The Guest

The Guest (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album to the 2014 film of the same name directed by Adam Wingard. The 11-track album features songs ranging from electronic and synthwave to gothic rock and pop performed by several goth bands include Clan of Xymox, Love and Rockets, Survive and artists such as Annie, Stevie B, Mike Simonetti among several others. The album was released by J-2 Music on September 16, 2014. The musical score composed by Steve Moore was not released in public, but through the online music distributor Bandcamp on May 14, 2015. It then was distributed by Mondo through physical vinyl formats on June 4, 2015. The soundtrack album was later published by Mondo in late 2016. The music was positively received by critics, for its gothic nature and theme, that fits with the film. Development Wingard admitted that he was a huge fan of film soundtracks, and particularly liked those of Mortal Kombat (1995) and later The Matrix (1999), which steered his interest to curate an electronic soundtrack for the film. He was by inspired the electronic goth band music from the 1980s, crediting bands such as Death in June, Deutschland Amerikanische Freundschaft, Christian Death, and Clan of Xymox. Wingard's friend and music researcher Anna Neal, helped him with the vast collection of using the 1980s industrial goth music and included them in the album. His interest for 1980s goth came from a group of pot and mescaline dealers out in Alabama, referring "they were all gothed out all the time and they exposed me to bands like Death in June and Christian Death for the first time". While initially reading the script, he wanted the inspiration when it comes to the taste of music for Anna. Wingard managed to include all of the bands, except for Death of June, as he originally envisioned that the character Anna was a "less pop-y". But when Maika Monroe was cast in the role, they took a different direction as "she’s blonde and kind of bubbly" and tried to match the aspects of her personality. Hence, he felt it not right for her to listen to Death of June. The Love and Rockets song "Haunted When The Minutes Drag" was mentioned as the anthem of the film, which managed to include in the first place. He could not use the track "Black Celebration" by Depeche Mode, as while discussing with the music supervisor Jonathan McHugh, he tried to license one of the band's tracks, but the band members did not allow to do so.