Anna's suspicions of David turn out to have plenty of merit given that David is a far more dangerous individual than he initially appears to be. David is the kind of guy who can take out a whole bar full of guys without cracking a sweat and that kind of ruthless power is eventually gonna lead to trouble. The trail to that trouble sees writer Simon Barrett navigating a whole bunch of homages to iconic movie genres all while making heavy use of dark humor. This is especially apparent in the character of David, who alternates between being a figure who could pass for a slasher movie villain and an action star pulled out of a John Woo movie.
The script itself is a well-crafted creation that doesn't use its most over-the-top moments as an excuse to short-thrift the audience on crucial character moments. Most notably, Barrett is especially good at conveying why the individual members of the family would each become so enamored with David. The Mom has a new surrogate replacement for Caleb, the Dad has somebody he can talk to, Luke has someone who can help him stand up to bullies. Through fleshing out the various relationships David forms with the assorted people in the Peterson family, you can buy why this family would let this stranger become so entangled into their lives, which makes the gradual reveal of who David actually is all the more intense to watch.
Director Adam Wingard's ability to deftly juggle an elastic tone with a sense of entertainment in the excellent horror/comedy You're Next proves to be a perfect fit for bringing this script to life. Wingard's direction carries a wicked sense of glee well-suited to this particular story and his strengths as a filmmaker in You're Next are put to especially good use in how he manages to have fun with the most off-beat moments in The Guest (nobody in history has unfurled a pocket knife while carving pumpkins like David does here) without diluting the sense of menace David is supposed to convey. The deft tonal balance seen in both the writing and directing is also reflected in perhaps the best part of The Guest, Dan Stevens lead performance.
As a number of choice performances by Chris Pine and Chris Evans have proven, it's always a hoot to watch conventionally handsome leading men sink their tooth into more gruesome roles. Dan Stevens in The Guest is a great example of this as he uses his movie star appearance and a believable portrayal of a polite young man to make it obvious why the Peterson family would trust him. But even before he goes full-blown John Wick, Stevens has moments where he just stares out into the abyss and he just makes you stand out on edge. There's clearly dangerous menace hiding under there and Stevens makes it peek through even when he's putting on the facade of just being a normal gentleman.
Juggling both of these parts of David's personality is one of the most impressive facets of Stevens exceptional role and his moments of isolated creepiness from Stevens are occasionally accompanied by Steve Moore's memorable electronic score. Though much of The Guest leans on pastiches of well-established genre norms, Moore's score is a heavily unique creation thanks to its use of electronic instruments (a departure from the type of music one would associate with the rural setting of The Guest) that lends its own distinct jolt of uneasiness to scenes depicting David Collins exacting his violent mayhem. Between this score, the tonally eclectic writing & direction and Dan Stevens just soaring in the lead role, The Guest is able to turn its genre homages into a one-of-a-kind and entertainingly unorthodox creation.
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