Although it didn’t make my top ten list of last year (though The Guest emerged as one of my favorite films — and one of the biggest surprises — of 2014. That may not be true for all, but if nothing else it is packed to the brim with style, utilizing a vibrant color palette and a synth-heavy pop soundtrack to imbue the retro feel of 1980s-era John Carpenter.
[amz asin=”B00NO834N0″ size=”small”]To me, The Guest is as much a nod to Carpenter’s work and other B-movie thrillers as it is the uptempo cousin to Nicolas Winding Refn‘s slow-burn thriller Drive, and in the video essay below, Vimeo user Matt Marlin (featured for a second time this morning) makes this connection, too. Part of his series “Framing the Picture”, Marlin explores Wingard’s use of color and, more specifically, how it clues us in on the film’s characters and the conflict between them throughout the film.
The warmer yellows and oranges throughout the film represent the mostly normal lives of the family David (Dan Stevens) moves in with in the first act, Marlin notes, while the cooler blues, grays, and greens lend insight into the more violent undertones present throughout the film.
Spoilers abound, so unless you’ve seen The Guest you may want to give this one a hard pass, as Marlin dives into the way the movie uses colors to divide its main players from the movie’s opening scene to its grand finale. However, if you’ve seen The Guest, this is likely just one more thing to make you appreciate its artistry. Color use isn’t something I typically consider when I watch or analyze a movie, but the ways our minds are affected by the colors we see (or don’t see) is inherent within us, so I found it interesting to see someone examine such subtle visual clues in a film like The Guest. Perhaps you will too.
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