It’s a bit refreshing to see such a minimalist horror/thriller get featured at a big film festival. After watching a ton of two-hour-long dramas and exposition-heavy action films, I was ready to relax a little with a sub-80-minute film. I mean, relax as much as I possibly could with a movie like The Guest, which could charitably be called South Korea’s version of Psycho with a dash of Hostel.
That description might make The Guest sound like a sleeper hit, but not everything is rosy with this short stay. Despite solid editing and a grisly tone, The Guest feels a bit vapid by the time the credits roll. Maybe this iteration is more of a proof of concept, but I do wish more was done here.
The Guest
Director: Yeon Je-gwang
Release Date: July 22, 2024 (NYAFF)
Country: South Korea
Set primarily during a stormy night in a rundown motel in South Korea, The Guest focuses on the struggles of Min-cheol (Lee Ju-seung) and Young-gyu (Han Min) as they attempt to keep their heads down during their dirty operations. While not exactly elaborated on much, these two young boys found themselves in a mountain of debt and have taken a job placing hidden cameras and recording illegal sex videos of the occupants of the hotel for a shady boss. Min-cheol is having a tough time dealing with this and practically blows the whole operation after receiving a text from his mother.
As the storm picks up, a mysterious man with a hat (Hyun Bong-sik) carries a woman on his back (Oh Hye-won) to one of the rooms and the boys spy on them. While expecting to see some illicit activity, they happen to find that this man is actually a lunatic and the two helplessly watch as he strangles the woman to death. Now, Min-cheol and Young-gyu need to destroy the evidence and escape with their lives before they can help, although that obviously doesn’t go according to plan.
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As a premise, The Guest is pretty ripe for a horror film right out of the gate. I’m not sure if this film is speaking to a cultural fear that South Koreans have, though I did find some articles talking about a recent controversy regarding operating room surveillance cameras and even how South Korea has been boosting its national surveillance after North Korea violated some UN bans. The Guest could be a bit of social commentary on CCTVs being around every corner.
Sadly, that’s really as far as anything goes. Director Yeon Je-gwang clearly had his mind set on creating a tense atmosphere that never lets up, so the film never focuses on anything for particularly long. We get the setup with the boys, the creepy guy coming in, and then get right to the action as Young-gyu gets caught and is killed pretty quickly… spoiler alert, I suppose.
I suppose the movie wants you to sympathize with Min-cheol’s plight and while I wouldn’t wish for him to be viciously murdered, it’s also hard to root for a kid who is capturing illegal videos of people. The film characterizes his struggle as falling into hard times attempting to pay for his mother’s medical procedures, but doing while exploiting others is a pretty damn serious thing to ask audiences to overlook. Even still, he attempts to save his friend and as luck would have it, that woman from before was actually not killed. The Guest then shifts into a survival story as the duo tries to outmaneuver this maniac and live through the night.
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When the dialogue stops and The Guest is able to focus on its cinematography and direction, everything is pretty great. This isn’t exactly an original movie by any means, but there are some fantastic shots used to build tension and drama. When the mysterious man -who has no name, by the way- is stalking Min-cheol, there’s this incredible shot from inside a cabinet where you see the maniac’s cellphone light seeping through the cracks. The lights also go out at one point, forcing the film into a dark color palette and heightening the scares. We even get a neat shoutout to The Shining with the maniac axing a door apart.
What really lets things down is that The Guest doesn’t have much of anything else going on. Sure, no one wants to see two innocent people get mutilated and even I squirmed a bit at some of the kills, but that’s really it. A “shock” twist in the end can be spotted a mile away and the film ends so abruptly that I’m left wondering what the entire message was. There might not actually be one, but with such a heavy focus on CCTV and all of our devices being able to capture things digitally, I thought there would be an overarching message or motive.
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In execution, The Guest feels like a demo reel for something greater from its director. His previous three credits include short films that would make The Guest’s 77 minutes feel like a marathon, so I don’t think I’m too far off the mark. Yeon Je-gwang certainly has style and can direct a thrilling flick, but he needs to focus more time on his characters and overarching plot before he truly achieves greatness.
Still, at such a short runtime and with such brisk pacing, I have to say that I would recommend The Guest to anyone who is interested in foreign horror flicks. It’s always neat to see how other countries put their own spin on well-worn genres and with this film not demanding too much of the audience, you’re likely to be pleased enough by the time the credits roll. Just don’t expect much else from the movie.
