Review: Host

2020 has been a time for many artists to explore the extent of their creativity and ingenuity, and as cinemas struggle to bounce back with COVID peaks and barmy studio decision-making dragging it down, Video On Demand streaming sites have, for the time being, stepped in to keep movies breathing.

Nothing replicates the cinema experience but a film like Host, an exclusive from “horror’s answer to Netflix”, Shudder, is one that has not only taken its format and explored every benefit to superb effect, but also introduced a chillingly realistic horror story and amplified it by capitalising on the fears of life under pandemic times.

The film sees Haley (Haley Bishop) gather her mates in their weekly Zoom group call (laptop video calls), as she has hired a trusted medium, to lead them in a seance. Of course some of the group are skeptical but all soon realise that they need to start taking things seriously, as they potentially open the door for something truly sinister.

Director Rob Savage’s film is an astonishing achievement. Starting life as a viral video that caught attention, Host was then conceived, shot and released across twelve weeks.

Made under quarantine restrictions, with each member of the cast being directed remotely by Savage, and setting up their own equipment (lighting, cameras, etc.), doing their own stunts, and even taking a virtual workshop to do their own special effects! Host is an absolute marvel of horror workmanship, with terrific editing by Brenna Rangott, which puts all the pieces in motion seamlessly.

The great performances from each member of the young cast fuel a believable story of friends who open the spiritual pandora’s box and inadvertently welcome it's evil contents in to their “safe space”!

At just under an hour in length, writers Savage, Gemma Hurley and Jed Shepherd remarkably find a way to take their time in unwrapping their simple but supremely effective concept, following some of the genre rulebook (creepy attic, bumps in the night) but adding fresh twists or spins of their own.

Host keeps audiences on their feet, from an inventive end credits crawl to some impressively created jumps, jolts and full-on visceral frights and sights. This is an intense, personal, experience and one which is constructed with such skill and haunting excellence that you feel strapped in for the entire duration.

Many times people say, watch this film with a crowd but contrarily Host absolutely excels as a lone viewing event (in fact it's downright terrifying watched alone) because it digs into these isolated times to show how easy fear can spread when the line of support is so easy to cut. Not to mention how modern society puts so much of its faith in the light security offered by technology and its distance but - to their detriment - swat away the deep-rooted traditions and beliefs of this world as mere superstition or a game to be played, and unleash hell as a result.

Host is a zoom-shot, lockdown-set, chiller from Shudder, which takes the found footage genre to modern lengths and delivers a tense and frighteningly sustained horror film that is perfect for our current times. Marrying the fresh with the traditional, and the high tech with old fashioned craft, this is a film that takes what movies like Unfriended did and runs wild with it, taking such approaches to new heights.

Earning rave reviews and a rare 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, you may wonder whether the hype is justified...it is!

15
Director: Rob Savage
Starring: Haley Bishop, Jemma Moore, Radina Drandova, Emma Louise Webb, Caroline Ward, Edward Linard
Release Date: Out Now (Shudder; Amazon Prime)