Welcome back to another installment of everyone’s favorite recurring Netflix review column, “Eh, What’s New On Netflix?”! I’m sure that by this point, we’ve all become something akin to family here, so I feel that I can be honest with you. I’ve liked a lot of the movies I’ve covered for this site, but this one is one of my favorites. So let’s stop dicking around and get right to it!
I knew that I was going to like The Guest when I saw the opening title card. Any movie that can win you over within the first thirty seconds is a winner, no matter what. What’s impressive about this particular film is that it is able to hold that attention, build upon it, and ultimately surpass all expectations.
I should back up a little bit. I’ve been hearing about The Guest for a while now, at least since I heard about It Follows, starring Maika Monroe, the female lead in this movie. Everyone said that it’s great and I had absolutely no reason to doubt them. Its by the same writer and director that made You’re Next, a movie that I love more than some of my family members. Dan Stevens is amazing on Downton Abby, and there’s the aforementioned Monroe, who tore it UP in It Follows. This is a movie that I was, admittedly, pre-programed to go into loving.
The film revolves around the Peterson’s, a rural Southern family, whose eldest son was killed fighting in the Middle East. Just as it appears that they may have found a way to move on, a man named David (Stevens) shows up on their doorstep, claiming to have been an Army buddy of their son. Mrs. Peterson immediately asks David to stay for dinner, and then the other family members, including daughter Anna (Monroe) ask him to continue his stay. As time goes on, David entrenches himself further and further into the Petersons’ lives even as questions about the true nature of his past creep up and ultimately come to the forefront.
As I said, this is a movie that is greater that the sum of its parts, and that has to be attributed to the creative team involved. Director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett craft a film that continues to build upon itself and does little that is expected. And Dan Stevens. Dan Fucking Stevens. If he doesn’t provide one of the best, weirdest horror movie villains that I’ve seen in quite a while, then I’ll eat the hippster sack cap that I am currently wearing. It cannot be overstated how awesomely out of left field his performance is. Everything from his accent, which is just slightly unplaceable, to the way he can shift from the portrait of Midwestern wholesomeness being threatening (and vice versa) is incredible to behold.
All of this would go to make this a film worth seeing by everyone out there who considers themselves a connoisseur of quality cinema (how’s that for an alliteration?), but it’s the last thirty minutes or so that push this thing over the edge into the territory of instant classic. When Lance Reddick, of FOX’s Fringe ( a show that I swear, I will catch up on eventually) shows up, shit starts to get fucking real. When he and his crew arrive at the movie’s central location, stuff is taken to a whole new level. But when Stevens appears in what I will call the “Fuck you, here’s grenades” scene, I literally put my hand over my mouth as if I were a lady of Victorian high society and gasped in delight. That is not an exaggeration, the scene was so good that I actually did that.
There is nothing I want to do more than talk about the end of this movie. It is something spectacular that deserves to be discussed and obsessed over. It’s killing me to not provide a Spoiler Extravaganza, but anyone and everyone out there owes it to themselves to see this thing for themselves with virginal eyes, untouched by the likes of me. So go out there, see it. Rent it, buy it, torrent it illegally (I do not endorse this last option). Or, ya know, just watch it on Netflix. Just fucking see it so that we can all come together and revel in the awesomeness that is The Guest. I cannot wait for the next movie that these guys fucking make!
