A woman fills in for her brother at a local support group and soon befriends a struggling woman who is seeing things in the short film Guest 2.
Horror movies, features or shorts, can come in many forms; there are slashers, supernatural tales, found footage movies, and slow-burn films just just name a few. Guest 2, by director Finn Callan, may be regarded by those who watch it as slow-burn horror, but it is so much more than that, it’s also a deeply psychological film with excellent performances and a well-thought-out premise.
A sequel to his 2020 short film entitled Guest, Callan does extremely well on a tight budget of just £15,000 to create a 40-minute horror that leaves scars on the viewer’s psyche long after the credits have rolled.
Jill (Jennifer English) returns home from work early due to an issue in her workplace, only to find that her brother Ethan (Simon Bigg), whom she shares a flat with, hasn’t left his bedroom nor attempted to sort any of the chores Jill set him, like washing the dishes. The phone then rings and Jill answers it to discover that Ethan was supposed to be at a support group that day and they need him to open up and arrange the seating appropriately. Being the good sister that she is, Jill offers to stand in for him, seeing as he won’t answer her from behind his bedroom door.
Believing that the support group is actually Ethan’s job (it’s not, he’s a volunteer), Jill stays for the duration of the support meeting and listens to stories and tales from other members. One such story from an attendee grabs her attention – Mia’s.
As she tells her story, we are transported into a day in the life of Mia. We see her lonely in a cafe, making patterns on the table using brown sugar, and in her apartment as she rings around leaving voice mail messages for people she once knew – looking for some companionship. She does receive a callback, but it’s from an old friend explaining why she hasn’t called or seen her recently, giving a flimsy excuse as her reasoning. While on the call, a strange creature with googly eyes watches her from the back of the room. When Mia notices the creature, she screams and begs to be left alone.
When back in the support group, Jill offers Mia a hug and some reassurance, something that Mia has missed for a long time. The two strike up a friendship that looks like it could lead to a relationship, and all seems well until Jill returns to her flat to Ethan.
Like some other recent horrors, the threat in Guest 2 seems to be a metaphor for real-life issues. In It Follows the characters are stalked by killers and the only way to lose them is to have sex with another person, which then passes on the curse. The film is known as a metaphor for sexually transmitted diseases. In Guest 2, the googly-eyed creature seems to be a metaphor for suicidal thoughts, and the stronger those thoughts become, the closer the creature comes.
As a short horror flick, Guest 2 is very strong, with some excellent cinematography, story-telling, acting by all involved, and score. It may seem a little too slow-burn for some, but we advise you to watch until the end (the end scenes are cleverly done) for an accomplished 40 minutes by a team that is going places.
