The Guest is destined for cult status. Led by a stellar creepy performance from Dan Stevens, The Guest is a Horror flick that pushes the comedy and horror buttons at the exact right times. Plus for all you Downton Abbey fans, there’s a lot of shirtless Matthew to make you sigh with happiness.
Sad times are afoot for the Peterson family. They just lost their oldest son, Caleb, in Iraq. While mourning his loss one day, mother Laura (Sheila Kelley) answers the door to a man named David (Stevens). David says he platooned with Caleb and new him very well; his story checks out since he is in many pictures with the deceased family member. David slowly earns the trust of the family members: patriarch Spencer (Leland Orser) is happy to have an ear to listen, and brother Luke (Brendan Meyer) uses David to help him with bullying at school. Only middle child Anna (Maika Monroe) is skeptical. She asks the obvious questions: why does David only pay in cash? Why does he make weird phone calls? Why is there no record of him in the army?
Dan Stevens performance here reminds me of Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator. High praise, but completely justified. Stevens quietly lets his good looks entrust people by saying a word or two. The silence is even more effective when evoking fear: that stare is long and unwavering. Stevens uses the slow burn of the first half to slowly unravel as the bullets fly in the second half. When the climactic confrontation happens between David and Anna, Stevens exudes controlled crazy, saying deliciously dark things while leaving the audience chilled by his stoicism. Stevens holds together The Guest; without a talent like him, the movie’s profile would be nonexistent.
The horror comedy line can only be walked by a talented writer and director. Fortunately, Simon Barrett (V/H/S and You’re Next) is a vet of this sort of thing. The first hour is the best, setting up the enigmatic David and his displays of trust to the family. There’s a scene in a bar that starts out hilarious by mocking Luke’s bullies that quickly switches to fear seeing what David can actually do. Then it switches right back to funny, as David lays out a scenario for the bartender to come out clean and David to not be mentioned. Barrett makes subtext text a lot: Anna clearly is enchanted by David at one point, only for him to exit a shower looking insanely hot. The movie is set around Halloween, making any ritual about the holiday a part of the movie. The final scene takes place in a haunted maze, and unapologetically embraces it. Sure the story is razor thin and many of the characters archetypes, but the clear fun and energy in the writing, music, and direction makes The Guest a notch above a similar movie of this type.
I have high hopes for Dan Steven’s career after seeing him in The Guest. He clearly has the looks, but with this cool role he’s readily positioned to become the next great American star from Britain. That makes British acting stars 3000, American stars 4 (Robert Downey Jr., George Clooney, Tom Cruise, and Meryl Streep).