It doesn’t matter how well-reviewed a movie is, how large of a fandom it cultivates, or whether or not the creative team is desperate to tell more stories; the number one barometer for gauging additional installments is almost always box office dollars, something The Guest had in short supply.
Even though it immediately secured cult classic status, the fact it took less than $3 million from theaters ensured that any talk of further adventures for Dan Stevens’ David Collins remained firmly in the realm of wishful thinking. At least, sort of. There is technically a follow-up to The Guest, but it didn’t arrive in the way its supporters would have wanted.
A musical continuation landed instead, with a soundtrack having to make do in the interim while Adam Wingard and regular collaborator Simon Barrett repeatedly stated they’d love nothing more than to take another crack at the would-be franchise. It’s there, it exists, but it’s not really what anyone asked for, something that’s been made clear yet again on the forums of Reddit.
The Guest remains as popular now as it did almost a decade ago when it first landed with a critical splash but commercial thud, and a musical accompaniment evidently isn’t how its most ardent of fanatics wanted the story to continue. Of course, Wingard is plenty busy carving out his own corner of the MonsterVerse having made the jump to studio-backed blockbusters, but the success of his monster mashes might just give him the clout and leeway to make a live-action, feature-length The Guest 2 a reality.
Published: May 8, 2023 01:49 am