One of the many pleasures of director Adam Wingard's tough, fun thriller "The Guest" is seeing Matthew Crawley -- er, British actor Dan Stevens -- serve up a mesmerizing star turn of psycho charm.

| Jan 5, 2015

A slow-burn approach seems to pose a challenging change-up for the filmmakers, who struggle to build tension as the second acts stretches well past the point when the level of menace should be escalating.

| Jan 5, 2015

Wickedly entertaining.

| Original Score: 7.2/10 | Jan 5, 2015

It's not a particularly brilliant conceit, but, not unlike Stevens's beautifully one-note performance, it's evocative nevertheless -- lending the whole movie an aura of pop inevitability, turning its blunt predictability into something of a virtue.

| Jan 5, 2015

Picture Commando as a psychological thriller. Imagine Halloween as a theme park ride. Think Drive as a comedy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 5, 2015

Enjoyable horror-lite.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 5, 2015

Shot in lurid colors and drizzled with a squelchy synthesizer score, Adam Wingard's bloody thriller is so enamored of John Carpenter it might as well be passing him mash notes in social studies.

| Original Score: B- | Jan 5, 2015

The Guest borrows from other genre pictures with such intelligence and clarity of purpose, it manages to feel fresh, exciting.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 31, 2014

The pleasures of The Guest lie mainly in anticipating how the next expected corner will be turned.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 17, 2014

Nothing can stop the wicked smoulder of Stevens, who makes a smile seem like a weapon of mass destruction.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 16, 2014

The Guest ravels smartly; and, after too many herky-jerky entries in the faux-found-footage subgenre, it's nice to see a scare film with a pearly visual style, which gives the enterprise the patina of both elegance and plausibility.

| Oct 16, 2014

"The Guest" remains watchable through the finish, but all pretense that this is some kind of attempt at a good movie goes out the window after the first hour.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 9, 2014

The director Adam Wingard joins the ranks of the current masters of unease with this suspenseful horror tale.

| Oct 6, 2014

The crazier the movie gets, the better it is -- the climax is set in a homemade fun house complete with billowing artificial fog, and it works first as comedy, then as mild suspense, and, finally, as surprise.

| Sep 26, 2014

With The Guest, Wingard and Barrett have once more upped the ante for the indie horror flick pack.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 25, 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.

| Sep 22, 2014

Dan Stevens is mesmerizing as the avenger, helping director Adam Wingard turn The Guest into a blast of wicked mirth and malice.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 19, 2014

The Guest transcends the genre with characters who could have come out of a more serious movie. When they're in peril, we actually care.

| Original Score: A | Sep 18, 2014

To note that "The Guest" is not for everyone is to belabor the obvious. But for fans of smart, well-made horror, it's a treat.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 18, 2014

That's a familiar setup, but Barrett and Wingard take it in one unexpected direction after another, displaying obvious pleasure in their mad dash to keep topping themselves.

| Sep 18, 2014