Adam Wingard has led a strange career in Hollywood. He's a big name now, largely thanks to his recent takeover of Legendary's Monsterverse franchise. Wingard directed Godzilla vs. Kong, a well-received kaiju offering enjoyed by fans and newcomers. Wingard's earlier career borrowed from beloved franchises without directly adapting them. Look to Wingard's The Guest, in which a super soldier comes to help a mourning family.
The dividing line between phases of Wingard's career is his collaboration with screenwriter Simon Barrett. Barrett wrote A Horrible Way to Die, You're Next, The Guest, and Blair Witch. Barrett was absent from Wingard's public execution of Death Note and Godzilla vs. Kong, but he'll return for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Wingard and Barrett are at their best when they're together, and though not all of their projects work, they're each arguably responsible for their finest work.
What is The Guest about?
The Petersons, a seemingly perfect nuclear family unit, mourn the loss of their oldest son Caleb who died in Afghanistan. Parents Spencer and Laura and children Luke and Anna each have ways of dealing with the loss, some healthier than others. One day, a handsome young man named David arrives at the Peterson family's front door. David explains that he was Caleb's closest friend while overseas. In his dying moments, Caleb insisted David track down his family and take care of them. David is immediately charming, polite, and comforting to Laura and Spencer. The presence of a man who can offer some closure, tell some stories of Caleb's time away and fill the hole left by Caleb's passing is addictive to the family. The Petersons invite David to stay with them, but something seems off about him.
Each member of the family has a problem. Anna, an independent teenager with a unique taste in music and dreams of skipping town, is the only one who doesn't immediately accept David. Spencer has trouble at work, Laura feels unfulfilled, and young Luke is dealing with bullies. David's advice and intervention swiftly turn violent as he devastates Luke's tormentors, gives him a knife, and teaches him how to do the same. David earns Anna's respect by attacking her friend's abusive ex-partner. When Spencer's boss dies unexpectedly, granting him a lucrative promotion, Anna gets suspicious. When David's cover starts to fade, the family falls apart, and the entire town threatens to become a warzone.
How did The Guest develop?
Simon Barrett has spoken at length about the inspiration behind The Guest. Barrett devised a similar idea in the late-2000s, before the release of A Horrible Way to Die. This iteration would have been darker and grittier, depicting David as Caleb's bitter enemy. David secretly killed Caleb and followed his victim home to kill his family. Barrett shelved the script, but Wingard would later become fascinated with the Implacable Man trope. Most notably, he was interested in his take on Halloween or The Terminator. Wingard wanted a superhuman threat that could unstoppably tear through the defenses of an unsuspecting small town. The idea reminded Barrett of his scrapped script, which he revised to become The Guest.
Wingard was extremely firm on casting Dan Stevens as David. Stevens was best known for his role as Matthew Crawley in Downton Abbey. Stevens wasn't well known in America at the time, but he's since become a worldwide sensation. Both Wingard and Barrett discovered that the difficulty in casting David was not making him intimidating but making the character likable enough to convince the audience that a family would let him in. Dan Stevens was the perfect choice for the role. His natural charisma and calm demeanor made him instantly iconic. Stevens has gone on to lead roles in series like Legionand films like Apostle. He'll work with Wingard and Barrett again in Godzilla x Kong.
How does The Guest end?
Fans hoping for a full explanation of David will be slightly disappointed. He's described as a failed experiment, seemingly the result of a government and corporate effort to create a super soldier. Anna calls David's military base and is informed that David is presumed dead. Her call alerts David's creators, who send a team of armed mercenaries after him. David immediately starts a murderous rampage to cover his tracks. He stabs Laura and kills Spencer with his car. David tracks down Anna and Luke, killing the mercenaries along the way. At Luke's school, Anna shoots David. Luke stabs David twice with the knife David gave him. As he seemingly fades away, David gives Luke a thumbs up, happy to see his student learn from his teachings. As Luke and Anna leave, they notice a firefighter limping. Anna notices that David has survived and is escaping in disguise.
The Guest is a strange film that borrows a bit from a lot of different sources. It's one of a kind but with familiar elements. Fans of the film will be thrilled to see Barrett and Wingard collaborate again, but they'll never make anything like The Guest with a franchise behind them. The Guest deserves more attention. Fans of either filmmaker's work should let The Guest into their home.