Director Report Card: Adam Wingard (2014)

8. The Guest

When I first saw it, I really liked “You're Next” but it took me a couple of re-watches to really learn to love it. Either way, the film absolutely put Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett on my radar. (And the “V/H/S” films made me pay even more attention to them.) Still, I went into “The Guest” with few expectations. Which was, perhaps, the best way to meet the movie. I found an even more pleasantly surprising genre experiment than I did with their previous movies. This was, in fact, the overwhelming reaction to “The Guest,” which ended up being a big hit with longtime fans of cult cinema in 2014. 

Caleb Peterson died while overseas in the Middle East. The death has left his mom Laura traumatized, with his younger siblings Luke and Anna trying to move on the best they can. Out of the blue one day, David stops by the home. He claims to be a recently discharged war buddy of Caleb's. He has arrived to bring a message of dying love from Caleb to his family. David immediately ingratiates himself to the Peterson family, impressing Laura and protecting Luke from bullies at school. Anna is skeptical at first but is slowly won over... That's when the dead bodies start to pile up. Anna thinks something isn't right about “David's” story and she's correct. He has a horrible secret and, soon, men from the government arrive to investigate. 

“The Guest,” at first, operates under a powerful notion of wish fulfillment. What if someone came into your life and they had all the answers to all your problems? David shows up out of the blue and immediately sees the solutions to whatever vexes the Peterson family. He beats up the jocks that torment Luke at school. When Luke fights back and almost gets a suspension, David effortlessly intimidates the principal into changing his mind. When an old boyfriend harasses Anna's friend at a party, he immediately gets the guy to back off. He even finds a way to get Spencer, the dad, a promotion at work. He also gives Anna a look at his perfectly sculpted abs, temporarily firing her lust. 

Of course, it all comes at a horrible price. By rooting its story in a fantasy anyone can relate too – and the easily understood reversal of “be careful what you wish for” –  “The Guest” sets up a universal scenario to pervert. David's uncompromising sociopathy is revealed exactly at the twenty minute mark, when he blows a weapon dealer's brains out. From there, the script gives us more and more of a peek at how dangerous this seemingly perfect guy is. The film brilliantly escalates from there, blowing up a small scenario focused on a nuclear family into an action movie shoot-out. It's a fantastically paced movie that moves at the exact correct pace.

That David is a military vet, that he appears to disrupt the equilibrium of the nuclear family unit along side news of their son's death, is important. As the story reveals more of its layer, we learn that “David” is some sort of experimental soldier, programmed to clean up all loose ends and ruthlessly exterminate anyone who gets in his way. He was created by the government, to kill efficiently and without mercy. Coming back home, and living again in normal society, is not something he was programmed for. That he fills the void left by Caleb's death, filling the role of a surrogate son for Laura, is fitting. Caleb didn't come home but he was made into a killing machine by the U.S. military industrial complex too. David is a literalization of how normal boys are turned into murderers. 

“The Guest” represents a big leap forward for Adam Wingard in another way. The director had mostly worked in the realm of low-stakes horror and independent movies. “You're Next” was a bigger and more stunt-heavy movie, an instinct that “The Guest” takes even further. A full-blown action sequence breaks out in the middle of the movie, when the government kill squad descends on the Peterson home. And, pleasant surprise, but Adam Wingard directs the fuck out of these shoot-outs. Slow-mo, crash-zooms, and bursts of splattering blood punctuate several movements. The editing is incredibly smooth, as David leaps through the air or slides out from under a bed. It's distinct but not showy, stylized but not distracting, direct and brutal but imaginative too. 

Of course, “The Guest” doesn't have Adam Wingard stepping entirely out of his comfort zone either. It's sort of a horror movie too. We don't know if “David” is just a result of psychological conditioning or some sort of genetically engineered super soldier. Either way, he's not exactly human. He exterminates his targets with the grim determination of Michael Myers, even wielding a similarly oversized butcher knife in a few scenes. (Though with more apologies and smirks.) In the last act, when Anna and Luke are chased through a Halloween tunnel while David wields a box cutter, “The Guest” fully embraces the slasher movie genes hidden inside its DNA. 

And I can't help but adore “The Guest's” fucking gorgeous October atmosphere. The film is set around Halloween. The Peterson house is decorated for the holiday, with a spooky scarecrow out front. A pumpkin carving scene takes place, as does the consumption of pumpkin pie. Paper skeletons and black cats put in appearance. The finale of the movie, set in a high school auditorium converted into a haunted attraction, is bathed in neon lights and a layer of smoke-machine fog. Styrofoam tombstones and rubber body parts decorate the area. Obviously, for a Halloween devotee and horror nerd like myself, such brilliant scenery is enough to make me love the movie even more. 

Ultimately, like “You're Next” before it, “The Guest” balances out its grim thrills and intense violence with sick humor. The early scenes, of David perfectly dismantling assholes with both his fists and cunning, obviously have a degree of humor to them. Especially when Luke takes David's encouragement to fight back to its natural inclusion. Yet, once David's truly homicidal side shows, “The Guest's” jokes gets darker and blacker. When forced to murder random bystanders, David almost seems annoyed and resigned to it. Scoring rolling grenades and an exploding diner to the sappy swell of Stevie B's “Because I Love You (The Postman Song)” is the ultimate black punchline to the movie's sense of humor.

“The Guest” wouldn't have worked nearly as well as it does if the perfect actor was not found for David. Luckily, Dan Stevens came along. Best known a the time for a supporting part on “Downton Abbey,” Stevens is completely controlled as David. This perfectly handsome man turns up the charm to its maximum level in all the early scenes. Of course a guy who looks this good and acts this kind is virtuous. Yet Stevens always hints at the hollowness inside David, the hidden truth that slowly comes out as the film goes on. His ability to turn on a dime from charming to murderous is impressive. Stevens even finds the room to suggest that David isn't even in control of his murderous impulses. It's a star-making performance. (And, God and the Queen willing, will insure that Stevens is our next James Bond.)

Stevens leads an accomplished cast. Maika Monroe has a unique energy as Anna, equally beguiled and suspicious of this visitor to her home. As displayed in “It Follows,” Monroe also makes the character a believable survivor too, as she fights back in the final act. Brendan Meyer has an amusing sad sack and awkward quality to Luke, an endearingly nerdy kid. Shelia Kelley definitely makes it clear that she is a mother broken by the lost of her child. Indie horror mainstay Joel David Moore, who somehow had never appeared in a Wingard movie before, also pops in as one of David's earlier victims. 

During that wonderfully Halloween atmosphere filled last third, one image on the school wall is of a distinctive skull, pumpkin, and witch mask. Any genre nerd will recognize these from “Halloween III.” This is just the most blatant John Carpenter shout-out in the movie. The score, composed entirely of pulsating synth, is obviously indebted to Carpenter. To further form the eighties atmosphere the movie is obviously striving for, “The Guest's” soundtrack is also filled top-to-bottom with classic goth and dark wave music. “A Day” by Clan of Xymox and “Anthonio” by Annie (which is not an eighties song but certainly sounds like one) are especially well-used.

“The Guest” received praise from critics and fans. It immediately became a beloved favorite among a certain breed of Carpenter-worshiping genre fan boy. This did not exactly mean box office success. The film failed to out-gross its budget in theaters. However, it's obvious the reception to “The Guest” considerably raised Wingard's profile, who started to receive far more high-profile projects after this. It might still be the director's best movie, a fantastically entertaining genre fusion that still rocks from beginning to end with an absolutely perfect lead performance. [Grade: A]