Go no further than The Guest to satisfy your Halloween movie urge. Conjuring up memories of 1980s tongue-in-cheek, winking and slashing classics, The Guest boasts a smart, fascinating Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) as a returning soldier who makes an unexpected house call to the parents of a comrade who died in action. The picture of polite, David Collins (Stevens) seems to add “yes ma’am” and “sir” to every conversation he has with Laura and Spencer Peterson, and before you can say “who is this guy?” David finds himself invited to stay over a a a houseguest. Teenage daughter Anna (Maika Monroe, who also stars in the forthcoming It Follows) seems to pick up unsavory vibes from David that her parents miss. Stevens is so good, a mere twitch or flick of the eyebrow instantly punctures his persona before he just as quickly returns to his unctuous, uber affable mask.
Fun scenes abound. When Anna’s brother Luke (Brendan Meyer) has some trouble with school bullies, David, who by this time has the job of picking him up after school, detours instead to a roadhouse bar that serves minors if they’re on the football team. After buying the obnoxious kids a round of drinks, David gives new meaning new to chalking up a pocket billiard cue-stick. When he tags along with Anna to a party, he also helps out when her girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend shows up uninvited and begins acting unsociable.
Always reverting right back to Mr. Polite after each swift act of violence, David is, of course, just getting warmed up. Monroe is especially effective as the one person in the household who has an idea things aren’t so peachy keen, yet her knowledge adds to her anxiety, as does her obvious attraction to Dan. Scenes between Stevens and Monroe are very well played. The shenanigans steadily straddle a sense of humor. Director Adam Wingard and screenwriter Simon Barrett know their stuff and have admiringly watched a whole lot of John Carpenter. Yet it is hard to imagine this film working as well as it does with someone besides Stevens in the lead. When he asks a friend of Luke’s to get him a gun, Dan is introduced to a woozy older guy with an arsenal of various weapons in the back of his truck. When Dan matter-of-factor says, “I’ll take them all,” we don’t doubt the scene one bit.
As The Guest escalates into overdrive, genre conventions are often duplicated but never burdensomely. Right down to the haunted house maze climax and the oh-not-this-again final scene, it’s hard not to root for The Guest when you’re having this much fun.