The Guest (2014)

For the first 20-30 minutes "The Guest" looks like an average thriller. David Collins, just left home by the US Army after being sent to Afghanistan, pays a visit to the family of a former friend, Caleb Peterson, killed in action. It's more than obvious from scene 1 that the guy doesn't have the best intentions, and the first night he spends at the Petersons turns into a longer stay. David has a particular talent in getting close to each of the family members, either taking the role of the lost son, or resolving the issues the little brother has at school. Everything seems to be a cheap clone of many other movies (the one that pops into my mind now is "The Gift") where you can see a grim end coming where the very friendly stranger turns into a very dangerous villain. Well... the ending is indeed predictable. How we get there though...

After a first part that doesn't announce anything unusual in the expected line of above, besides maybe the fact that it sets a slightly retro feeling via its soundtrack (lots of synth there), there comes the moment when what we have here gets a different color. And the moment is a phone call to the military base took by Caleb's sister, who's the only one not to trust David completely. The phone call transfers us to an instant start of an armed operation meant to neutralize the danger, and we realize that David is not exactly the average character with mental issues. Actually David is not David, but let's not spoil the entire story.

And like that, from the start feeling of a low-budget "The Gift", at the end I was left between "Firestarter" and "Halloween" (the originals). It doesn't really have the supernatural element of the first, and also it's not really crossing the horror line of the latter, but it definitely has the feeling of a '70s-'80s thriller (a good one), and it's not only the retro score. I've seen Dan Stevens (the main role) before, but since I don't remember where, he probably seemed to me as just an extra cast member type-of-actor, while here he's probably comparable with Rutger Hauer in "The Hitcher" for the villain-esque value he brings to the character (just to put another '80s reference on the list). We also have a bit of dark dry humor, hardly noticeable, in just a couple scenes - but which you find very seldom these days in the recent productions of the genre, which either don't have any or they choose a much more open comic stance as tension relief element. Overall, the movie was a nice surprise, although I was disappointed by the ending = obviously it would've worked with less violence + I was expecting a twist that didn't come up, but there's room for a sequel ;)

Rating: 4 out of 5