The Guest is a slick genre effort

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      Starring Dan Stevens. Rating unavailable.

      England’s Dan Stevens shakes the dust off his Downton Abbey boots in The Guest. In fact, this slick genre effort finds prim Matthew swapping his tweeds for khaki T-shirts and jeans as a stranger called David, fresh out of an army unit that fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

      At least that’s what he says on the doorstep of the Petersons, a New Mexico family grieving the death of a son who was in that unit. Mom (Gossip Girl’s Sheila Kelley) is having a permanent meltdown, while dad (Leland Orser, of the Taken movies) drinks too much and worries about downsizing. Moody younger boy Luke (Canadian Brendan Meyer) is bullied at school and sister Anna (cast standout Maika Monroe, last seen in Labor Day) works at a diner and hangs with hapless stoner pals.

      Passing through town to pay his respects, the stranger initially seems a saving-grace surrogate; he’s a kickass older brother for Luke, and for big sis—well, check out those abs! After us, however, Anna’s the first to suspect that Mr. Handsome might be a little too perfect. The army confirms that a soldier by his name died while overseas, and did she really overhear him calling a plastic surgeon? Soon, an elite team is tracking David’s moves, but they must have missed the memo about not going after scientifically enhanced killing machines one lonely man at a time.

      Welcome to the gloriously trashy world of director Adam Wingard and screenwriter Simon Barrett, the team behind You’re Next and the V/H/S movies. Part of the grisly fun here is the marriage of smart film-noir references to gaudy colour design, costuming, and punky synth music evoking the ’80s. (Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft is the dominant soundtrack presence.) This breathless effort has nothing to say about the ripple effects of American foreign policy, and you never quite get what David’s mission was in the first place. But The Guest doesn’t outstay its welcome.

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