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VIP98.5/10. If you’d pitched me a showdown between Matthew Crawley from Downton Abbey and Lt. Daniels from The Wire, I would probably be on board, but I don’t think I could ever have imagined it would be this cool. But that’s sort of the trick of The Guest, a tremendous and intimate thriller about luring you in with something that feels comforting and familiar, almost too much so, and then explores the unexpected consequences of what comes next.
When David Collins shows up to the Peterson household, the family of his slain fellow solider, he is unnervingly perfect. He smiles in just the right way; he begs off in a disarming fashion when offered any bit of kindness, and tugs on just the right strings to where, before you know it, he feels like an indelible and vital part of your life. Each of the Petersons fall under his spell at some point, to where he becomes a de facto part of the family.
A great deal of credit belongs to Dan Stevens, showing and incredible amount of range and talent in the way he inhabits the titular guest, a young veteran who is perfection embodied but with something that seems just a little off. Initially I bristled a bit at the character, because there was a sort of uncanny valley effect that belied David’s initial interactions with the Peterson family. But as the film progresses, it becomes apparent that it’s an intentional and impressive choice from Stevens. He expertly conveys the way in which David both seems like a peerless individual, one who blends in to any social situations and has those around him warm up to him almost instantly, but also like someone who is putting on an act. It’s a very good act, and one that he’s clearly perfected over a long time, but one that is unnerving in how perfectly pitched it is.
That’s the greatest achievement of the film and its lead actor – the way that David embodies such warmth and such coldness at the same time. While David does terrible things, and seems insincere or at least a little mercenary in his attempts to make good with the Petersons, you get the impression that he genuinely wants to help them. Whether it comes from a sense of obligation to his fallen friend Caleb or a genuine affection for his inadvertent ward Luke, Stevens gives the impression that even if the emotions have been drained out of David and replaced with military efficiency and impulses he himself has no control over, there’s a piece of him still in there, a piece that cares about the family he’s so slyly made himself a part of.
But that just makes it all the more frightening when David shows what he’s capable of, of the smoldering beast that lurks within. Much of that, again, comes from Stevens’s performance in the title role. Those brief moments where he drops that unblinking smile, where he gazes off into nothing or focuses his eyes on some troublemaker are truly frightening. Stevens’s offers only glimpses into this individual who at times seems as much machine as man.
A great deal of that sense, however, comes from the incredibly-crafted sequences when David reveals his military training and puts it into action. When David roughs up a group of Luke’s high school bullies, he is preternaturally effective at it, with no wasted movement as he decimates these young men in seemingly effortless fashion. When he calmly lines up his shot to take out the last remaining witness at an arms deal, the cold precision of it is just as unnerving. When he gets into a firefight with military contractors at the Peterson home, he moves like an animal through the house, making his exit. And the film’s final big set piece, a heart-pumping stalk and chase through a mirror-lined, smoke-filled haunted house stands out as one of the most exciting and tense sequences on film in the last decade.
The mood of these scenes comes through not just in the images on the screen, but in the film’s use of sound. The most obvious of these is the film’s synth-heavy, gothic score. Most of the music employed is diegetic, lending to the unreal quality of these sequences, and giving it a throwback flavor that makes David’s pursuit of his prey seem of a piece with Michael Myers in Halloween. But just as impressive is the foley work that goes into David’s takedowns. When David is fighting a group of rowdy teenagers, you hear their bones crack, you hear their bodies thump, and it is immediately disquieting and an indication of how quietly fearsome this man really is.
David represents, in a very heightened way, our national fears about soldiers coming home from war. The Peterson patriarch explicitly references PTSD, and there’s a palpable sense that The Guest is engaging with a funhouse mirror version of this concern. In the same way that soldiers come home and can feel like different people to their loved ones after having been changed by their experiences at war, David is essentially a replacement for Caleb in the Peterson family, and he really is a different person. He seems familiar, filling the space in the family that Caleb used to in a way that makes everyone take a shine to him to one degree or another, and yet there is something lurking behind the practiced smile made to put you at ease. There are parts of David that he cannot turn off, violent parts, that lead him to do things he finds as regrettable as he does unavoidable.
He is also a rebuke or a response to our stories about soldiers being enhanced to become more effective weapons of war. He is a dark mirror of Captain America, a more personal and frightening version of Jason Bourne, a strikingly competent, chameleon-like man at arms who has been ravaged and warped by what’s been done to him rather than improved by it.
And yet, he ingratiates himself into the Peterson family. Laura Peterson sees him as her surrogate son. Spencer Peterson sees him as a buddy. Luke Peterson views him as an idol, a role model who makes him better equipped for the world. And Anna Peterson (in a great performance by Maika Monroe of It Follows fame) makes him a mix tape and sees him as hunky protector. But it’s Anna who notices how things have become too perfect, how the family’s obstacles have mysteriously fallen down around them, often in deadly fashion. That is the core of The Guest -- a continuing sense that everything is perfect, that everything is falling into place, but in a way that feels off, that feels wrong, that feels strange and unnerving even when you seem to get everything you want.
A soldier (Dan Stevens) befriends the family of a fallen comrade. There’s more to him than meets the eye, which quickly becomes evident as people in the town begin to die.
Adam Wingard pulls off a ballsy move with The Guest by focusing on a classic idea in Hollywood; the outsider inserting himself into a small community. It’s always a great premise and made even better when there’s a sense of mystery around the central character.
