---
title: "The Guest"
year: 2014
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-guest"
fi1m_id: "the-guest"
imdb_id: "tt2980592"
tmdb_id: 241848
wikidata_id: "Q16250945"
fi1m_score: 77
critics_score: 73
critics_reviews: 23
published: "2026-10-07T04:22:41.615644+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-07T04:22:54.410401+00:00"
region: "KR"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# The Guest (2014)

Directed by Adam Wingard · 1h 41m · KMRB 19 · Mystery, Thriller, Action

## Identity

The Guest

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-guest
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** the-guest
- **IMDb ID:** tt2980592
- **TMDB ID:** 241848
- **Wikidata ID:** Q16250945
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2980592/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/241848, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16250945

**Fi1m score: 77** · Critics 73 from 23 reviews

*In a sentence:* The nicest young man in the world comes to stay, and the synths disagree

> Adam Wingard’s thriller about a soldier who turns up on a grieving family’s doorstep is sleek, funny and knowingly nasty, and Dan Stevens is the whole show. The last half hour gets louder as it gets sillier, but the fun is real.

## Synopsis

In a small American town a few weeks before Halloween, the Petersons are still grieving a son. His mother, Laura (Sheila Kelley), opens the door to a polite young soldier called David (Dan Stevens), who says he served with the boy and promised to look in on the family. She asks him in for coffee and he is still there at dinner. Father Spencer (Leland Orser) finds a drinking partner. Younger son Luke (Brendan Meyer) is being bullied at school and finds a protector. Daughter Anna (Maika Monroe), who waits tables and goes out with Zeke (Chase Williamson), who deals, is the only one who asks where David came from, and starts making calls to find out. Her family, who like him, would rather she did not.

## Review

Adam Wingard’s *The Guest* starts the way a hundred thrillers have started. A young man knocks at the door of a family that has lost a son, says he served with the boy and promised to look in on them, and is asked to stay the night. His name is David, he is played by Dan Stevens, and within a day he is doing the washing-up and the mother has made up the spare room. Wingard and his writer Simon Barrett know exactly which film you think you are watching, and for 101 minutes they play on that. It is a sleek, funny and properly nasty piece of work, and it belongs to Stevens from the first smile.

Stevens, until then best known for a stately home drama on television, plays David as a man who has learned his manners from a manual and learned them well. He says ma’am and sir, holds eye contact a beat too long, and keeps his body still while everyone around him fidgets. The trick of the performance is that the charm is not fake; it is simply attached to nothing. Whenever a question lands that he ought to have to think about, Stevens lets the smile arrive a fraction after the answer. That fraction is where the film lives.

The family is drawn quickly and well. Leland Orser’s Spencer is a tired man; David gets a few beers into him and he is talking like a man with a friend. Brendan Meyer’s Luke is being pushed around at school, and the scene in which David deals with the boys responsible is where we noticed what the film was doing to us. We were cheering. Then we caught ourselves, because what we were cheering was a grown man hurting a teenager, and Wingard had shot it so that we would. Maika Monroe’s Anna is the one who does not fall for it, a waitress with a boyfriend who deals (Chase Williamson’s Zeke) and the only person in the house who thinks to make a phone call.

Robby Baumgartner shoots the Peterson house in warm lamplight, paper pumpkins and skeletons taped to the walls, and saves the hard reds and blues for later, so the film cools as David warms up. Tom Hammock keeps the house small and lived-in and builds the finale’s setting, a school haunted house of fog and plywood corridors, as a place that is all surface, which suits the film. Steve Moore’s synthesiser score is the other lead performance, a slow, thick pulse under the dinner scenes and a sprint when the knives come out, mixed loud enough that you can feel the film grinning. Wingard cuts it himself, and he cuts tight; hardly a scene outlasts the point it is making.

