Ever watch a good film… but it leaves you feeling like you, I dunno, missed something?
That’s how I felt after I finished watching “The Guest” a week or two ago.
It was a brilliant thriller – especially for one of those movies that didn’t seem to be highly promoted. The the lead actor, Dan Stevens, plays his role of psychopathic secret-soldier-government-experiment-gone-wrong almost too well and the overall ambient mood of the experience is like Donnie Darko meets Bourne Identity. The gist of it is that this guy, trying to escape the people who’d made the monster, has sought temporary refuge in the home of his fallen comrade’s family. All they know is that the two of them were army pals (and they could confirm this because there was a picture on their mantle of the two of them together at war). But, obviously, he’s trained to kill and put the hurt on people, so it’s not too long before the sister starts to get suspicious, go snooping, and recruit her brother to do the same – even though he has an affinity and loyalty to this new guy (for kicking the asses of his bullies). Also, it’s not long before dead bodies start to accrue, compliments of the new house guest who enjoys making this face during his nocturnal free time instead of, ya know, sleeping:
So, cut to the scene where the brother admits to David (that’s the name he goes by) what his sister suspects – that that’s not his real name but a stolen ID, and that the reason his burner phone is from a plastic surgeon is because he paid that guy to rearrange his mug Cage-Travolta-swap style. The sudden look on the house guest’s aforementioned recently purchased face (not a far cry from his “sleep” face above) is a pretty good indication that the kids weren’t far off. Then, we fast forward to the end of the movie – the government’s come in, Not-David has killed off the fleet of forces single-handedly, and the whole family’s dead except the two kids. They’ve escaped the building burning after stabbing and killing him – or so they think, until the girl sees his familiar limping gait wandering out in a fireman’s gear. Surprise, surprise – he’s not really dead. And what bothered me was how this ending was almost kinda campy – yet I adored the movie.
Why, though?
What it how hot Dan Stevens is?
The 80’s soundtrack that sounded like The Smiths meets The Suicide Girls’ background tunes?
My admitted affinity for hand-to-hand violence?
No – I finally realized the other day that it was this connection my subconscious was making without me actually processing it on an intelligible, communicable level. And that’s this: if homie had his face wiped to look like the guy in the picture, he could have been anyone before he got the front’a his head reformatted, right? So what if it was… (wait for it)… the dead brother? He didn’t actually die, but that’s just the news they got when he won the psycho-soldier-experiment jackpot held by the gov’ment? Suddenly that makes everything else (which a true psychopath wouldn’t do that this character did) a little less eye-rolly. Like protecting the family members and sticking up for the kids; it’s as if whatever was left of his human connection or memories may have been bubbling beneath the surface. And it was only really overcome and canceled out when – as the agent said – his programming kicked in and his identity was threatened. This idea also works well to combat another eye-roll point: when the agent dude is explaining to the daughter who he is. Really? A top secret government project and you’re gonna give some kid the deets? Doubt it. He was doing what the government always does with us – intentionally misinforming her to keep her focus away from the fact that: this is your brother. We’ve warped his brain. And now we need you to help us murder him.
I highly suggest everyone go see this so you can come back ‘n tell me how right I am.