Filmmaker Redemption

The Visit rescues M. Night Shyamalan from filmmaking purgatory

Will writer/director M. Night Shyamalan ever get out of the filmmaking prison of his own making? After 2 ¾ great films, Shyamalan has delivered nothing but stinkers with his last five feature films, failing to capture the imagination no matter what type of movie he’s tried to make.

The Visit is a good start toward redemption, though. Like many upstart filmmakers, he became a victim of his own success, having to try to one-up himself with twistier plots and working with a series of big-name actors. The Visit is smaller in every way, starting with its no-name cast, only one of which has any modicum of name recognition.

The film jumps on the found footage bandwagon, with a slight twist to make it more palatable: Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) are sent off to visit their grandparents (Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie), whom they’ve never met, by their mother (Kathryn Hahn), who had a falling out with her parents many years ago. Becca, a budding filmmaker, uses it as an opportunity to make a documentary about her family’s history, filming every second of their visit.

Almost as soon as they arrive at the house in the country, though, things seem off. Nana has a habit of acting very strangely after a certain time of night, while Pop Pop displays signs of old age deterioration, including forgetfulness and incontinence. Becca and Tyler attempt to play it off the weirdness as normal things grandparents do, but the more odd things that happen, the harder they become to ignore.

Shyamalan makes a lot of good decisions in the film, including playing up the humor factor. If he had tried to make it a straight horror, the concept would not have worked. Because he injects doses of comedy along the way, it not only keeps the audience on their toes, but also makes the suspenseful aspects that much more gripping.

He also subverts expectations to a degree. There are many points along the way where Shyamalan takes us right up to edge of terror, only to pull back. By doing this kind of push and pull, he primes the audience well for the reveals in the third act. He also lays good groundwork with appearances by seemingly random people who dole out just enough information to keep the audience intrigued until the end.

It’s not a perfect film, though. It falls prey to the usual horror movie conventions, with Becca and Tyler making odd decisions on multiple occasions. It also leaves several questions unanswered, such as the film setting up the grandparents’ house to be a technology dead zone, only to have the kids have the ability to connect to high-speed internet.

But for the most part, The Visit is the most enjoyable M. Night Shyamalan film in the past 10 years. Although it doesn’t stand up to movies like The Sixth Sense or Unbreakable, it does signal that there’s still life in the once-acclaimed filmmaker’s career.

Ed Oxenbould, Olivia DeJonge, and Kathryn Hahn in The Visit.

Ed Oxenbould, Olivia DeJonge, and Kathryn Hahn on The Visit

Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures

Ed Oxenbould, Olivia DeJonge, and Kathryn Hahn in The Visit.

In the spotlight

Most famous Christmas-light house in DFW stars on new Hallmark TV show

Burkman Holiday Home of Frisco

Facebook/BurkmanHolidayHome

The famous Burkman Holiday Home of Frisco is making its Hallmark TV debut.

A family Christmas light display that's so extravagant, it looks like a Hallmark movie set is getting its close-up on the famed holiday-entertainment network: The Burkman Holiday Home of Friscostars on the first episode of a new series called Ready, Set, Glow!, which premiered on the Hallmark+ streaming service Thursday, December 12.

On the show, host Wes Brown meets four families "whose Christmas decorations have been making spirits bright for generations," says the series' website. "The only thing better than these displays are the heartwarming stories behind them."

The Burkman family - husband-and-wife Corey and Jen, adult sons Alex and Jack, and Jen's dad, Eugene Skalskyj (known as "Sanpa") - have been lighting up their Frisco home at 3809 Hazelhurst Dr. for nearly a decade. Their "extreme" display - 115,000 lights and counting - attracts thousands of visitors from North Texas and beyond each year. It also raises money for a scholarship fund, supports families in need, and donates to the nonprofit The LiyanaStrong Foundation.

The Burkmans are no strangers to the TV spotlight. In 2021, they competed on ABC's holiday decorating show The Great Christmas Light Fight and appeared on Live with Kelly and Ryan. (Two more DFW families just competed on the new season of Light Fight, and a Keller family won last year.)

Ready, Set, Glow! isn't a competition, but an unscripted series that goes "behind the lights," Brown says. The show is now available on Hallmark's new membership-based streaming platform, Hallmark+ (access a free trial here).

Wes Brown, Ready Set Glow, Hallmark+ Wes Brown, host of the new Hallmark+ show Ready, Set, Glow!Photo courtesy of Hallmark+

We chatted with Jen Burkman recently about the family's experience on Ready, Set, Glow!, how filming compared to The Great Christmas Light Fight, and what's new with their lights display this year.

