The Guest (dir: Adam Wingard) Review (1 Viewer)

Before you can say "Hell in a hand basket", the town is descended upon by military men — the kind who tote semi-automatic rifles, wear sunglasses at night and drive around in black SUVs, looking like they've just stepped off the set of a Michael Bay film — and David has gone from helpful houseguest to homicidal maniac. This is also where Lance Reddick (best known to TV fans for his roles on The Wire and Fringe) shows up to chew the scenery as Major Carver, a G-Man charged with bringing David into custody and rescuing the Petersons from his psychopathic warpath.

And it's at that point that the film undergoes an abrupt transformation of its own, morphing from a suspenseful, slow-burn thriller into a bloody, balls-to-the-wall genre joyride.

The final act unfurls like a mash-up of genre favorites and cult classics, with Wingard and Barrett both winking at and drawing inspiration from movies like The Terminator, Halloween, Universal Soldier and even something as recent as The Bourne Identity. The insanity of the finale alone — set in a high school haunted-house-themed maze, replete with deranged laughter and a hallway of mirrors (à la Enter the Dragon) — is worth the price of admission.

But it's Stevens — with a performance that channels the likes of Paul Walker and Jim Caviezel — that is the film's biggest and best surprise. The formerly prim-and-proper Downton Abbey star is a revelation in the title role, conjuring up laid-back charisma one moment and stone-cold, maniacal intensity the next (all while sporting a dead-on American accent). Likewise, Monroe impresses with her feisty turn, coming across as something akin to Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese both rolled into one.

The other characters aren't nearly as memorable (though it's always a welcome surprise whenever Orser pops up in a film), but they mainly serve as fodder for David and his devilish ways anyway. Then again, it's probably better that way, because the film is definitely at its best when David is behaving his worst.

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