New from Second Sight, Adam Wingard’s 2014 thriller The Guest is now available on both Blu-Ray and 4K as a limited-edition release.
Dan Stevens stars as David, a discharged soldier who unexpectedly shows up at the home of the Peterson family, claiming to be a friend of their recently killed in action son Caleb. David proves himself to be polite and helpful and the Peterson’s begin to see him as a part of the family. However, when the family’s problems start meeting with increasingly murdery solutions, their daughter Anna (Maika Monroe) becomes suspicious of David and begins investigating him, leading to a dark discovery.
Unfortunately, that discovery is that this is a much worse film than the tense home invasion thriller that the first 45 minutes would have you believe this is. You see, it turns out that “David” is actually a mentally unstable test subject for a secret military project to do… something. The film doesn’t have time for unimportant things like backstory, it’s far too busy trying to haphazardly cram in so many 80’s horror cliches that even the Duffer Brothers would think it’s laying it on a bit thick.
Although I must admit, even though Steve Moore’s soundtrack can best be described as “I can’t believe it’s not Carpenter”, the moody synth beats are still a big highlight of the film.
The film also suffers from a jarring mishmash of tones, lurching wildly from slow-burn tension to laughably over-the-top action. The one constant through each scene though, is that you can always rely on the characters to behave in the most lead-paint chewingly moronic way possible.
Dan Stevens is clearly having a lot of fun playing David, bringing a brooding intensity that’s poised to burst out into delicious hamminess at a moment’s notice. Plus, the man has the kind of baby blues that make any criticism, no matter how valid, pretty much meaningless.
One of the most egregious stand-outs of this is the Peterson’s son Luke (Brendan Meyer). The film wants you to believe Luke is smart (and we know this through his amazing abilities such as “doing maths homework” and “using google”) and yet struggles to comprehend the fact that maybe, just maybe, the weird army guy whose anti-bullying advice was to burn the bullies’ home’s down with them inside, might not be entirely stable.
That being said, I can’t bring myself to entirely hate this film. Maika Monroe does a good a job even with an underbaked script and Dan Stevens is clearly having a lot of fun playing David, bringing a brooding intensity that’s poised to burst out into delicious hamminess at a moment’s notice. Plus, the man has the kind of baby blues that make any criticism, no matter how valid, pretty much meaningless.
There’s also an appearance from the always fantastic Lance Reddick, who can deliver lines with a level of authority that almost makes you forget his planning ability only extends as far as ordering his men to fire in an enemy’s general direction and hope for the best.
The Guest might not hold up to much (or really any) scrutiny, but it has enough charm from its lead to work as a brainless Sunday afternoon watch and its 80’s trappings are going to be right up some audiences alleys. This release also comes with plenty of bonus content, such as deleted and alternate scenes and a whole host of interviews with seemingly everyone involved in the film except the caterers. So, if you are a fan, there’s certainly plenty there to make it worth the buy.
THE GUEST IS OUT NOW ON SECOND SIGHT 4K BLU-RAY
CLICK THE BOXART BELOW TO BUY THE GUEST DIRECT FROM SECOND SIGHT. SUPPORT INDIE LABELS
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THANKS FOR READING ANDREW’S REVIEW OF THE GUEST
Elvis Presley, The Mummy and Black JFK walk into an old people’s home… if it sounds like the set-up for a joke it kind of is, although there’s also a part of Don Coscarelli’s outrageous 2002 comeback that’s deadly serious. The Phantasm director’s high-concept horror-comedy is also a thoughtful, quietly angry assessment of society’s neglect of the elderly, albeit one in which people’s souls are sucked out of an unhygienic place.
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