The trouble is what happens when the film has to say who David is. Lance Reddick arrives in the second half as Major Carver with a column of men and an explanation, and the explanation is thin and would not survive a second question. From there the film becomes an action picture, a competent one, but louder and dumber than the first hour promised. The jokes keep landing, which is some compensation, but Anna’s friends are there to be dealt with rather than to be people, and the body count rises faster than our interest in it. By the final maze we were enjoying ourselves a little less: the film had stopped asking us to wonder about David and started asking us to watch him shoot.

Set beside Wingard and Barrett’s *You’re Next*, which gave a home-invasion film a heroine with a plan, this is the more confident object and the shallower one. The most sceptical of the reviews so far call it empty, and that is not wrong. It is also not quite the point. Barrett is not writing a metaphor; he is writing a cover version of a 1980s thriller with the colours turned up, and on those terms it is close to faultless until the last reel.

See it with someone who likes a thriller that knows what it is doing and will laugh when it winks. It runs 101 minutes, carries a 15, and has a soundtrack you will still be humming on your way to check the back door is locked.

*Fi1m score 77, published 7 October 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics enjoy The Guest, and they agree on why. Nearly every review singles out Dan Stevens as the mysterious soldier: charming, controlled and quietly wrong, a long way from his respectable image, and the thing that holds the film’s mix of tones together. The other recurring pleasure is the debt to 1980s genre cinema, John Carpenter in particular, and the synth score that goes with it. Dark comedy, pulpy violence and knowing pastiche are the words that keep coming up.

The reservations cluster around the final act. Several otherwise warm reviews find the climax runs too long, loses its logic or lands as an afterthought. The spread is narrow, with only a handful of dissenters: Little White Lies calls it a hollow mash-up with thin characters, Vulture finds the twists predictable and poorly handled, and The Hollywood Reporter says the tension falters. Maika Monroe gets less attention than she might, though Digital Spy makes her the film’s emotional centre.

## Straight answers

**Is The Guest worth watching?**

*The Guest* is worth watching for anyone who likes a thriller that knows what it is doing and winks while it does it, and we scored it 77. Dan Stevens is the whole show as the polite soldier who will not leave. The last half hour turns into a louder, sillier action picture, but the first hour is close to faultless.

**How long is The Guest, and what is it rated?**

*The Guest* runs 1h 41m and is rated 19 by the KMRB in South Korea. It is a mystery and thriller film.

**Where can I watch The Guest in South Korea?**

*The Guest* is not on any streaming or rental service in South Korea at the moment. It is available in 27 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is The Guest, and is it suitable for children?**

*The Guest* carries a 15 in the UK and an R in the US, and it is not for children. The violence starts with a grown man beating up teenage bullies and ends with knives, guns and a rising body count. It is more nasty than frightening, and the squeamish will find the finale a long one.

**How does The Guest compare to Shadow of a Doubt?**

*The Guest* is the louder, bloodier cousin of [*Shadow of a Doubt*](https://film.one/film/shadow-of-a-doubt), and the older film is the better one. Both put a charming stranger in a welcoming home and leave the daughter to look closely, but Hitchcock makes the danger intimate while Wingard turns it into a synth-scored action picture. Pick Hitchcock for suspense, *The Guest* for fun.

**What should I watch after The Guest?**

After *The Guest*, try [*Shadow of a Doubt*](https://film.one/film/shadow-of-a-doubt) (1943, Fi1m 88): Hitchcock’s charming uncle comes to stay; the niece is the only one who looks closely. Then [*It Follows*](https://film.one/film/it-follows) (2014, Fi1m 84): Maika Monroe again, another synth score, and a threat that walks slowly and never stops.

