The Guest

Downton Abbey's Dan Stevens breaks out of dowdy costume drama mode in loud and violent style with this tense throwback thriller that directly references the pulpy, electronic-scored B-movies of the 1980s (most notably Rutger Hauer vehicle The Hitcher). Stevens stars as David, a discharged soldier who turns up at the family home of Caleb, an army friend who was killed in action. The family take him in, and David conducts himself with charm and grace. But in a series of altercations, the buff and seemingly humble farm boy reveals a sinister side to his nature, causing Caleb's sister Anna (Maika Monroe) to start having doubts about him. The body count quickly escalates, and the second half of the film seems to conflate the action of all four Bourne movies into one. But Stevens is a charismatic antihero and the film plays expertly with genre expectations, leading to an inspired showdown in a haunted house prepared for a high-school dance.