Adam Wingard showed a talent for tongue-in-cheek thrills, riffing on the home invasion genre with You’re Next, but with The Guest he’s one-upped his game and chosen the perfect vessel for doing so in Dan Stevens. The “Downton Abbey” star plays David, a man who introduces himself to the Peterson family as a soldier and friend of their son who died in the war. More specifically he plays something of a Jason Bourne run amuck, though, for the Petersons, that might not necessarily be a bad thing… at first.
Since the death of their son the Petersons appear to have grown apart. Mom (Sheila Kelley) and dad (Leland Orser) fight a lot while Luke (Brendan Meyer) is dealing with bullies at school and his older sister, Anna (Maika Monroe), is in her rebelious phase, trying to deal with the fact she’s almost 21 and still living at home while saving for college. In fact, it would seem David has arrived at just the right time even though Wingard is never subtle in letting us know all is not right with this mysterious stranger from nowhere and therein lies the fun The Guest has in store.
With his striking blue eyes and consistently unshaven, but not at all unkempt, appearance, Stevens looks a lot like Bradley Cooper, and in fact, I’m sure Cooper could have done a lot with this role as well, but Stevens is just too good to want anyone else. We know he’s the villain from the first moment we see him, and it becomes a waiting game to find out just how evil he may or may not be.
Wingard first teases David’s arrival with a view of him from behind, running down the highway before the title screen declares — “THE GUEST” — accompanied by an over-the-top blast of music. It’s a bit of a sledgehammer approach, if anything, Wingard’s direction and use of music, declaring David as a bad guy, is in direct conflict with Stevens’ mostly low-key performance, which keeps the movie fascinating at every turn. David is a charismatic guy, a nice guy in fact, but Wingard refuses to allow the audience any real level of comfort. The question, though, is whether or not he’s here to hurt or help the Peterson family and if the answer is neither, just what exactly is his goal?
Wingard’s nods to classic horror and thrillers keep things lively. He toys with thrills, satire and dark humor in ways that are both impishly delicate and occasionally delivered with all-out blunt force. The mixture is magic and Stevens is game throughout.
To keep things intimate, Wingard plays heavily with close-ups and to set the mood and ultimately liven things up, he brought in Steve Moore to provide the film’s ’80s, synth score, which not only helps with the film’s tone, but plays so very well with the song choices. I only wish Wingard had a larger budget and could have pulled off a Michael Bay-esque explosion as David lays waste to a small diner to the tune of Timmy T’s “One More Try“. The decision reminds me a lot of what Nicolas Winding Refn has accomplished using ’80s-esque music for his films, but delivering it in a very modern way that, again, clues the audience in to the influence, but doesn’t make it so obvious it comes off cheesy or as if he’s trying too hard.
Wingard shows a level of improvement here over the well-reviewed You’re Next, which really struggled in its first third, before settling in to what it truly wanted to be. From the moment The Guest starts, however, Wingard is in completely control and the casting of Stevens would appear to be the lynchpin the same way Sharni Vinson was a perfect choice for You’re Next. Strength in casting can elevate a project to great heights and Wingard has now proven twice in a row he not only can turn a twisted story into a darkly humorous and, at times, terrifying tale, but he has a great eye for just the right talent to bring it to life.