### Reviews we read (23)

- **Los Angeles Times**, Robert Abele (90/100, inferred): Abele finds the thriller a tough, fun homage to 1980s genre cinema, with cheeky craft and potent thrills. He especially praises Dan Stevens’ mesmerizing, psychotically charming performance as the mysterious soldier. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-guest-movie-review-20140917-story.html)
- **The AV Club**, A.A. Dowd (B+): Dowd finds the film wickedly entertaining, praising its blend of ruthless action, dark comedy, and genre pastiche. Dan Stevens is singled out for making David an indelible villain who holds the mix of tones together. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/the-guest-expertly-blends-everything-from-the-terminato-1798181321)
- **Radio Times**, Damon Wise (4/5): The critic regards the film as a tense throwback thriller. He singles out its pulpy 1980s influences and Dan Stevens’s departure from his respectable image. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-yygdxs/the-guest/)
- **Time Out**, Guy Lodge (4/5): The visible description suggests a qualified view of the film’s marketing hook. It singles out Dan Stevens’s casting as the angle under discussion. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-guest)
- **Total Film**, Matt Glasby (4/5): Glasby finds the film an entertaining, over-the-top action-horror, though its third act lasts too long. He particularly praises the performances, sharp dialogue, humor, and pulsing synth score. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/the-guest-review/)
- **IndieWire**, Cory Everett (B): The critic calls the film a fast-paced, entertaining genre throwback, despite a weaker, illogical third act. They praise Dan Stevens’s magnetic performance and the film’s Carpenter-inspired synth score. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/culture/review-adam-wingards-the-guest-starring-dan-stevens-is-a-damn-good-time-272228/)
- **Empire**, David Hughes (75/100, inferred): Hughes finds the film an unusually clever, entertaining thriller that rewards viewers who tune into its oddball tone. He particularly praises Dan Stevens’ mesmerising performance and the film’s well-judged music score. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/guest-review/)
- **Evening Standard**, Charlotte O'Sullivan (75/100, inferred): O'Sullivan finds the film compelling and playfully unsettling, though its twists keep the viewer unsure whose side to take. She singles out Dan Stevens's intelligence and charisma as crucial to its success. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/the-guest-film-review-dan-stevens-is-crucial-to-the-films-success-9713574.html)
- **Slant Magazine**, Ed Gonzalez (3/4): Gonzalez finds the film a stylish, entertaining piece of pulp, though it lacks depth and its finale feels like an afterthought. He praises Wingard’s audiovisual flair, especially the way the soundtrack is synchronized with the characters’ shifting emotions. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-guest/)
- **Variety**, Dennis Harvey (75/100, inferred): Harvey calls the film a giddily violent, high-grade treat for genre fans, though its climax and final twist disappoint. He especially praises Dan Stevens’s performance and the film’s cheesy synth-driven grindhouse style. [Read](https://variety.com/2014/film/markets-festivals/sundance-film-review-the-guest-1201065179/)
- **The Guardian**, Anna Smith (70/100, inferred): Smith finds the film muddled at times but consistently entertaining. She praises its gleeful, knowing throwback to 1980s horror-thrillers. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/sep/04/the-guest-review-dan-stevens)
- **RogerEbert.com** (64/100, inferred): The URL identifies a review of the specified film, but the page content is unavailable. The browser verification screen provides no critic verdict or praise to summarize. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-guest-2014)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Justin Lowe (45/100, inferred): Lowe finds the thriller mixed, with tension that falters and plot strands that feel underdeveloped. He praises Wingard’s controlled visual direction and the filmmakers’ ironic humor. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/guest-sundance-review-672275/)
- **Little White Lies**, David Jenkins (4/2/2): Jenkins finds the film an underwhelming, hollow genre mash-up that squanders its potential. He criticizes its thin characters and lack of meaningful metaphor, despite the intriguing setup. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/the-guest)
- **Vulture**, Bilge Ebiri (40/100, inferred): Ebiri finds the film entertaining in stretches but ultimately undermined by predictable plotting and poorly executed twists. He praises Dan Stevens’s compellingly insincere performance and the film’s atmospheric aesthetic, especially its Halloween-tunnel setpiece and synth-heavy soundtrack. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2014/09/movie-review-the-guest.html)
- **Consequence**, Randall Colburn (90/100, inferred): Colburn gives the film a strongly positive verdict, calling it a genre masterpiece. He particularly praises Dan Stevens’s disciplined, nuanced performance and the film’s deft balance of nostalgic influences with a modern feel. [Read](https://consequence.net/2014/09/film-review-the-guest/)
- **Digital Spy**, Ben Rawson-Jones (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the film a hugely enjoyable, gripping thriller with strong cult-classic potential. Maika Monroe is singled out for bringing emotional depth and empathy to the story. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a593895/the-guest-review-a-hugely-entertaining-and-gripping-thriller/)
- **Eye for Film**, Owen Van Spall (90/100, inferred): The critic finds the film slick, tense, funny and technically sharp, and says Frightfest chose its launch film well. He particularly praises Dan Stevens’s charismatic performance and the inventive, tightly staged action sequences. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-guest-2014-film-review-by-owen-van-spall)
- **Collider**, Matt Goldberg (B+): Goldberg finds the film an entertaining, gleefully dark Carpenter-style thriller, though its later shift in tone becomes too dark and silly. He singles out Dan Stevens’s charismatic, carefully balanced performance as the film’s greatest strength. [Read](https://collider.com/the-guest-review/)
- **Den of Geek**, Don Kaye (4/5): The critic calls the film fun, entertaining, smart, and Wingard and Barrett’s most accomplished effort yet. He especially praises Dan Stevens’s performance and the well-crafted relationships that keep the familiar thriller gripping. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-guest-review/)
- **/Film**, Germain Lussier (8 out of 10): The critic finds the film fresh, fun, and highly entertaining despite a brief loss of playful momentum. They praise its tight script and editing, along with Steve Moore’s catchy synthesizer score. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/529949/the-guest-is-a-fun-80s-throwback-with-sci-fi-and-stalker-sprinkles-on-top-sundance-14-review/)
- **NME** (75/100, inferred): The review is enthusiastic, though it finds the film’s knowing archness occasionally too forced. It especially praises Dan Stevens’s performance and the film’s playful, inventive use of horror conventions. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/reviews-various-artists-15605-325427)
- **The Skinny**, Chris Fyvie (★★★): Fyvie calls it a slight but highly entertaining ride. He praises Dan Stevens’s wry performance and the film’s cheeky wit. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/the-guest)

