Blumehouse Productions brings to us the film ‘The Visitor 2022’, a dark mystery suspense thriller fully submerged in the waters of dark magic, occult practices, incestual belief systems, and a narrative that involves a man existing in two periods of time through the medium of painting. This article aims to explain Director Justin. P. Lange’s vision. In this film, we see a man and his wife returning to the wife’s ancestral hometown named Briar Glen, to begin a new life after a tragedy. When they do, the husband learns of a prophecy that would change everything he knows his life to be.
The film spans several themes to create a predictable end. The creators overlap many elements, such as time, dimension, myth, faith, religion, and belief systems, while attempting to use biblical tales as an undercurrent in the narrative leading to a very dark and twisted ending. When Robert returns to Maia’s house, he discovers a painting of a man that looks exactly like him. Robert tries to tell Maia that the man in the painting looks like him, but she decides to put the painting up on the wall as an inside joke. The plot thickens when Robert sits in the same position as the man in the painting. We learn of a series of paintings with his doppelganger that drives the narrative forward. Let us understand what the paintings reveal with time.
The Visitor (2022) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
How is Robert connected to The Visitor, his doppelganger, in the painting?
This film hints at what the end could be from the very start to bring everything full circle (with puns intended). While the narrative may seem disconnected, we witness two worlds converging into one in the end. We see the outside world of Robert, who is ‘married’ to Maia and has returned to Maia’s house from London after having a miscarriage. We are told to believe it is a miscarriage, yet Maia does not seem as perturbed as a mother should be. Somehow, Robert has taken the full brunt of the miscarriage and appears frantic with worry while on anti-anxiety medication.
After living in the house, Robert seems drawn to a particular room in the house. In this room, he discovers a painting of a man sitting on a couch holding a glass titled ‘The Visitor Accepts’. Out of curiosity, he brings it to his wife Maia’s attention. She brushes it off as a funny coincidence. Robert is rather creeped out about the painting. Later in the evening, Maia and Robert visit the bar in the town named Briar Glen; Pastor Ellis introduces himself.
After Pastor Ellis mentions that the great Edgar Cartwell Eden has returned, we know something does not add up. As the second act unfolds, Robert’s sleuthing about the painting begins to take shape when other people want to talk to him secretly about who he is. One kind leads him down a very dark path, whereas the other wants him to abandon the town immediately. The second painting of his doppelganger is titled, ‘The Visitor As He Watches It Burn’. On seeing the second painting, Robert meets one art collector who warns him to leave immediately. Soon after, she meets with a death like the biblical plague that has a swarm of insects killing people.
One collector manages to grab Robert’s attention in the car near his house. He shows him more pictures of his doppelganger with prominent personalities such as Saddam Hussein and others. Startled by this piece of news, Robert tries to maintain a connection with the man, but he meets with the most gruesome death. He is nailed to a tree as if he is on a cross. This time, this death seems odd when only a few minutes ago Robert was writing a list of names for his baby boy, stuck on the art collector’s thighs with ‘Lucian’ written in blood across it.
With a new beginning, Maia is now pregnant. Robert finds his pills have gone from his toiletry pouch. Worried that he may have a panic attack, his hallucinations increase as time passes. He could be a danger to himself as he lacks sleep and is possibly sleepwalking, which could also make him vulnerable to attacks. He conveys his concerns for their safety after two people have died horrendous deaths to Maia. After learning of his paranoia and constant obsession with the paintings, she is hysterical that he is not thinking of her needs as a new mother. Towards the end, the narrative reveals a dark turn of events and the most uncomfortable truth.
The Visitor (2022) Ending, Explained:
How does Maia help Robert Transition into his true self?
When Pastor Ellis invites Robert and Maia to his house to discuss the baby’s baptizing, Pastor Ellis looks at Robert with adoring fervor. Like God has walked into his household in person. Maia pretends to be normal and finds it perfectly okay, while Robert grows uncomfortable. Feeling completely out of place, he asks about the bathroom. In the bathroom, we see an omen. An upside-down cross. When he is done, he comes off the toilet to walk into the Pastor’s room and discovers another Visitor’s painting. This one is titled ‘The Visitor Stakes His Claim.’ After seeing this painting, Pastor Ellis walks into the room and explains who the man is.
The man in the photograph is Edgar Cartwell Eden, who rescued the town and helped it develop into a flourishing establishment. Still baffled and full of questions, he tells Maia about it. She is annoyed that he went into the room without permission. After many hallucinations, when Robert finds the art collector dead on the tree, he returns to Maia and tells her they must leave. Maia senses the panic and his tone and finally reveals who they both are at this moment and time. At the same time, he discovers a box with a baby doll, and underneath it is a picture of a man holding a baby. Slowly, Maia tells him the man is their father, who loves him more than her.
Maia and Robert are brother and sister. Robert is an estranged brother kidnapped years ago by people against their family’s ritualistic practice. Without an heir, the Eden family and their dark occult practices would stop, and their bloodline would not continue. Maia was tasked as a child to find Robert on her father’s orders, for he needed a son to assume the throne of dark power. To walk the earth as The Light Bringer. Or Lucifer in a bodily form. While trying to make sense of what she is saying, Robert learns that the miscarriage was not one because Maia needed a boy to carry forward the bloodline. He learns he is the one who killed both the art collectors, only it was not him. It was Edgar. When he understands that she committed female foeticide, Robert throws himself angrily toward her but is pulled back with a jerk.
He is beginning to transition into the other personality. She is about to give birth. When she gives birth, the whole Lucian coven performs a dark ritual meant to bring the last of the Eden Bloodline, or the Chosen One, into the world. He slowly transitions as Pastor Ellis guides him, and he finally wakes up in his true form. The true form of the Visitor or Edgar Cartwell Eden, the Lucian King. When he does so, he holds his newborn son, and then he puts Maia into a ghostly cryostasis (almost as if he has sucked all the life out of her) as her purpose is complete. The following day, we see a new Robert. In a suit and in a beautiful black car, ready to conquer the world. As his dominion and faithful followers gleefully bid him farewell, he drives out of town by himself.
Final Thoughts:
The film is a slow boil of what certain towns may practice in their inner sanctums to create power in its purest form, sometimes for good and sometimes for bad. With no real location mentioned, we do not know where it is taking place. The film does well to take forward the idea of the portrait of Dorian Gray and apply it alternatively to this story to take it one step further. With the Eden bloodline continuing, the element of creating a doppelganger in real life is creepily teamed with the intention of making the viewer squirm works very well.
The Visitor (2022) supplies enough tension throughout, and the story is placed well to have us question each piece of new information. While laced with dark ideas, it may surprise you to know Finn Jones, who plays Robert was absolutely thrilled about what the end of the film would turn out to be. Well, it certainly surprised me.
Read More: The Inhabitant (2022) Movie Ending, Explained
The Visitor (2022) Official Trailer
The Visitor (2022) Movie External Links: IMDb
The Visitor (2022) Movie Cast: Finn Jones, Jessica McNamee, Victoria Harris, Donna Biscoe
