Best of Frightfest: As the twentieth anniversary of Arrow Video Frightfest approaches, we at team THN take a look back at some of the best and brightest films that have screened over the last two decades. The Guest is today’s pick.
Who wouldn’t trust a charming and handsome stranger? That’s a question that kicks off the action of Adam Wingard’s dastardly wicked thriller The Guest. Said charming stranger is David Collins (played by Dan Stevens, fresh off the driveway of Downton Abbey), a young man who goes to visit the family of a dead friend he supposedly served with in the armed forces in Afghanistan. Soon enough however, brother and sister pair Anna (Maika Monroe) and Luke (Brendan Meyer) begin to suspect that David may not be all that he seems.
Adam Wingard and his writing partner Simon Barrett, had already made an impression at both FrightFest and the movie-going world in general when their breakout movie You’re Next did the festival circuit. They returned with The Guest, a film which continued to demonstrate Wingard and Barrett’s affection for old school horror and thrillers.
Where You’re Next took a spin at the slasher genre, The Guest is more aimed at the synth driven thrills of John Carpenter, combined with elements of The Terminator and pulpy paperback mysteries. That is largely given life by the electrifying soundtrack that powers the film. With both a great score from Steve Moore and some fantastic modern synth pop from the likes of Love and Rockets and Survive, this is a film that pumps with a musicality that feels both retrograde and fresh all at once (try getting Annie’s ‘Antonio’ out of your head afterwards, just try!).
That style more than helps the narrative as well, with the film proving to be a lean, mean and mischievously twisty affair that supports its darker impulses with a sense of funhouse thrills that ensure that The Guest operates as more than just a hollow 80s homage.
In placing young actors at the centre of its plot as the two characters who have more of an instinct for something fishy than any of the adult characters, there is a distinct Amblin adventure vibe to the approach. In David, we have a mysterious figure that provokes through hidden-identity and something more raw and sexual. And then there’s the added element of shady Government conspiracy that escalates into ultra-violence that brings in the John Carpenter elements more heavily. It could all prove a bit too much for the pot, but Wingard keeps all these elements from boiling over with a light touch and a sense that his tongue is firmly in his cheek.
It also helps that all the performances are so fun. Maika Monroe stands out in a role that would lead to her more celebrated breakout performance in It Follows mere months later. But, of course, the real star of the show is Dan Stevens. With this film, he showed great ambition to breakout of his Downton Abbey mould, sporting an American accent and using his striking eyes to wildly unsettling effect. He feels attractive, he feels dangerous, and he relishes the chance to re-define the perception of him as an actor.
The Guest is a film that has proven to be a great deal of fun to revisit, thanks to that cocktail of old school styling with an electrifying contemporary edge and wit. Wingard and Barrett prove to once again be very adept at combining elements from movies that they clearly adore and repackage them for something that feels distinct. It often feels like it plays as Drive’s beer-chugging cousin, matching that film for its neon-glazed ultra-violence, whilst choosing to have a little more fun along the way. Give it a spin, it’s still one hell of a ride!
Arrow Video Frightfest returns for its twentieth year on 22nd August 2019. Full details about the event can be found on the Frightfest website.
