10 Breakthrough Performances From 2014's Rising Movie Stars

5. Dan Stevens - The Guest

After shaking the home invasion horror sub-genre on its head with the playfully subversive You're Next, Adam Wingard returned to play with genre conventions again this year directing The Guest, a movie which seems to love 80s music just as much as it does the best horror from the decade. The unexpected arrival of a soldier at a family's house sets off a bloody chain of events that turns a small town upside down, but if this curt synopsis sounds like a recipe for cliches the result in Wingard's hands is rather different. The guest in question - a former colleague of the family's deceased eldest sibling - is an altogether different kind of sociopath, far keener to help the family through their troubles than he is with picking them off one at a time. At least, that's how he comes across in the beginning... Dan Stevens - best known until this year for his part in Downton Abbey - pulls of the challenge of blending an affable, charming demeanour with an undercurrent of menace and keeps the audience suspicious of his motives until the action starts to kick into gear. With the right roles it could be the beginning of a successful career in movies.