Netflix pick for 1/25/16 – ‘The Guest’

As heard in episode 159 of Cinema Crespodiso.

“The Guest” has been around for a minute now, here is my initial review from October 2014, so we can be a little less spoilerphobic this time. But suffice to say, if you still haven’t seen this movie, just stop what you are doing and see it already.

Because this is a fun slasher movie meets an action film, a clever and surprisingly well done genre mash up, a story that posits “what if the unstoppable bad guy was actually a government trained killer gone rogue? What if Michael Myers was really Jason Bourne?”

The slasher stuff comes from the obvious love of John Carpenter movies evident throughout “The Guest,” from the top on down, from the font used for the credits and to the electronic score to the copious amounts of jack o lanterns littered throughout, this in many ways is an homage movie to the horror classics of the late 70s and 80s.  There is also a pretty chill soundtrack in terms of music picked out to play in the movie, lots of cool European industrial and rock, all of it used really well, it’ just dope.

David, played by this Dan Stevens fella from “Downton Abbey,” is a bit complicated for a typical movie slasher villain. Instead of stalking people from far away, he ingratiates himself with a family, and seemingly for very noble reasons. He says he wants to help them and make sure everything is fine and he sets out to do just that. He’s quite well meaning. But his way of making things better isn’t exactly legal or moral, but when we find out that he’s been all brainwashed and programmed by some secret government project, how can he really be blamed for his conditioning kicking in and taking over? Which then makes his possible so close but not quite romance with Anna tragic and sad. They had a thing between the two of them, he seemed nice, and then it turned really bad really fast. Also this is the first of a very strong one-two punch from Maika Monroe, as she killed it in this as well as in last year’s totally stellar “It Follows.”  Do THAT double feature, not a bad way to spend three hours if you ask me.

Get started by watching “The Guest” on the Netflix instant right here.