In The Guest, Dan Stevens doesn’t simply shed his Downton Abbey persona; he kills it, pours gasoline on it, sets it on fire and then sends it in a rocket to the moon. Stevens plays David, a dashing soldier that knocks on the door of the Peterson family one morning. He tells the mother, Laura (Sheila Kelley), that he served with her son in the war and promised to deliver a message to the family if he died. Moved by the young man’s loyalty, and probably hypnotized by his blue eyes, Laura invites him to spend a few days in their home, so he can get to know the rest of the family; Spencer, the father (Leland Orser) with a slight drinking problem, Luke (Brendan Meyer) the son in search of an exemplary father figure and Anna (Maika Monroe) the black sheep, who instinctually feels there is something off about David.
With his small-town-kid good manners, all-American boy good looks and his devotion to helping others, David seems to be the perfect man, and if it wasn’t for the fact that he has moments of sudden anger where he seems like he’ll literally explode, or that his stories about his background don’t always ring as true, he would be able to fool everyone, but of course David has a secret and director Adam Wingard, never really tries to hide it. From the atmospheric electronic score he uses as David is about to do something bad, to the camera moves and editing that let us know something terrible is about to happen, the director makes us see that everyone is pretty much blinded by this adonis.
Therefore it’s a treat that he allows us to join the party from the other side as we become Anna’s only allies in trying to unmask this man. The Guest feels like it was shot in 1988 and is damn proud of it. From the opening credits (a magenta-ish title card that pops out of nowhere), to Wingard’s pitch perfect casting (every actor looks familiar, but you can never place your finger on where is it that you’ve seen them before), to an honestly funny depiction of extreme violence, The Guest is a delicious throwback to the films of John Carpenter and Wes Craven, with just the right amount of Hitchcock thrown in for good measure.
Leading man Stevens is a revelation, having buffed up to the point where he is dangerously sexy, he uses his body in a way male actors rarely get to do, as we see him become an object of desire, while allowing him to do subtly diabolical work with his line delivery and smirk. There are moments when even we want to believe he’s a good guy! Monroe makes the perfect counterpart, all eyes and legs, the actress seems to be in complete awareness, in a way none of the other characters are. The Guest is a unique film that will be hard to swallow for those looking for something that fits specifically into one genre. With its homages and tongue-in-cheek humor, it’s the kind of movie that one can only hope will become a fixture in midnight screenings.
