Having lost their son in Afghanistan's fight, the Peterson family welcomes in a soldier who is friend to their lost son but his strange actions makes the family daughter to suspect him.
Barrett and Wingard are more about exploring the wish-fulfillment than getting into any deep psychological warfare. Still, the screenplay knows just when to create more menace and move on, and it escalates the craziness right up to the breaking point.
A slow-burn approach seems to pose a challenging change-up for the filmmakers, who struggle to build tension as the second acts stretches well past the point when the level of menace should be escalating.
If The Guest were a colour it would be the neon blue of its title card: a little bit show-off, a little bit retro, but it'll definitely brighten your night.
It's not a particularly brilliant conceit, but, not unlike Stevens's beautifully one-note performance, it's evocative nevertheless -- lending the whole movie an aura of pop inevitability, turning its blunt predictability into something of a virtue.
This 1980s-style movie has wickedly pleasing aplomb. As fantasy escapism, it's brave, colorful and entertaining for audiences who can handle substantial carnage.
One of the many pleasures of director Adam Wingard's tough, fun thriller "The Guest" is seeing Matthew Crawley -- er, British actor Dan Stevens -- serve up a mesmerizing star turn of psycho charm.
