The Guest

THE GUEST is a fun, if derivative, little movie from Adam Wingard, the guy who also brought us the familiar-yet-entertaining YOU'RE NEXT. It's a belated addition to that whole psycho-thriller sub-genre of the 1990s in which ordinary families were menaced by mysterious forces, and it achieves plenty on what is clearly a tight budget.

There are shades of THE TERMINATOR and the BOURNE trilogy here and it has to be said that the story is simplistic and straightforward. The denouement will surprise nobody, for example. However, like DRIVE before it, THE GUEST is all about the execution. It looks cool, it looks stylish, and it sounds cool too thanks to that thumping soundtrack. Dan Stevens is excellent as the suave and sophisticated guy who turns up to make a few waves, and Maika Monroe shows some of the promise that she displayed in IT FOLLOWS. Plus we get Lance Reddick, being exceptionally good again after his turn in JOHN WICK.

In fact, THE GUEST has quite a lot in common with IT FOLLOWS, especially the horror-style unfolding of the plot. These films share likable young cast members and a fresh feel despite the familiarities of the situations in which the characters find themselves. Certainly nothing about THE GUEST is original, yet it's thoroughly entertaining at the same time. And that's all I need from a movie.

The only thing surprising in The Guest is just how straight forward it is in its simple plotting. Everything unfolds in predictable fashion, but this B material is a fantastic showcase of wicked humor and misanthropic violence. Dan Stevens is in excellent form here, as a mysterious soldier who shows up unannounced at a family's home of a fallen soldier he served with. He's all smiles and very polite, but people with a usually negative connection with this family start meeting grisly ends. Like in his previous film You're Next, Adam Wingard approaches plotting you've seen a million times and wittily turns it on its ear without ever being too self aware. It's a shame Picturehouse who acquired the US rights dumped the film in a handful of theaters without trying to capitalize on the strong reviews and never bothered to expand it theatrically. The Guest is a quick fun time that knows exactly what it is and delivers without overstaying its welcome.

Wow! What a gem of a movie. The Guest tells a tale of a mysterious and initially benign-appearing ex-military man who claims to have served with the recently deceased son of the Peterson family. Still grieving their loss, they welcome him with open arms. All is not as it seems however and slowly, despite his psychopathic charm, young Anna Peterson suspects that something is amiss.

What follows is a slick and stylish thriller with fluid action scenes that simmers at first before leading us to an explosive finale. The acting is solid throughout, especially from the two leads Dan Stevens and Maika Monroe who share a nice chemistry. The story, whilst simplistic and sometimes cheesy, is tight and the terse dialogue fits well. Character motivations are deliberately left vague and the film remains focused on the fact it is a thriller and doesn't overburden us with ridiculous a back-story; what back-story there is merely serves as a plot device to set-up the finale. And what a finale! Without giving spoilers, it is one of the most stylish final movie set-pieces I've seen in a long time, interjected with just the right amount of tongue-in-cheek quips. Just shows what can be done with the right set, some nerves and a smoke machine; who needs CGI!

A special mention must be given to the excellent soundtrack which really enhances the tension in some of the key scenes. At times I swore the bass beats were synced with my heart-rate!

Highly enjoyable and highly recommended!

I moonwalked my way out of the dimly lit, Hong Sang-zooom overly meditative crypt of arthouse flicks - no shade to Apichatpong, definitely anticipating his Cemetery of Splendour, and I'm like, totally psyched for Zulawski's Cosmos, his comeback after, like, a decade! And Phil Stevens's Flowers (2015).

But my acid-wash soul yearned for a film with the visual fidelity of an 80's VHS tape. Enter "The Guest," a moniker so aggressively pedestrian, I half-expected a movie about a polite stranger who overstays his welcome, eats leftovers, flexes lame jokes to cousins (barf!), or does a plumber sleeps-with-cliched-clientele bit like in an Xhamster masterpiece, lol!

Anyway, I had already seen Joe Swanberg, the mumblecore guy's You're Next (2011), and it was Adam Wingard's gory fun direction that made the film worth watching. I got a small hint about the plot and thought Dan Stevens was gonna sacrifice his white butt for a soldier's family and pull off a Denzel Washington (totally radical!). I was wrong as this film is very laid out with a simple plot, crazy climax, with lots of blood, adrenaline that blends the sensibilities of classic John Carpenter (totally awesome!) with some really Giallo aesthetic and a little Nicolas Winding Refn vibe. I don't want to share more about the story or the character arc. But I guarantee this, an entertaining blood feast awaits for those who dig the classic exploitation genre, full of action with an insanely kickass soundtrack and an atmosphere that will keep you hooked until the final credit.

The acting is great, the soundtrack fantastic and the atmosphere the movie creates sucks you in from the very beginning. The movie keeps you guessing throughout at least for the first hour or so. You KNOW something is off but you have no idea what exactly. When I watched it my theory of what was going on changed every 10 minutes :D As the last reviewer stated the first hour is definitely the best part. Unfortunately towards the end the writers kind of dropped the ball. The ending is somewhat unsatisfactorily predictable and the story can only go the way it goes because of absolutely ridiculous mistakes made by some of the characters. I don't know why most movies foam in the endings but I guess in this case it is something that I'm very willing to endure for the fun I had during the first 2/3 of the film.

The acting is awesome for the most part. Dan Stevens does a great job keeping you on the edge the whole time which is utterly entertaining. The writing and dialogue are great except as mentioned above for the somewhat disappointing ending. But all in all this movie stuck with me and though it has been a couple of days since I watched it I still "feel" the atmosphere it created (to a great extend due to its unconventional soundtrack, which I eventually bought although it is generally not my kind of music at all). This is a very good movie and I am a little surprised that I basically had to stumble over it by accident and it hasn't gotten more publicity. If the ending had been a little different it could have been fantastic, none the less this way it is still great.