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 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.

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.

Fun to watch - Dan Stevens is awesome - he played the part perfectly. Great movie if you're not too concerned about taking it too seriously.

So a guy who claims to know your dead son turns up at your house one day. He seems nice and looks like that bloke off of Downton so you let him stay for a while... That is pretty much all I knew about this film before I went to see it. What follows is an enjoyable thriller with laughs aplenty and an excellent central performance from Dan Stevens (more on that later).

The plot, at the end of the day, is fairly nonsensical and there are some troubling loose ends that I found a little unsatisfactory. I can't say that any of the story is particularly surprising or original but what does that matter when everyone making it and everyone in the audience seems to be having so much fun? The cinema I was in was probably around half full and while there was nobody in full-on hysterical laughter, there was a satisfactory amount of appreciative chuckling (me included).

I feel that the majority of my enjoyment of this film should really be credited to Dan Stevens in the main role. His character is charming, pleasant and helpful and yet strangely sinister and unsettling from the outset and he plays it absolutely perfectly. You can't help but like him even though you're not sure that you should. Apart from a smallish role in "The Fifth Estate", I am only familiar with Stevens from Downton Abbey and his role in this couldn't have been more different from both of these. I look forward to seeing how his career progresses but this was an excellent example of his versatility as an actor.

Overall a good Saturday night out at the cinema but I can't imagine it is the kind of classic film I would watch again and again.