The Guest
Picturehouse | Release Date: September 17, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonSep 16, 2014
A transcendent comic chiller, when The Guest's characters are in peril we actually care, and Wingard respectfully makes the kills clean and quick. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleSep 17, 2014
It's Stevens, as the all-American cover-model mercenary both friendly and fatal, who gives The Guest its literally killer personality. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisSep 17, 2014
Mr. Stevens’s watchful restraint gives the early scenes a slow burn and a sinister glaze. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniOct 31, 2014
The filmmakers don't bother hammering home a backstory or explaining why David is crazy. They just throw us in the deep end and dazzle us with a series of violent encounters that ends with a deadly chase in a surreal fun house maze of mirrors. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Sep 17, 2014
Dumb fun is rarely this smartly delivered. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyKeith StaskiewiczSep 17, 2014
The coat of irony helps when the film takes a major pivot in tone, and Stevens is unnervingly placid as the corn-fed terminator. Read full review
80
SlateDana StevensSep 20, 2014
The Guest isn’t here to deliver an earnest social message about the state of veterans’ affairs. Instead, the way good horror movies do, it channels our collective fear, guilt, and rage by creating a monster. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 18, 2014
Wingard and screenwriter Simon Barrett last worked together on You're Next, a ferocious film that is also intelligent. They're even more successful here. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirSep 17, 2014
I enjoyed it from beginning to end, and if you've been lamenting the dearth of violent genre movies that don't assume the audience to be morons, you will too. Read full review
80
The DissolveScott TobiasSep 15, 2014
Wingard’s direction is a robust throwback to the VHS gorefests of yore, but with a distinctly more modern slickness and snap, and he knows how to play around with the audience. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonGuy LodgeSep 10, 2014
The Guest is not new, exactly, but Wingard knows just which buttons to push, and he pushes them with gusto. Stevens, meanwhile, has never been better. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatt GlasbySep 10, 2014
Cool as you like one second, camp as Christmas the next, this entertainingly overpumped action-horror will have genre fans (and their mums) grinning from ear to ear. Read full review
80
CineVueBen NicholsonSep 9, 2014
Stevens is excellent both as the cordial house guest and the brooding time- bomb ever present beneath his earnest veneer. Read full review
80
EmpireDavid HughesSep 1, 2014
Mainstream audiences may find this too oddball to appreciate as a straight thriller. But tune into its strange frequency and there is much to enjoy — perhaps even adore. Read full review
80
VarietyDennis HarveyJun 27, 2014
The Guest is blood-soaked action trash of a high grade. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovSep 24, 2014
With The Guest, Wingard and Barrett have once more upped the ante for the indie horror flick pack. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Robert Everett-GreenOct 16, 2014
A film as lithe and seductive as its lethal main character. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversSep 18, 2014
It's hellish good fun. Stevens is mesmerizing as the avenger, helping director Adam Wingard turn The Guest into a blast of wicked mirth and malice. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleySep 18, 2014
The Guest takes its time revealing what is really going on, and has a lot of fun in that slow reveal process. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedSep 17, 2014
Turns out to be more suspenseful and keenly plotted than most, with a compelling centerpiece performance by Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) that deserves attention. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezSep 13, 2014
David's perversity as a character is mostly disarming for how it illuminates the sadness with which a foe can so readily be confused for a savior. Read full review
75
The PlaylistCory EverettJun 27, 2014
The ensemble is perfectly cast (a rarity for this genre) which helps to make the first half a delightful slow burn instead of a check-your-watch-until-the-carnage-starts. Read full review
72
Film.comKate ErblandSep 17, 2014
A truly entertaining and dizzyingly wild horror film. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriSep 18, 2014
Wingard is also clearly enamored of the synthesized soundtracks of Giallo and John Carpenter films, and here, he turns that into a whole thing, too: A mix Anna makes for David becomes a plot point, giving the director an excuse to practically drench his scenes in dreamy electronica. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJustin LoweJun 27, 2014
Genre comparisons aside, the expert timing and clever setups that were exhilaratingly employed in You’re Next are mostly absent here... Fortunately Barrett and Wingard haven’t lost their ironically humorous touch, as most of the film’s uneasy laughs revolve around upending typical thriller expectations. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsSep 18, 2014
When the secrets of David's circumstances and motives start spilling into the daylight along with more and more blood, The Guest does a strange thing. It becomes flat-footed and a bit dull. Read full review
60
The GuardianAnna SmithSep 10, 2014
It all escalates into an arch, knowing throwback to 80s horror-thrillers that's muddled in parts but never less than entertaining. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeySep 4, 2014
Wingard has the technique to pull this homage off, and the sense to build unease from somewhere in the core of America’s psyche. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 9, 2014
Until it becomes completely demented, The Guest is a perfectly respectable thriller, and even when it stops being respectable — even when it goes off the rails and becomes ridiculous — it’s still entertaining. Read full review
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