Skip your annual Halloween rewatch and check out Adam Wingard's stylish 2014 thriller instead

Earlier this year, Adam Wingard emerged from the Godzilla brand-building exercise known as the MonsterVerse to deliver a raw and raucous blood-soaked slasher. Onslaught wasn't a critical or commercial hit, but it arrived like a heat-seeking missile locked onto a certain type of movie fan who revisits Terminator 2: Judgment Day on a regular basis and watches terrible Halloween sequels for fun. (In other words, it rules.)

Wingard's latest also came with an intriguing caveat that may have been a turnoff for casual theatergoers: Onslaught exists in a shared universe with his previous indie horror flick, The Guest.

Familiarity with The Guest won't have any real impact on your ability to enjoy Onslaught, which is on VOD as of last week. (Dan Stevens plays two very different characters across the two films, and any connections are tenuous at best.) But if you've never seen Wingard's 2014 action thriller, it's still worth checking out as we sprint through our annual Halloween Countdown.

The Guest stars Dan Stevens as David Collins, a U.S. soldier who returns from Afghanistan on a benevolent mission. After his friend Caleb Peterson dies in battle, David arrives at the doorstep of Caleb's grieving family and offers to help out in any way he can. At least, that's what he claims.

David quickly moves into the Peterson home and starts "helping" the various members of Caleb's family. That includes:

Stevens is so charming in the role that, for most of the movie, David gets away with everything.

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