In this case the mystery lies not with the plot, Wingard hides very little there, but with the character’s motivations. We never know what Stevens’ character is really thinking, and initially one might even question if he is even a human being. It’s genuinely creepy and instantly sets a unique tone for the film from the first five minutes.
The fundamental driving force behind the plot is a little silly and detracts from the suspense. The synth soundtrack, although effective for the most part, feels a little jarring sometimes. The film is peppered with moments where Wingard tries a little too hard, and again this takes us out of the action.
That said for the most part The Guest marries a disturbing central performance, a classic old premise and an 80s soundtrack to make a thriller like no other. It’s an experience; a hard sell on paper but a definite success on screen.
http://benoliver999.com/film/2015/10/14/theguest/
Review by LineageBlockedParent2022-05-04T19:48:23Z
"No, I'm going to kill you."
I remember watching this film years ago before I started logging what I watch: and I remember liking it. I'm pretty sure I liked it a lot. More than I did/do now. But don't get it mistaken. Despite having liked it more in the past, I didn't hate this film watching it now. It's sufficient for entertainment.
Story-wise, there was hardly anything there. It was pretty basic stuff. And I feel like it, also, ended up biting off more than it could chew. I think unraveling the mystery was the wrong move. Even more so, since that aspect felt unnecessary in the end. Lance Reddick's character was pointless, and he shouldn't have been in the film. It was almost contrived. There had to be conflict, so there you go.
Don't get me wrong. I thought the details of the exposition regarding David Collins were intriguing. I liked that, and I think its part in the film was good. It added a lot. But it should've been revealed differently, in a way where the second half of the film remained like the first half, with that intriguing exposition still there. Sure, just like what we got, it would've been unnecessary in the end, but I feel like, that way, it would've been a positive thing. It would've added more to the intrigue without there needing to be a pay-off, an underwhelming one, at that. Just something there. No imminent baggage from the past coming into the picture.
Acting-wise, Dan Stevens was by far the highlight. His performance was captivating, charismatic, polite: and then borderline creepy, eerie, and unhinged. I bet this role played a huge part in him getting cast as David Haller/Legion in FX's Legion. I know next to nothing about that character, except all of the personalities: reason enough for my assumption.
The rest of the cast was alright, I suppose. The acting by Sheila Kelley and Brendan Meyer was probably the weakest. And while I wasn't quite "vibing" with Maika Monroe's character, her acting was still pretty decent. Besides Dan Stevens, Leland Orser's performance was probably the best.
As far as the soundtrack is concerned, I'm not sure how to feel about it. I've seen that some people thought it was fantastic and one of the film's highlights, but I don't know. Most of it sounded too loud. And the soundtrack itself didn't stand out to me.
But the one specific thing I remembered from watching this film in the past was the song that started playing near the end when David got tricked: Anthonio (Berlin Breakdown Version) by Annie. That was a bop back then and was now, and still is. The only memorable part of the soundtrack for me, unfortunately.
Upon further reflection, though, there were two other songs. Masquerade by Clan of Xymox, which was the song on the radio with David and Anna in the car. And Because I Love You (The Postman Song) by Stevie B, the song after David shot Kristin. And I suppose most of the soundtrack was decent; it just went under the radar initially.
There were a few other aspects that stood out, like:
The cinematography. For me, this also went under the radar initially. It was easy to miss. But like with the soundtrack, upon further reflection, I noticed that the cinematography was pretty decent. The lighting and color palette stood out the most with the cinematography.
The technical aspect of the camera work and specific choices with the camera movements. There was a Dolly zoom (?) once or twice. The two I remember were at the beginning of the film when David told Laura that Caleb told him to tell his family that he loved them and when David was standing outside after Anna turned her light off: the shot of coming out of her room and panning from left to right, to him, was good, too. There was also an Arc shot (?) or two: the one I remember was when Luke talked to David in the school hallway.
The action/fight sequences. I'll admit, this was less noteworthy. And I do wish this aspect was more prominent in the film. But the action-y/fight sequence parts we got were good enough, the one in the bar, specifically. That uppercut was brutal. Brutally awesome. The shootout sequence was decent enough, I suppose.
All-in-all, this film had more than enough things to speak about positively. The concept of programming and conditioning, and things in that vein, is fascinating to me and was one of the highlights. I wish that element had been more explored. It is what it is. And while the writing/some writing choices were "iffy," that didn't impact the whole film that much.
So, I thought this film was pretty entertaining to watch. It even seemed to have a little bit of rewatchability. It's unfortunate that its box office was less than the budget and that this film seems somewhat disliked. Then again, there seem to be plenty of people who "surprisingly" liked it a lot. I guess this film is underrated and somewhat "overrated" at the same time.
Other thoughts:
Dan Stevens' articulation of some words/lines throughout this film sounded similar to how Jonathan Silverman did so as Richard Parker in the Weekend at Bernie's films.
The way Leland Orser acted in this film reminded me of Chelsea Handler at times.
I noticed that you could see, while David was choking Anna, that he was barely squeezing her neck. I mean, of course not. It's acting, but you'd think something like that wouldn't be so obvious.
While David was saying his final lines, I was reminded of Riley Smith, specifically in The CW's Nancy Drew since that's the only thing I've seen him in. Dan Stevens looked like him. The way his mouth broke into a closed smile. How he said his final line. Extremely Riley Smith-esque.