''Guest'' is a 2020 British
psychological horror
Psychological horror is a genre, subgenre of horror fiction, horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and Mental state, psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre frequent ...
short film
A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...
directed and written by
Finn Callan. It stars
Melania Crisan as a disturbed young woman who wakes up in a strangers house with several injuries after encountering a creature called The Guest. The film also stars Jessica Munna and Anna Fraser. The film premiered on 27 August 2020 at
FrightFest and, on 24 December 2020, was uploaded to
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
.
Upon release, the film received very positive reviews from critics, praising the film's direction, cinematography, monster design and special effects. A sequel is currently in development.
Plot
Mary, a frightened young woman, wakes up in the bedroom of a stranger's house with injuries that have left her partially blind and deaf. The homeowner (The Woman), who bandaged her up after discovering her in the bathroom that morning, manages to slightly restore her hearing by inserting a
hearing aid
A hearing aid is a device designed to improve hearing by making sound audible to a person with hearing loss. Hearing aids are classified as medical devices in most countries, and regulated by the respective regulations. Small audio amplifiers su ...
device into her ear and asks her what happened.
In a flashback sequence, Mary remembers the previous night where she was chased through the countryside by a tall, slender humanoid creature with no eyelids called The Guest. During the chase, Mary finds The Woman's house and breaks inside to escape from The Guest. Finding the house empty, Mary quickly arms herself with a knife from the kitchen and hides in the bathroom, only to discover that The Guest is waiting for her inside. Seemingly driven mad by The Guest's presence, Mary pours a bottle of
bleach
Bleach is the generic name for any chemical product that is used industrially or domestically to remove color (whitening) from a fabric or fiber or to clean or to remove stains in a process called bleaching. It often refers specifically, to ...
over her eyes to blind herself. Upon hearing The Guest's rattling breathing however, Mary grabs the knife and plunges it into her ears, causing herself to go partially deaf as she was at the start of the film.
Frightened at Mary's explanation of the previous night, The Woman quickly leaves the room and locks the door, trapping Mary inside. Mary then pulls back her bandages to see that The Guest sitting on the bed next to her. Mary reclines in the bed and braces herself for it to attack her. Instead, The Guest turns away from her and looks at the floor with a sad expression on its face, much to Mary's surprise and confusion. The film then abruptly ends.
Cast
* Melania Crisan as Mary
* Jessica Munna as The Woman
* Anna Fraser as The Guest
Production
Monster design
Finn Callan looked to various pre-existing works for inspiration for The Guest's design and which he brought together like a "
jigsaw
Jigsaw may refer to:
* Jigsaw (tool), a tool used for cutting arbitrary curves
* Jigsaw puzzle, a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of interlocking pieces
Arts and media Comics
* Jigsaw (Marvel Comics), a supervillain and arch-enemy of ...
" and had the film's prosthetics artist Francesca Giacovelli illustrate. He cited films such as The Draggs from
Fantastic Planet, the Fishermen from
Balance and Christiane from
Eyes Without a Face as the key inspirational points during the process.
Special effects
Deciding early on that the special effects to create The Guest would be all practical, Callan enlisted the help of Francesca to create the elaborate special effects make up which took 6 hours to apply to Anna Fraser who played The Guest, who Callan said compared the process to "being buried alive".
Release and reception
The short film was first shown on at
FrightFest on 27 August 2020 and then went around the American horror film festival circuit, premiering in North America at
Screamfest
Screamfest Horror Film Festival is a horror film festival founded by film producers Rachel Belofsky and Ross Martin in August 2001. It runs over ten days during the month of October and is hosted at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Los Angeles, Ca ...
on 8 October. During its festival run, it received acclaim from various horror publications, praising the film's direction, cinematography, special effects and monster design.
On 24 December 2020, Callan uploaded the short to
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
with a
suicide prevention
Suicide prevention is a collection of efforts to reduce the risk of suicide. Suicide is often preventable, and the efforts to prevent it may occur at the individual, relationship, community, and society level. Suicide is a serious public health ...
disclaimer placed before the film. The short film quickly became popular and, as of November 2022, has received over 8 million views on the site. Several notable YouTubers have
reacted to ''Guest'' on YouTube since its upload, including
Jacksepticeye
Seán William McLoughlin (born 7 February 1990), better known as Jacksepticeye, is an Irish YouTuber, best known for his vlogs and comedic Let's Play series. , his channel has over 15.7 billion views and 28.9 million subscribers, and is the mo ...
.
Festival selections
* 2020 -
FrightFest (World Premiere)
* 2020 -
Screamfest Horror Film Festival
Screamfest Horror Film Festival is a horror film festival founded by film producers Rachel Belofsky and Ross Martin in August 2001. It runs over ten days during the month of October and is hosted at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Los Angeles, Ca ...
* 2020 -
Telluride Horror Show
The Telluride Horror Show is a film festival that takes place in the mountain resort town of Telluride, Colorado.
Over a three day weekend each mid-October, the festival exhibits horror, dark fantasy films, sci-fi films, and thriller films f ...
* 2020 - Knoxville Horror Film Festival
* 2020 - New York City Horror Film Festival
* 2020 - IFI HorrorThon
* 2020 - 6ix Screams International Horror Film Festival
* 2020 - HorrorFest International
* 2020 - HorrOrigins Film Festival
Sequel
Callan is currently developing a sequel to ''Guest'', which will be financed by Chilling, a horror relaxation app. Anna Fraser will return as The Guest in the sequel, with Simon Bigg and Maayan Amiran also being cast. The sequel to ''Guest'' will be around twice the length of its predecessor.
References
External links
*
* {{YouTube, 7-5Upq2hcOA, title=''Guest''
2020 films
2020 horror films
2020 short films
British horror short films
British psychological horror films
2020s English-language films
2020s psychological horror films
2020s British films