Oct 1, 2020
October 1st
The Guest (2014)
Dir. Adam Wingard
31 for 31 is a curated film program for the month of October. Conceived of as a compilation mixtape, the program explores the historical and cultural legacy of Horror cinema. Consider this my billet-doux to the genre.
“You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention.”
For my opening number I followed the Robs’s advice and went with a real banger. One can’t afford to start a month-long mixtape off on the wrong track, so the selection needed to be somewhat mainstream but nothing obvious—an element of the unexpected is key. Not too scary either: no sense terrifying anyone quite yet. Above all, it just needed to whip ass. A half dozen films were considered, but I kept coming back to Adam Wingard’s The Guest.
The Guest is a nostalgia bullet to the brain splattered with kills, thrills, and sustained by a thumping techno soundtrack. Borrowing lovingly from the 1980s, Wingard, and his frequent screenwriting collaborator Simon Barrett, concocted a retro thriller about the Petersons, an average, grieving family visited by a mysterious ex-soldier named David. David, played by Dan Stevens, claims to have served with the Petersons’ late son in Afghanistan; blinded by their grief, the family welcomes the stranger with open arms. Before long, David is throwing back beers with Mr. Peterson, helping Mom cope with her loss, dealing with the younger son’s bullies, and making eyes at the teenager sister. Everyone loves David — that is until the bodies start dropping and something feels increasingly off about their newly invited ward.
“Love letter” is a term often wantonly tossed around. But The Guest succeeds where many others fall short. It is a fresh film, indebted to its homages but thankfully not shackled by them. A twenty-first-century remix of The Terminator, The Hitcher, some John Carpenter, and a splash of Hitchcockian suspense, The Guest squeezes its premise for maximum effect. There’s a bomb beneath the Petersons’ dinner table; it just happens to be blonde, blue-eyed, and with a charming smile. It should come
as no shock that the eponymous guest will eventually explode. And it’s that tension that makes for one hell of a ride.
The Guest is a slick flick, and the soundtrack, by Survive, is an instant Spotify follow. Best of all, it understands exactly what type of movie it is and embraces that fact. One scene late in the film, set to Stevie B’s “Because I Love You” epitomizes The Guest’s wicked sense of humor and balanced tone.
Maika Monroe impresses as the skeptical older sister, but make no mistake: this is the Dan Stevens show. Up to this point, Stevens was best known as the schlubby cousin from Downton Abbey. For The Guest, Stevens sheds that image entirely (along with about 20 lbs of baby fat). I gather Stevens took the role for two reasons: 1. to get yoked out of his mind and 2. to pad his resume for a future James Bond casting pool. To say he succeeded would be an understatement. Stevens commands the picture front-reel to end. Free from the faux trappings of Edwardian England’s stuffy aristocracy, Stevens
balances charm with icy menace. David is a likeable character, which forces one to grapple with his eventual heel turn. I admit I wasn’t on the Steven bandwagon before, but after one watch you’ll be saying, “that guy’s the next 007.”
I’ve admired Adam Wingard’s output as he’s clawed his way up from tiny indies to literally enormous studio pictures (his next gig is Godzilla vs. King Kong). He’s very much at home in the genre film sandbox and has built an impressive collection of sandcastles along the way. Like many, I first noticed Wingard’s talents with 2011’s You’re Next. Whereas that film served as an introduction, The Guest feels like a graduation. Adam Wingard is indeed here to stay, and horror fans worldwide should rejoice.
Do you know what’s scarier than anything on this list? 4 more years of Donald Trump. Please remember to register to vote and consider donating to the campaign to elect Joe Biden.
