Shyamalan's last five movies indicated that he really didn't have much awareness of himself as a filmmaker, given how frequently he repeated the same mistakes and basically ruined a bunch of interesting premises. The Visit, however, clearly shows something of a rethink on the filmmaker's part, as it's much more self-aware than anything he has made before. For one, the film clearly knows how ridiculous it is and has fun with this, especially when Tyler does a hilarious impression of Doris running around the house at night with her arms behind her back. It's a scene that's more silly than creepy, so why not mock it a little bit? But more curiously, Shyamalan has also included meta references to his own movies, the most obvious of which occurs when Doris tells Rebecca a story about water creatures that sounds suspiciously similar to the plot of The Lady in the Water. This may cause the audience to expect a supernatural twist incoming, but again, Shyamalan is just toying with the audience and showing that he knows what they expect.