Adam Winguard's You're Next was one of the most unexpectedly brilliant movies of 2013, a comically self-aware genre flick snuck into cinemas as yet another generic home invasion horror. With his fascination with twisting conventions in a genre movie already made clear, there was no hope The Guest would prove as surprising - you knew what you were in for going in - but that doesn't stop it being a luridly enjoyable treat. Dan Stevens makes his boldest step away from Downton Abbey as David Collins, a mysterious man who turns up on a family's doorstep, claiming to have been a soldier with their recently deceased son. He's charming and affable, helping each of the family out in their lives. And, of course, things aren't as they seem. If that sounds like a been-there-done-that narrative device (like You're Next), that's because it is; Winguard's only using it as a backdrop to craft another movie oozing style. By the start of the third act it becomes clear that David's backstory is really rather unimportant to the film, the actions he commits once the secret's out taking prominence over what the secret actually is. Blood is spilled and the good guys slowly picked off, but this is far from your conventional thriller, mainly because The Guest has no interest in being that. There's the humour you'd expect from Winguard, particularly in a school meeting, while the final shot cements its '80's B-movie homaging.
