Min-cheol (Lee Ju-seung) and Young-gyu (Han Min) run a motel on the outside of the city, unknown to the guests of the motel; they are secretly filming illegal sex videos of all that spend the night. Forced into this activity by a ruthless loan shark both men feel guilty, but have no choice but look for the seedier sex acts within the motel, as these more provocative videos will fetch more money for paying back their debt. Min-cheol can’t keep doing this as the quilt is eating him up inside, one night as they are filming; they witness a guest strangling a woman. Now, they have to make a choice to phone the police which will expose them for what they have been doing, or still sell the provocative video to the loan shark. Meanwhile the killer has just walked back into the motel.
Masterfully directed by Yeon Je-gwang; The Guest is one of the best thrillers I have seen for a long time, from the start the f film builds up atmosphere and tension at a continuing pace that does not let you go until the credits roll. The psycho killer is relentless in his pursuit of his victims through the motel, we don`t need his reasons for doing this, he just likes killing. The foreboding feel constantly from the start to the murder is quite unbearable; everything from the music, the acting, to the way the camera pans through the motel is just an example of how to make great thriller. How the footage from both the hidden cameras of the motel to the CCTV cameras throughout the city is used I found very clever. One of my favourite films of all time, is John Carpenter`s Halloween 78. It seems for me that the director here followed the same simple rules from that film. Less is more, and if you need to explain your killer then it takes away the tension of the film.
The acting of the film is as tight as what the directing is but it is Lee Ju–seung`s naive innocence as Min-cheol that steals the film for me, his performance is the heart of the film. From the start he is forced into this, and now just to add more to his nightmare, he is going to have battle an indomitable psycho killer. I do like a good slasher film, as much as this is reminiscent of these types of films it is more a psychological thriller that needs to be seen to be believed, for me it is the perfect little thriller. That says more in its seventy seven minute running time than what a lot of the dragged out dull thrillers do of today