## Details

- **Director:** Adam Wingard
- **Director:** Adam Wingard
- **Writer:** Simon Barrett
- **Cinematography:** Robby Baumgartner
- **Editor:** Adam Wingard
- **Music:** Steve Moore
- **Production design:** Tom Hammock
- **Producer:** Keith Calder, Jessica Wu
- **Cast:** Dan Stevens as 'David'; Maika Monroe as Anna Peterson; Leland Orser as Spencer Peterson; Sheila Kelley as Laura Peterson; Brendan Meyer as Luke Peterson; Chase Williamson as Zeke; Ethan Embry as Higgins; Joel David Moore as Craig
- **Runtime:** 1h 41m
- **Certificate (KMRB):** 19
- **Release (South Korea):** 25 September 2015
- **Genres:** Mystery, Thriller, Action
- **Budget:** $5 million
- **Box office:** $3 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tyL6OzBMt8

## Where to watch in South Korea

Not streaming, renting or buying in South Korea at the last check.

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, CA, CH, CL, CO, DE, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, IE, IT, JP, LT, MX, NL, NZ, PA, PL, SE, UA, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *You're Next* (2011): Wingard and Barrett’s earlier home invasion, with a heroine who fights back and means it.
- *Shadow of a Doubt* (1943), Fi1m 88: Hitchcock’s charming uncle comes to stay; the niece is the only one who looks closely. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/shadow-of-a-doubt.md)
- *The Stepfather* (1987): Terry O’Quinn as the perfect new dad; the 1980s original this one is quoting from.
- *It Follows* (2014), Fi1m 84: Maika Monroe again, another synth score, and a threat that walks slowly and never stops. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/it-follows.md)
- *Teorema* (1968): Pasolini’s stranger seduces an entire Milanese household; the same shape, far fewer shotguns.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-guest