Fans have been waiting years to learn if we could get a follow-up to the genre-bending The Guest, with star Dan Stevens recently teasing that he could be reuniting with writer Simon Barrett and director Adam Wingard in the near future, though he doesn’t reveal if that would definitely be for a sequel. The film might not have been a major financial success when it debuted back in 2014, but with Barrett and Wingard previously giving audiences the home invasion film You’re Next in 2013 and earning a passionate following among horror fans, the streaming availability has seen The Guest become a favorite in recent years.
“Well, I suppose it starts with Simon and Adam,” Stevens shared with The Hollywood Reporter when discussing a sequel. “Unfortunately, Adam is a little busy with some giant apes and monsters at the moment [Godzilla vs. Kong]. But we’ve all sort of been looking at ways we can get back together in some way, and I think it will happen as soon as we can make it happen. I don’t know about whether that will necessarily be a sequel to The Guest. I don’t know how that would look, but we’ve got a few other things up our sleeves, perhaps, before then.”
The film sees Stevens as a mysterious man who visiting the grieving family of an old army buddy, who welcome Stevens’ “David” into their home as they adapt to life without their son. The more time David spends with the family, the more he charms them and their community, only for hints about his past to begin to emerge and tease a horrible secret he’s been keeping from everyone.
While Barrett and Wingard continue to explore the genre world with various projects, Stevens went on to projects like Legion and Beauty and the Beast. He returns to the world of horror for The Rental, the directorial debut of Dave Franco. Despite The Guest not earning a lot of money at the box office, Stevens knows that success can’t be measured in dollars.
“Simon Barrett, the writer of The Guest, said to me the other day that all ‘cult film’ means is that it didn’t make any money at the time. It’s been delightful that it’s continued to have this life,” the actor pointed out to Forbes. “Not every film you make is going to have that sort of enduring appeal. For me, in the limited career, I’ve had so far, The Guest has had the longest legs. People just this week, for whatever reason, are discovering it and messaging me and saying, ‘I can’t believe it took me this long to discover this film. It’s great.’ That’s really satisfying.”
The Rental lands in select drive-ins, theaters, and on VOD on July 24th. Stay tuned for details on the possible future of The Guest.
Would you like to see the film get a sequel? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!
Tim M. Hill helped bring Digital-Overload from a weekly newsletter to a full-fledged news site by creating a new website and branding. He continues to assist in keeping the site responsive and well organized for the readers. As a writer to Digital-Overload, Tim mainly covers mobile news and gadgets.
