Little Known Films: Halloween Edition
The Uninvited Guest (El Habitante Incierto) 2004, Spain, 108 minutes.
What would you do if someone came to your door, told you it was an emergency and asked if they could use your phone? You give them a moment of privacy to make the call and then you can’t find them. You search the whole house. Nothing. You hear noises at night. You search again. Still nothing. Days pass. You begin to forget. Then you notice someone is using your razor, your towels and even sleeping in your bed when you’re not home. In fact, someone is living in your house.
You call the police and they find nothing. You become paranoid and even resort to sleeping in your car. Nobody believes you. You buy a gun. This is the intriguing and unsettling premise of The Uninvited Guest. It is one of the best Hitchcock- esque thrillers I have seen in years and yet it is not well known. The film begins as I described but about half way through takes on a drastically different yet remarkably similar approach and you begin to wonder who the “bad” guy actually is.
The film lingers in the memory as the viewer puts it all together. This alone makes it a more effective film than most. Without giving anything away, the film is put together in a way that allows the audience to almost participate in the events as the information we have is identical to the information the main character Felix, a slightly manic architect, has. His questioning of his own sanity is more believable, because if we can’t grasp what’s happening, it’s understandable that the main character would most certainly have the same problems.
Monica Lopez who doubles both as Felix’s ex girlfriend Vera as well as his wheelchair bound neighbor Claudia is elegantly deviant; and Felix himself is played by Andoni Garcia in a brilliantly disturbed manner. There are clear echoes of Jimmy Stewart’s performance in Vertigo here, particularly around Felix’s descent into complete and utter paranoia. The shattering climax manages to be both mortifying and exhilarating at the same time.
The director, Guillem Morales, goes out of his way to replace cheap thrills with real characters who have real problems. No special effects here but there is some sexuality. As things spiral further out of control and our perspective changes, the film takes on a dream-like effect. In the way a dream often makes little sense upon waking, yet has an underlying meaning; The Uninvited Guest creates a similar effect.
This is a film that asks one not only to think, but to interpret. To ask so much of your audience is such a rare occurrence in film these days, especially in this genre. I am deliberately being vague because viewing this film with no preceding knowledge is the best way to see it. It is also a film that demands a second viewing for reasons of sheer complexity and originality. Invite The Uninvited Guest in. He won’t overstay his welcome.