After the release of You're Next, it was a success. It had delivered on what the film had promised itself as. It also helped establish Simon Barrett and Adam Wingard. I mean they also had a hand in the anthology series V/H/S if I remember correctly. For me, I was hoping to see if there was a way to do a sequel to You're Next. Ultimately, it's better as a one-off. But the cool thing for me was the mixing of genres within that film. Again, You're Next feels very Die Hard-ish by way of home invasion or The Strangers.
When it was announced that they had their next film, I was ecstatic. I mean You're Next is very memorable. It's unique and fresh. To this day, it still holds up so extremely well. For me, it feels like it's the first time watching it all over again. Now, the follow up film is The Guest. Beware that there will be some spoilers to the film. So turn away while you can, if you haven't seen the film yet.
The Guest is even more of a thrill ride than You're Next. It's also extremely different than You're Next. If my analogy for You're Next holds true, then The Guest is Terminator by way of Halloween. This film just oozes the Halloween atmosphere that not many films successfully manage to pull off. But it also pulls off the coldness that was ever present in The Terminator.
The story of The Guest is as follows:
A soldier introduces himself to the Peterson family, claiming to be a friend of their son who died in action. After the young man is welcome into their home, a series of accidental deaths seem to be connected to his presence.
That's a very clear cut simple story of a film. I think that's part of the reason why it works so well. It starts out super simple but then it just reveals the many many layers to it. It's also because of the characters.
When we are introduced to our soldier, David - he's very genuine and polite. It's a fantastic performance from Dan Stevens. Yeah, I know Dan Stevens is in Downtown Abbey. At this point, I hadn't seen it nor have I still seen it. I know him for this film. He again is very genuine and polite. But there's an offness to him. There's something that we can tell he's holding back. What is going on with him? It's something that just plays so extremely well. It also helps that Dan Stevens is very likeable as well.
We have the return of Maika Monroe. The last film that we had seen her in was IT Follows. She plays Anna Peterson. Again, she is very likeable. At first, she's a bit apprehensive of David - but she's still a bit curious about this mystery before her. She's also a bit protective of her family, which is understandable after the news of her brother's death.
Brendan Meyer fills the role of Luke Peterson, the younger brother of Anna. Now, Luke is someone that admires David. It's understandable as Luke doesn't necessarily have much of a male role model in his life. So with David coming in with his swagger, that's just something that comes off cool to Luke.
Sheila Kelley and Leland Orser round out the family unit as Laura and Spencer Peterson. Both of them deliver solid performances in their small bit of screen time. For the most part, they just feel like absent parents though. Probably due to the fact that they are mourning the loss of their son.
And then the last outstanding performance is Lance Reddick. Here was one that came out of nowhere to me. I hadn't seen the trailers and had no idea he was in the film. He does a great job as the strong leader of a government organization. When the big twist occurs, it makes complete sense because of the fact that there is no one that could lend so much gravitas to it besides Lance Reddick.
This film is paced very well. At first, we meet David and see his interactions with the Peterson family. He helps them out in many ways. In a sense, he does a good job of filling the role that their son could have. Many of them look to David in that surrogate way. Well except for Anna. Anna then spends time uncovering what's going on. And it's a hell of a twist. David is a liar. He was part of a government project that broke out. Very much, he was trained to kill with no remorse or conscience. Therefore, he's basically a living breathing Terminator. With this discovery, the film kicks it into overgear. It's very much a strong third act with some good ol' action as David just mows down anything in his way. It all leads to a standoff as Anna is trying to save Luke from David's warpath. It's incredibly tense as the use of a school transformed into a haunted house is used to great effect.
This film is just a fun ride. It blew away any expectations I could have possibly had for it. You're Next and The Guest just ooze that special feeling of the films you'd discover in a local video store. That's something that doesn't come across much these days. It's something of a bit of a rarity. I think the most recent example we could look at is Malignant. So if you're looking for a solid flick with that video store feeling, look no further.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
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