The Invisible Guest

Oriol Paulo's The Invisible Guest (Spanish: Contratiempo) opened in Spain in January 2017 and became one of the most-watched Spanish-language films ever distributed on Netflix in non-Hispanophone markets, particularly in China — where the film became a viral phenomenon, selling over $90 million in tickets at the Chinese box office during its theatrical re-release in autumn 2017, an extraordinary outcome for an originally direct-to-streaming Spanish-language thriller.

Paulo had previously directed The Body (Spanish: El cuerpo) in 2012, also a tightly constructed mystery thriller; the two films together established him as one of the most internationally exportable Spanish writer-directors of his generation. He would go on to make Mirage (Spanish: Durante la tormenta) in 2018, also a Netflix global success, and the multi-season The Invisible Guest-style series The Innocent (Spanish: El inocente) in 2021.

The cast is led by Mario Casas — at the time the most prominent young Spanish leading man, working between commercial youth productions and prestige features — alongside Ana Wagener, José Coronado, Bárbara Lennie and Paco Tous. Cinematography is by Xavi Giménez, the longtime Paulo collaborator and a veteran of multiple Jaume Balagueró productions. The screenplay is by Paulo himself, with co-credit to Lara Sendim and the structure showing the influence of Hitchcock, Polanski's chamber thrillers, and the Argentine writer Julio Cortázar's work.