|
Suffer the Sadomasochistic! Murder the Merrymakers! Court the Claustrophobic! Your perfect host for the evening’s anguish has arrived!
Turning the tables on a fugitive-turned-party crasher is done deliciously in writer/director Nick Tomnay’s The Perfect Host. It’s a slick little demented thriller that is as chilling as it is darkly comical. Actor David Hyde Pierce seems to be enjoying the chance to cut loose and combine an eerie take on his “Frasier” persona and mix it with two pinches of maniacal nuttiness. Perverse and psychologically charismatic, The Perfect Host – while inexplicably not a hit with critics – is a clever stroll down Hitchcock Lane with a glorious amount of twists and turns.
A desperate thief, John Taylor (Clayne Crawford), seeks refuge from the gathering swarm of police and news reports inside a wealthy socialite’s home in Los Angeles. He’s wounded and out of breath from running. Pretending to be the friend of a mutual acquaintance (information he gleamed from a postcard in the mailbox), John is able to earn a bit of trust from Warwick Wilson (David Hyde Pierce) in the few hours that remain before Warwick’s dinner party. Warwick, being the nice guy that he is, lets him inside to use the phone. John lies through his teeth and, lead on by Warwick’s answers and insistence to stay, is able to relax a bit…until he hears the news report about his bank robbery and, more importantly, about who turned him in.
Suddenly, the gig is up and he and Warwick’s fast friendship dissolves into a hostage situation with John threatening to kill Warwick. Warwick fears for his life…and his wooden floors that John is bloodying with his bandaged foot, yet he can’t keep from smiling. And, when John passes out from Warwick’s tinted wine, the dinner party begins…
…and Warwick has a feast of friends.
Bizarrely entertaining, The Perfect Host is a fairly self-contained game of cat-and-mouse that, while never as surprising as it ought to be, is too jam-packed with good performances from its two leads to go ignored. The movie does flesh itself out with a back-story involving John and his girlfriend, Simone (Megahn Perry), and some nice moments between Warwick and his conga-line lovin’ friends. And, when the gloves come off, Warwick has a deliciously dark and demented picture book that he likes to show his guests.
Writer/director Tomnay has updated his original script (and original short film) to include a more dynamic and disturbing ending. The duplicitous nature of the film and its actors adds to the delirium felt by the audience. At times, this is a wonderfully tense nail-biter that relieves its tension with a bit of dark-natured comedy before returning to its noose. Toward the end of the movie – when we are no longer facing familiar territories – the film falters a bit in rolling out its next canvas, but it quickly recovers and delivers a memorable ending.
While some of The Perfect Host can be predicted from its trailer alone, it’s the journey that is the most surprising aspect. Never once can you look away or keep the smile from pursing your lips. Its dark humored chocolate bars and blood red candy-coated craziness are simply too delicious to resist.
MPAA Rating: 
