THE GUEST (2014)

CLOSURE

USA. Direction: Adam Wingard. Production: Keith Calder, Jessica Calder / Snoot Entertainment, HanWay Films. Screenplay: Simon Barrett. Photography: Robby Baumgartner. Music: Stephen Moore. Edition: Adam Wingard. Cast: Dan Stevens, Maika Monroe, Brendan Meyer, Sheila Kelley, Leland Orser, Lance Reddick. Running time: 99 min

LANGUAGE: English / SUBTITLES: Spanish

Adam Wingard, one of our lowest lying friends in the different collections of magnificent incunables of fear such as VHS and ABCs of Death, and his sidekick Simon Barrett, both guilty of making You’re Next (2011), try to dupe us with this film about a soldier returning from the front after his company is wiped out in combat. Variety defined it as “A willfully over-the-top, giddily violent exercise for genre fans” (just like us, obviously). Diabolical, entertaining, eighties style and well written, it treats us to the exquisite and unhealthy pleasure of observing how chaos slips into (and settles) in the life of an almost traditional and bereaving family. Watch out for succulent scenes like the one where they prepare the pumpkins for Halloween or the lesson on how to wipe arrogant guys at high school off the map...