while watching I started to think that the filmmakers should have thrown away any "horror" part of the film, and the end result would have been much better. As it is, "The Visitors" remains as it is, just an OK thriller. If you really want to see a thriller on the lonely boat, see the Aussie film "Dead Calm" starring Nicole Kidman and Billy Zane. That was really scary.
Rating:
Summary: Claustrophobic chills from down under
Review: Some of our most inane fears come not from outside, but from within our own minds. "Visitors" is a psychological thriller that examines a woman on the brink of madness and insanity as she struggles to fight her own personal demons while in complete isolation. She, as well as us viewers, are continuously faced with one nagging question throughout this film: "Is the threat real or is it imagined"? Georgia Perry is 25 years old and an avid sailor. She sets herself on the biggest challenge of all: Sailing around the world non-stop. The rules are that she is not allowed any company except for her cat, must not ever set foot on land and have no contact with the outside world except with her boyfriend by radio transmission. The journey is expected to take about 5 months. By the time "Visitors" begins, Georgia is already about ¾ of the way around the world and seems to be doing just fine, except for the occasional bouts of loneliness. Throughout the film, we see clips of Georgia's life before she decided to set sail. All indications point to a happy life and fine relationship with her parents and her lover. And then the noises begin...At night while trying to sleep, she hears footsteps on the deck, and distant voices. Her cat talks to her. Her dead mom pays a visit. Slowly but surely, Georgia is going insane. And the flashbacks get darker and darker. At first the flashbacks were all happy but as the film progresses we are shown clips of Georgia's past that indicate her life was far from the rosy picture painted on earlier. It is this sudden transformation from happy sane Georgia to tormented soul Georgia that makes the film as creepy as it is. The descent into madness is not sudden, but gradual. What "Visitors" lacks in action and pacing it more than makes up for with atmosphere, atmosphere that changes as Georgia's mood changes. The bright blue sky, crystal clear water and warm sunshine of the opening sequences are quickly replaced with the violent roar of the sea, pitch black darkness and dense fog as Georgia's feelings of dread increase. Aussie actress Rhada Mitchell pretty much has to carry the picture by herself, and does a fine job. One of the challenges I found of watching this film is that it's so weirded out and hallucinatory that we are left to wonder what is real and what's not, and are never offered any explanation, not even at film's end. The appearance of Georgia's dead mother as a hallucination is a given, but how about the boatload of pirates? Or the aborigenese midnight lover? If not real, then how come Georgia woke up with a hickey? All in all, a fine little film but not for those looking for coherence or logic. It's not one of those films where the pieces fall neatly in place by the end. Whether the threat is real or imagined is up to the viewer to decide.
Rating:
Summary: Claustrophobic chills from down under
Review: Some of our most inane fears come not from outside, but from within our own minds. "Visitors" is a psychological thriller that examines a woman on the brink of madness and insanity as she struggles to fight her own personal demons while in complete isolation. She, as well as us viewers, are continuously faced with one nagging question throughout this film: "Is the threat real or is it imagined"? Georgia Perry is 25 years old and an avid sailor. She sets herself on the biggest challenge of all: Sailing around the world non-stop. The rules are that she is not allowed any company except for her cat, must not ever set foot on land and have no contact with the outside world except with her boyfriend by radio transmission. The journey is expected to take about 5 months. By the time "Visitors" begins, Georgia is already about ¾ of the way around the world and seems to be doing just fine, except for the occasional bouts of loneliness. Throughout the film, we see clips of Georgia's life before she decided to set sail. All indications point to a happy life and fine relationship with her parents and her lover. And then the noises begin...At night while trying to sleep, she hears footsteps on the deck, and distant voices. Her cat talks to her. Her dead mom pays a visit. Slowly but surely, Georgia is going insane. And the flashbacks get darker and darker. At first the flashbacks were all happy but as the film progresses we are shown clips of Georgia's past that indicate her life was far from the rosy picture painted on earlier. It is this sudden transformation from happy sane Georgia to tormented soul Georgia that makes the film as creepy as it is. The descent into madness is not sudden, but gradual. What "Visitors" lacks in action and pacing it more than makes up for with atmosphere, atmosphere that changes as Georgia's mood changes. The bright blue sky, crystal clear water and warm sunshine of the opening sequences are quickly replaced with the violent roar of the sea, pitch black darkness and dense fog as Georgia's feelings of dread increase. Aussie actress Rhada Mitchell pretty much has to carry the picture by herself, and does a fine job. One of the challenges I found of watching this film is that it's so weirded out and hallucinatory that we are left to wonder what is real and what's not, and are never offered any explanation, not even at film's end. The appearance of Georgia's dead mother as a hallucination is a given, but how about the boatload of pirates? Or the aborigenese midnight lover? If not real, then how come Georgia woke up with a hickey? All in all, a fine little film but not for those looking for coherence or logic. It's not one of those films where the pieces fall neatly in place by the end. Whether the threat is real or imagined is up to the viewer to decide.
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