Adam Wingard’s career has taken some interesting turns, somehow encompassing the excellent You’re Next, the faithful-but-underrated sequel Blair Witch, and the travesty of Death Note, but the high-water mark of his brief but eventful career is undoubtedly his third feature-length movie and the first entry in our 31 Nights of Horror, 2014’s The Guest. A throwback to peak John Carpenter in more than just its visual palette, its story is the sort of simple set-up that makes for the best thrillers: a soldier arrives one morning to the home of the Petersons, claiming to be a friend of their son Caleb, who died in action at an unspecified time before the beginning of the film. He’s a sincere guy who speaks highly of Caleb, so the family allows him to stay. Things are fine, until they’re not.
There’s a lot of talent on display, including up-and-coming horror starlet Maika Monroe (the protagonist of It Follows) as Anna Petersen and future Legion star Dan Stevens as David, the titular guest. Stevens is all charm, but he works an undercurrent of calculating remoteness to his David that finds its match in Monroe’s equally nuanced portrayal of shrewd, resilient Anna. Their standout performances pull from a sly and economical script by Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett that builds characters scene to scene and never betrays more than it needs to as the mystery around David condenses. The Guest is decidedly part of the ’80s revival, kin to Drive and Hyena in the way it gently subverts ’80s tropes even as it revels in them, but it’s a little less indulgent than these kinds of movies tend to be--somehow, that scene in the bar, that scene in the restaurant, and its finale inside a high school feel totally unironic, even earned, despite the narrative twists that put the characters in those situations.
The Guest has gone somewhat underrepresented thanks to The Babadook, It Follows, and Under the Skin drowning it out the same year, and it’s a stretch to call it a horror movie, especially on the level that those movies occupy; but for fans of thrillers looking for a perfect segue from the first days of autumn into the Halloween season, it’s hard to argue with The Guest’s politely sinister pull.
- Brian L.
Archival details
- Original URL
- https://metallifestyle.weebly.com/curtains-movie--tv-reviews/31-night-of-horror-night-1-the-guest
- Recovery source
- live-weebly
- Recovery date
- 2026-07-22
- Stewardship polish
- 2026-07-22
- Preservation status
- restored
- Missing assets
- None recorded
Preserved by Bloodsoaked Media · The Archives