CultureMap: How did you get picked to be on this new Hallmark show?
Jen Burkman: I received an email from the production company at Hallmark. They found us through our Facebook page, and by Googling large light displays. We come up as one of the top displays in the country. It’s exciting because it’s a brand new show and we are on the very first episode. We’re very honored to be selected for that.

CM: What is the story will they tell on the show?
JB: They will have three different things that they do in each episode. They will showcase homes with large displays that have a cause behind it, neighborhoods that go extremely far out for decorating, in towns that resemble a Hallmark Christmas town. So it is not a competition. This was something that really drew us towards it. They wanted to know more about our backstory, why we do what we do, and what it means to the community. That encompassed everything that we are about. (The Burkmans started their holiday displays when son Alex, who was autistic, developed a love of lights.)

CM: When was filming ... did you have to keep it a secret?
JB: The filming was in the middle of December 2023. We did have to keep it secret on social media. However, they did allow us to reach out to our neighborhood. So it’s even more special to us that we got to personally invite our neighbors to be a part of the TV show with us. The majority of the filming was just our family, but there are going to be elements of our neighborhood and our neighbors cheering us on.

Burkman Holiday Home Frisco Jen Burkman's father is known as "San-pa." Photo courtesy of Burkman family

CM: What was the actual filming like?
JB: We had a great time! We had the production company from Glass Entertainment with producer Matt Carter, who was amazing. He brought along about 10 people from his production company - light and sound guys, drone operators, boom operators, sound eliminators. There was so much equipment.

We did some interviews inside our home, so you’ll get to see some of our overly decorated inside of our house, and obviously a ton of footage outside, as well. It took us about 15 hours to film, for probably 15 to 20 minutes of airtime. We had our immediate family and probably 50 people from our neighborhood. We have the most incredible neighbors who are so supportive of our display so it honestly meant the world to us that they were involved.

CM: How did filming this show compare to your experience on The Great Christmas Light Fight?
JB: It was totally a different experience. The Great Christmas Light Fight was an honor to be selected; over 200 people auditioned and only 24 of us were selected. So even though we didn’t win our episode, it was a dream come true to even compete on that scale. But it was a competition, so I think we felt more stressed out because we really wanted to win. We also filmed Light Fight in 2020. So all the Covid protocols were in place, we had to get tested every single day, and we couldn’t have a crowd.

Hallmark was an absolutely different experience. We felt relaxed, and we had so much fun knowing that we weren’t competing against other families. We just got to share our story and our love for the holidays. And to be able to celebrate our neighbors and our nonprofit foundation was pretty outstanding.

CM: Any fun behind-the-scenes stories to tell?
JB: Within a half a day, we felt like we had known the crew our entire lives. By 11 o’clock at night, we were still doing interviews in our living room, and our family and the film crew were just slap happy. We were snort-laughing at ourselves for saying things incorrectly and practically falling asleep in our chairs. One thing that totally made us laugh, because it never happens, in the middle of filming with a huge crowd in our front yard, this rabbit came across the driveway and just sat in the display, looking at everybody, as if it was a lawn figurine. That rabbit may have its own spotlight on the show. We will see.

Burkman Holiday Home, Christmas lights The display features some new arches for picture-taking this year.Facebook/Burkman Holiday Home

CM: What's new with your holiday display this year?
JB: We have 115,000 lights, 90% LED. So the light bill is cheaper than the August AC bill. We have a new area in the display called "Santa Land." It is all things Santa, including a Santa toy box that you can stand in for a selfie. We introduced Bluey at the display this year, and it was a total hit. We have some new arches to take pictures in and walk-through and you’ll see some old familiar friends doing some guest appearances. 2025 will be our 10th anniversary of doing displays in this house so we’re expecting great things for next year.

CM: What's it like to be Christmas-light famous?
JB: We are so honored to be a part of this community and to continue to have so many people come year after year. On Sunday, I had a beautiful lady show me a picture of her daughter as an infant in front of the display, and her daughter is now 5 years old. To see them take the same picture, year after year, of their little girl just truly touches my heart. We love being part of families' Christmas traditions. We love being able to support our sponsored families every year. And being able to hand scholarships out to these amazing individuals in our community is pretty heartwarming. We couldn’t do it without our neighbors, the communities of Frisco and Little Elm, and everybody who drives from all over Texas, just to come see our lights.

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The Burkmans' episode of Ready, Set, Glow! is now streaming on Hallmark+. The Burkman Holiday Home is at 3809 Hazelhurst Dr., Frisco, 75036. Follow them on their Facebook page for updates, such as special themes for photo sessions. For a list of other spectacular Dallas-area Christmas lights, go here, and for best neighborhoods, visit this list. Fort Worth's best Christmas lights can be found here and here.

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