



You’re Next, returns to the screen with The Guest. A family is grieving when mysterious David (Dan Stevens) appears on their doorstep claiming to be a friend of their son who died fighting in the Middle East. Sporting charisma, impeccable manners and an unquenchable desire to help the small family, David appears from the outset to be a miraculous Samaritan, but as questions about his past are raised, things begin to take a darker turn. Adam Wingard, director of last year’s absolutely terrific slasher, returns to the screen with. A family is grieving when mysterious David (Dan Stevens) appears on their doorstep claiming to be a friend of their son who died fighting in the Middle East. Sporting charisma, impeccable manners and an unquenchable desire to help the small family, David appears from the outset to be a miraculous Samaritan, but as questions about his past are raised, things begin to take a darker turn.





The Guest – and indeed You’re Next – is understanding the dark and ridiculous sense of humour with which it handles itself, and boy does it return with a bite in the final act. The script is sharp and funny, and any film which can make an audience of horror-phobic students burst out laughing as someone is brutally murdered has to be doing something right. Deny it as they might, I’m willing to bet that 100% of the audience I saw the film with laughed like hyenas consistently throughout the bloodshed. The key to enjoying– and indeed– is understanding the dark and ridiculous sense of humour with which it handles itself, and boy does it return with a bite in the final act. The script is sharp and funny, and any film which can make an audience of horror-phobic students burst out laughing as someone is brutally murdered has to be doing something right. Deny it as they might, I’m willing to bet that 100% of the audience I saw the film with laughed like hyenas consistently throughout the bloodshed.









Dan Stevens is absolutely brilliant in the central role, and despite the charisma and the charm exhibited at first, you know from the start that something very wrong is going on beneath the surface and it’s the tension and excitement of waiting for things to go wrong that makes his performance so enjoyable. Leland Orser as the alcoholic father with the dead-end job is one of the funniest things in the film, Maika Monroe and Brendan Meyer as the brother and sister duo put in fine performances, and in fact the majority of the supporting cast bounce off Stevens incredibly well.





The Hitcher and The Evil Dead. The movie is shot in a gorgeously stylish manner, the palette seeping with neon glows and pitch black shadows working in fantastic tandem. Visually, this prevents the film from looking too much like a thriller that takes itself too seriously, enhancing the comedic tone despite the suspenseful set-pieces that pop up every now and then. A massively enjoyable synth-heavy score does nothing to lessen the 1980’s B-movie sensibility but that is exactly what Wingard is aiming for, down to the font used for the opening titles which brings to mind titles likeand





Though deliberately slow and some might argue self-indulgent towards the beginning, the story holds out on the twists and turns for the final twenty minutes, with an ending that works incredibly well: Wingard has the audience exactly where he wants them and knows exactly how to play them, the divided audience reaction of outraged ‘No way!’ on the one side and hysterical laughter on the other proving that to a tee. Upon leaving the screening, it was really refreshing to hear so much animated discussion, to see so many gobsmacked faces which made me feel completely justified in my enjoyment of the film.





The Guest is a shed-load of fun; a stripped-down, smart, punchy psychological thriller that wears it’s ridiculously stylish B-movie colours proudly. There’ll be a part of you that feels immensely guilty for laughing with it, but that’s why it works so well. I cannot remember emerging from the cinema with such a large yet slightly ashamed grin on my face for quite some time and unless something truly startling emerges between now and December, I’d feel quite comfortable calling it my film of the year. is a shed-load of fun; a stripped-down, smart, punchy psychological thriller that wears it’s ridiculously stylish B-movie colours proudly. There’ll be a part of you that feels immensely guilty for laughing with it, but that’s why it works so well. I cannot remember emerging from the cinema with such a large yet slightly ashamed grin on my face for quite some time and unless something truly startling emerges between now and December, I’d feel quite comfortable calling it my film of the year.



