The Guest

Year: 2014
Genre: Action thriller
Director: Adam Wingard


Plot: A soldier claiming to be a friend of a member of a family who was killed in action during their tour, moves into their home and becomes part of the family. However, he's not quite who he claims to be.


The gist: This film actually had potential, though the plot isn't anything we haven't seen before. The story of a stranger who seems too good to be true has been done countless times before.

The story begins with a man named David, who visits the Peterson home one day and claims to be a friend of the recently deceased Caleb Peterson, and offers to help them any way they can. Soon David becomes real helpful as we'd expect: he helps beat up a gang of bullies picking on Caleb's little brother, he connects with Caleb's rebellious sister and even helps around the house too. But he's not really who they think he is, and bad things start to happen.

I enjoyed Adam Wingard's You're Next but hated A Horrible Way To Die, and for me The Guest is somewhere in between. The action and violence is very welcome but a huge amount of suspension of disbelief is required to survive the second half of the film when things start to unravel.


The good: Dan Stevens is spot on as David, being a really charming guy who seems to know how to handle any situation he gets mixed up in. Maika Monroe is great eye candy and more as Caleb's sister Anna. The scene where David beats up the bullies is my favorite part, even more than the wanton violence that comes later.

The bad: Like I said, suspension of disbelief is required in the second half, when David has to fight back when the truth is exposed. There's a special ops team involved, and God help me, I don't know why they went down the way they did. It's almost comedic in an unintentional way. My other issue is how the family, especially the parents, just trust David so easily. And David himself just keeps blowing people away, and I know they explained this part, but it sounded like a lame excuse for more carnage.


Verdict: It's decent entertainment at best. If you don't mind absence of logic, go right ahead and give The Guest a shot. (6/10)