"THE VISITOR" (2024) Mixes Politics, P*rn, And Sci-Fi With Mixed Results (REVIEW)
While horror is a more mainstream genre these days, it wasn’t always that way. As far back as the 1930s, it was treated as taboo and unsavory. Whether it’s due to the shocking nature of the stories, the visceral violence, or the discomfort that it can create on its audience it is undeniable that not everyone sees horror as entertainment. In a similar sense, so has sex and pornography. It’s no secret that the Western part of the world, most notably North America has had a tense relationship with the adult film industry. In a weird way, it has become a sort of “necessary evil” because we can’t seem to divorce ourselves from yet despite politicians and religious zealots trying to ban or remove sexual content from any place it may exist. Horror has faced similar strife, albeit not near as severe or as detrimental to the genre as it has for adult films, and even more taboo is adult content aimed at non-cis hetero folks. Provocateur filmmaker Bruce LaBruce wants to upend this, or at the very least bring it back to theaters with his latest film, “The Visitor.” Is this transgressive adult sci-fi film the beginning of a sexual revolution on screen?
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
A refugee arrives at the home of an upper-class family in London and seduces each member of the family. When he suddenly is gone, he leaves behind a void that the rest try to fill in different ways.
HOW IS IT?
Not all things are made for all people, and that’s okay. We live in a world where almost every niche has a subset of content aimed squarely at it, and yet, we still have people in their 40s bemoaning changes made to children’s films that are no longer relevant to them. While LaBruce’s “The Visitor” isn’t likely to receive the same ire as some Disney films do (mostly because of pandering to widely different audiences) it is a film that is unapologetically not for all people, sometimes aggressively so leading to a conflicting viewing experience. While we aren’t the precise target for the film, we can also appreciate the boundary-breaking work on display that places gay and non-binary sex at the forefront of a movie that is essentially a hardcore adult art house piece. It is also littered with overt themes and subtext that is less “sub” and more thrown at you in a seemingly haphazard and inelegant way. It doesn’t fully succeed in being a piece of revolutionary and political critique, but you can’t deny the brashness of LaBruce’s film that brings porn back to the theater in the most 21st-century way.
“The Visitor” is loosely based on Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1969 film “Teorema,” (which we haven’t seen for context) and by all accounts, the operative word here is “loose.” A young, fit, and bisexual man washes up on the shore of the Thames and somehow just kinda starts seducing each member of a wealthy family. Maybe seduce isn’t the right word, he systemically has sex with each of them sometimes in groups, and almost always with some flashing title cards that forecast messages that evoke the not-so-subtle ethos of the film. From “The sacred sex of the proletariat” to “Open legs open borders,” (tastefully displayed as the visitor spreads the legs of the matriarch and performs oral sex on her) “The Visitor” is so in-your-face you wonder if it is meant to be taken seriously or not. To be honest, we still aren’t sure, and it would likely require additional viewings and readings for us to even try to understand what LaBruce is hoping to accomplish with this kind of transgressive cinema. Some may be too prude to sit through watching a man have sex with the feet of another man, while others will be infatuated by the eroticism on screen. It’s unclear if the idea is to titillate, educate, or entertain, but the answer is most likely a little bit of columns A, B, and C. Nothing is sacred here, and this is easily the most sexually charged film we’ve reviewed at Macabre Daily, with a close second being “Phallacies” which also dabbles in making audiences confront the male form in a myriad of ways.
It’s hard to know what LaBruce’s endgame here is. If the idea is to make gay sex more “mainstream,” perhaps this can be considered a success as it doesn’t shy away from the anatomy of both men and women, with an emphasis on the former. But if that was the case, then why would the flashing messages and title cards appear throughout, best articulated at its peak when the naked father figure literally fucking a giant “L” from the spelled-out word, CAPITALISM. Or even the point where the visitor has sex with the sister in the family, a Trans Woman as the words “Vote for sex change” and “Sexual Democracy NOW” flash on-screen. Not enough subtlety for allegory and lacking the basics of a plot to be considered a narrative film, “The Visitor” is best taken as porn with a dash of politics, but no clear call to action or galvanizing message. Perhaps LaBruce is simply content pushing the boundaries of what can be shown in a theater these days, and in that way, he succeeds. However, the fact that this will likely not get seen by many outside of those it is aimed at and the adventurous means that the message will resonate only with people who don’t need convincing, and it misses the opportunity to challenge viewers to confront sexuality of all kinds under the guise of entertainment as opposed to shock.
LAST RITES
“The Visitor” is best received as a transgressive work aimed at demystifying sexuality of all aspects of the spectrum, but it lacks cohesion and traffics heavily in blunt messages that ultimately make it hard to know what the end goal is. Still, we applaud LaBruce for making something that is so confrontational and confident, even if it won’t resonate with the masses.
THE GORY DETAILS
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Where can you watch it?
“The Visitor” is currently on a theatrical tour throughout the US and will be available for Digital Rental Exclusively via Altavod starting Friday, April 4, 2025.
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