The Guest (2014)

The Guest is director Adam Wingard's newest film that follows his 2013 horror-thriller You're Next (which I thought was pretty fun but nothing spectacular). This film marks somewhat of a change of pace for the director whose work has primarily been in the horror genre thus far. While there are some who would argue that The Guest is a horror movie, I would said it is more of a straight up psychological thriller with some horror aspects in a few moments. Following in the footsteps of the instant classic Drive, this film aims to tell the story about a mysterious man with many secrets and how he interacts with an innocent family. In fact, it's really hard not to compare this to Drive since the films share so many superficial similarities (I'll talk more about that later). Still, I found The Guest to be very enjoyable, surprisingly violent and stylish despite it not doing a whole lot that I haven't seen before.

The Guest is one of those wickedly simple movies that manages to entertain a lot despite it really not doing a whole lot. The movie revolves around a man named “David” who shows up on the Peterson family's doorstep one day and claims he fought alongside with their deceased son in Afghanistan. The family takes him in and he quickly becomes part of the family (in a way). He helps the youngest son with bullies at school, impresses the daughter's friends with his good looks and strength and seemingly puts the mother at peace (who is still grieving the death of their son). As the movie goes along we learn that “David” has a couple of major secrets which start to reveal themselves as the family attempts to learn more about him and where he came from. This is, overall, a very dark movie and escalates quickly in its final act to be action packed and pretty violent. I won't say that it was completely unpredictable but I will say that “David” is an interesting character although I don't think they were able to fully develop him as much as I was hoping. Overall I was pretty engaged throughout the entire movie but it definitely picks up speed near the end (and unfortunately starts to tread somewhat more predictable water in the last act as well).

Did I mention that The Guest is stylish? The director and sound editors here must have taken a lot of notes when watching Drive because the two films are similar in a lot of ways. The music consists of new-wave revival music with pounding synthesizers and super cool sounding beats, the main character is a mostly-silent, handsome man with a lot of secrets and overall we see how this mystery man's influence on a family plays out. Not that I think the similarities are bad at all. In fact, I'm glad to see something as great at Drive influencing movies so close to its release. The result is very sharp and very enjoyable although I don’t think it rises to Drive's level of greatness. There were times in The Guest where I felt it was almost parodying Drive or simply paying homage to thrillers from the 1980s with how over-the-top music ques or camera angles were. Whatever it was, it gives The Guest a somewhat singular and odd atmosphere.

As The Guest was coming to a close I was sort of disappointed that all of the cards had been put on the table. The promise of the first half of the movie wasn't fully realized in the finale as ultimately I was left with more questions than answers. Generally I actually prefer to have things left to the imagination but I wasn't necessarily expecting a full on, no-holds-barred reveal either. As interesting as the main character is in this movie, the filmmakers decided that keeping him more mysterious would be better off for everybody. I think that would have worked better if they pulled back on some of the reveals earlier or threw in another twist. I can't pretend to be able to write a a better movie but ultimately I felt déjà vu near the end and was hoping they could have pushed the bar a little higher.

The Guest is a very entertaining movie despite it not being wholly original. Be warned, some of the violence in this film is quite gruesome and they really don't hold back during fight scenes. If you've seen You're Next you'll know that director Adam Wingard is there to bring on the blood, and he does. With solid performances, slick style and a great main character, The Guest is definitely worth checking out. I'm sort of surprised that this hasn't received more attention since it isn't overly odd or experimental. The Guest emulates Drive in more than one way, but in a lot of ways this particular film is the one that is more likely to have a “cult” following since I don't think nearly as many people know about it.

8/10