Exclusive: Finn Jones and Jessica McNamee on Reinvigorating Horror in The Visitor

Robert (Finn Jones) and Maia (Jessica McNamee) are happily married and move back to her childhood home. Searching around the house, Robert finds old portraits in the attic with a figure that identically resembles him, referred to only as “The Visitor.” Troubled by the portraits, Robert begins a hunt to discover who the figure is, despite Maia’s attempts to reassure him. People around Robert and Maia begin turning up murdered, escalating Robert’s desperation for the truth and revealing family secrets along the way.

Also in the cast of The Visitor are Victoria Harris, Donna Biscoe, Thomas Francis Murphy, Shanna Forrestall, and more. It’s written by Simon Boyes and Adam Mason and directed by Justin P. Lange.

“This film has a really cool twist at the end,” commented McNamee, “I’m looking forward to people’s reaction to that… it’s a cinematic experience, and I think Justin did a really good job in making sure that this was a really beautiful film to watch.”

Collaboration Between Finn Jones, Jessica McNamee, and Justin P. Lange

In a previous interview, Lange explained that a lot of what we see in The Visitor can be credited to the amount of collaboration that took place between him, Jones, and McNamee before and during the filmmaking process.

“Before I signed on to the movie, I sat down with Justin, and we had a conversation… I didn’t want to be in a horror movie that was just like every other horror movie… and I was really pleased to see that Justin had the same intentions. He wanted to create a movie that elevated the genre. The fact that it was a doppelgänger movie about this character that had just moved to a new world, and he was questioning his reality, his sanity, who he’s being gaslit by, these are all kind of really interesting elements for an actor to play. I thought it was more of a character piece than it was just a genre flick,” commented Jones.

Then while on set, “It was kind of placing our characters in a way that it wasn’t going to be predictable at the end,” explained McNamee. This certainly works on the page too, as she commented that she didn’t see the twist coming while initially reading the script either. “I didn’t see it coming at all, this twist. It was really fun to be able to play that out in the lead-up, to the twist, and kind of lean into the idea. We really wanted to set that up for the audience,” said McNamee.

“We were constantly shifting and changing the movie on a daily basis in order to try and make it the best version of itself, of what it could be. Luckily, Blumhouse and Justin allowed us to have the creative freedom and the time and the space to get this movie to how we imagined it. The three of us, along with the producers, would constantly be sitting down pretty much every day being like, ‘Alright, now, is this the version of the movie we want to tell? Because if not, let’s change it.’ There are certain actions in the scenes that were changed to make it feel more authentic, so that when we get that big twist at the end, that it makes sense and the audience is with us,” added Jones.

Related: Exclusive: Art the Clown Actor Says Lauren LaVera is ‘the Answer’ to Horror’s Need for a New Final Girl

Rooting The Visitor in Reality

The Visitor does a solid job of reinvigorating horror by layering a cerebral lens over its leads, yet still remains grounded in reality. Robert as a character especially, as he has moments where he questions his sanity when exposed to different forms of manipulation, allowing for him to resonate as a person, while Maia also resonates yet from perhaps a more antagonistic approach.

“What I really love about our movie is that it is really rooted in reality, even though it is kind of a very off-the-wall concept. We spent so much time grounding these characters and developing their relationship and their backstory, and really working on our chemistry and making sure that we’re on the same page, and making it as real and believable as possible,” commented McNamee.

“I think we all cared about making this movie the best that it could be, so we were willing to go through any struggles in order to make it what it became,” said Jones.

The Visitor is available on digital and on demand as of October 7, 2022, and will stream on EPIX in December.