The Guest (2014)

Until recently I never really connected guys like Adam Wingard and his other film-maker buddies - Ti West, Joe Swanberg and whatever others, with the "mumblecore movement". I guess it's mainly due to the fact that I had never even heard of these types of films before, but I looked up some info and apparently it's a subgenre consisting of pretentious, angsty, micro-budget hipster romance comedy-dramas that typically feature improvised, depressive performances. In other words: bullshit. So I guess the "cool" thing now amongst these guys is incorporating some of the "mumblecore" characteristics into their multi-faceted 'horror-thriller' flicks. Generally, looking back, these types of films have been relatively hit-and-miss with me, thus far, but "The Guest" turned out to be a pretty generic and over-rated film.

A soldier, presumably on his way home, unexpectedly arrives at the home of one of his fallen unit members. The dead serviceman's family offers to let the man stay with them and soon enough the guest becomes more and more involved in the lives of the family - dealing with the teenage son's bullying issues, the 20-year old sister's social life and the father's work life... Of course, shit begins to spiral out of control when some 'red flags' go up and a deeper look into the visitor's history reveals some potential threats...

I'd say, while it's very reminiscent of quite a few other movies - namely, Takashi Miike's "Visitor Q" and "Hesher" (which was, in itself, a knock-off of the aforementioned film...), "The Guest" is a watchable enough flick. A little heavy on the 'quirkiness' than I would typically prefer (namely, a bar fight scene that seems to go on a bit too long...), but that's the idiosyncratic "mumblecore" influence rearing it's ugly, genre-contrasting head. Overall, it's a pretty standard type of mainstream'thriller' that's an easy watch if you're in a somewhat easy-going mood, but don't expect anything crazy.