Visitation: Olivia Cooke stars in Nicolas Pesce horror thriller

The horror thriller Visitation, the latest film from The Eyes of My Mother, Piercing, and The Grudge (2020) director Nicolas Pesce, started filming in Ireland last week, and The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Olivia Cooke of Bates Motel and House of the Dragon is among the cast members! Starring in the film alongside Cooke are Isla Johnston of The Queen’s Gambit, Alfie Allen of Game of Thrones, Penelope Wilton of Downton Abbey, and Stephen Rea, who received an Oscar nomination for his role in The Crying Game.

Coming to us from eOne, Rumble Films, and Blinder Films, Visitation will tell the story of a 14-year-old girl named Maria who, with her mother sick and dying, is sent away to live under the careful watch of Catholic nuns. But Maria’s arrival slowly turns sinister as one of her caretakers becomes enamored with her for all the wrong reasons.

The screenplay for Visitation was written by Helen Gaughran, who entered the script in the 2019 Script Pipeline Screenwriting Competition – and won the competition with it! Inspired by her own days as a schoolgirl at a castle convent in Ireland, Gaughran wrote a script that was described by Script Pipeline as a “tonally perfect genre mix of character-driven drama and grounded horror”. They said, “Production not a matter of if but when.” And they were right! Script Pipeline also listed a more interesting synopsis for Visitation than the one The Hollywood Reporter was provided with… but given that their Visitation interview with Gaughran has been removed, I assume the producers of the film don’t want that synopsis to be out there anymore. It seems they’re trying to keep certain elements of the film under wraps for now.

Visitation is being produced by David Lancaster and Stephanie Wilcox of Rumble Films, as well as Katie Holly of Blinder Films. Jillian Share, Courtney Cunniff, and Chanel Vidal are overseeing the project for eOne. 

Cooke playing a prominent role in the film is enough to get me interested in Visitation, and the cache of Gaughran’s Script Pipeline interview (Google it) has boosted my interest even further. I will be keeping an eye on this project for sure.

How does Visitation sound to you? Let us know by leaving a comment below.