Dan Stevens saw best favourite cinema memories reflected in new film ‘The Guest’

TORONTO – Despite its sinister plot, violent scenes and action-packed sequences, what got Dan Stevens hooked on “The Guest” was the laughs it provoked when he first read the script.

The British actor — known for starring on hit television show “Downtown Abbey” — was drawn to the lead role in the film for the way it reflected some of his favourite cinematic moments.

“It was one of the funniest scripts I had read, ever,” Stevens said in a recent interview. “I just loved the wit and the playfulness of it and the way that it reminded me of almost every single movie I had loved growing up in one film somehow.”

Stevens plays David, a handsome yet mysterious stranger who shows up at the home of the Peterson family in New Mexico claiming to be the friend of their son who was recently killed in Afghanistan.

While the Petersons have never heard of David, they take him in, giving him a place to stay but, of course, David isn’t exactly who he says he is. The family’s daughter, played by Maika Monroe, is the only one who questions him, unearthing some startling information.

The ’80s-style film, complete with a synthy soundtrack, serves up a mixed dose of thrills, action and dark comedy — a combination Stevens found irresistible.

“It just had echoes of so many good times that I had had in the movie theatre,” he said during an interview at the recent Toronto International Film Festival. “It reminded me of the ‘Terminator’ films, and the ‘Halloween’ films and ‘Kill Bill.’ … I think we tried to do that with this film, have some fun and entertain people and have a good time and leave a movie theatre saying ‘that was fun.’”

The film, in which Stevens sheds his crisp British accent and takes on a southern American drawl, has certain moments where audiences may not know whether to laugh or cringe, but that was all part of the plan.

“That’s the fun game we want to play with you,” Stevens said with a chuckle. “Treading that line between horror and comedy and maybe making people laugh at things they wouldn’t normally laugh at and being scared in strange places.”

The role of David, for which Stevens got a tan and built some muscle, is a complete departure from what his “Downtown Abbey” fans might be used to expecting from him, but that was part of the role’s appeal as well.

“Because (‘Downtown Abbey’) was a show that people really, really loved and took into their homes on a Sunday night, you’re part of institutional telly in that way. It leaves a mark and that’s a wonderful thing,” said Stevens of the role he left on the hit show after three seasons.

“I felt like I needed to move on and try something else. I didn’t know what form that was going to take when I left, and I couldn’t have predicted that something like ‘The Guest’ would come along, but the opportunity to really throw myself at that was enormously exciting.”

Writing-directing duo Simon Barrett and Adam Wingard were certainly aware of who they were casting when they chose Stevens as their key character, but it was a move that played into their entire approach for the film.

“The whole ‘Downtown Abbey’ thing couldn’t get any further than this and audiences’ expectations are still in that world, and that works perfectly for what the characters are dealing with as well,” said Wingard.

“David has to build this family’s trust and get them to like him very quickly and similarly we needed an actor who could do the same thing with the audience themselves.”

While the filmmaking duo drew inspiration from the ’80s horror and action films they love, they noted that “The Guest” isn’t trying to be exactly like those movies.

“We just wanted to do something that kind of paid tribute to that, but at the same time we didn’t want to necessarily parody that whole thing,” said Wingard. “We just wanted to exist in that same kind of world, almost using the texture of the ’80s, the sounds of it, some of the sensations.”

“The Guest” strikes a balance by not trying too hard to be an absolute original, or an imitation, added Barrett.

“The way you walk that line is you can pay homage to things stylistically or tonally, but you don’t necessarily want to pay homage to them in terms of anything specific, like story, or character or a kind of specific shots,” he explained.

Even the film’s humour simply evolved into what ended up in the final cut, said Wingard.

“Simon doesn’t write jokes in the film. That’s what I really like about our take on humour — it’s more situational,” he said.

“The reason the movie is funny is because like, for instance, the character David is so fantastical, and you put him in this real world environment and it’s just watching people interact with that nonsense.”

Creating an enjoyable audience experience is ultimately what the writer-director duo want to get out of the project.

“I think we’d just like for our audiences to have fun with the movies that we make,” said Barrett. “In terms of ‘The Guest’ it wasn’t only that ’80s style we were talking about. It was also about finding the comedy in a lot of those moments.”

“The Guest” opens in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver on Friday and across the country a week later.