Film Review: Host
Host’s quarantine horror is elevated by economical and clever scares
Expanded from director Rob Savage’s two-minute viral video on Twitter, Host is a bite-sized horror treat that comes at the perfect time. While it doesn’t reinvent horror or even the “screenlife” subgenre, Host gets by with a bevy of unsettling, clever, and economical choices, all within the space of a single Zoom call. The film is now streaming on Shudder. Minor spoilers ahead…
On April 21st, director Rob Savage (Dawn of the Deaf) uploaded a two-minute snippet of a Zoom call to Twitter; in the short clip, he investigates strange footsteps he hears from his attic, capping it off with a jump scare spliced in from 2007’s Spanish horror film, REC. The video scared the hell out of his friends, and also, millions of people on the Internet. In the wake of his viral prank, Savage then pitched an expanded and scripted version to horror streaming service Shudder, thus giving birth to Host. Taking a page from the “screenlife” sub-genre of horror thrillers - films such as Unfriended, Searching, and The Den - Host extrapolates the timely Zoom conceit of Savage’s video and fleshes it out with plot and characters. Keeping it at the typical session duration of an hour, the film is an abbreviated breath of fresh air, even when its scares don’t land 100% of the time.
Host’s premise is exceedingly simple. Taking place during the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of friends gather online for a weekly Zoom call where one member of the chat, Haley (Haley Bishop), has hired a medium to conduct a séance. When the other participants are less than respectful of the process, the ritual inadvertently summons a malevolent entity that preys upon them, one by one. At only 56 minutes, there’s barely time for character development or any kind of shading, but the entire cast is naturally charismatic, and it’s easy to buy into their friendship, chemistry, and in some cases, underlying tension.
“While it doesn’t reinvent horror or even the “screenlife” sub-genre, Host gets by with a bevy of unsettling, clever, and economical choices, all within the space of a single Zoom call.”
Where the meat of Host lies, however, is in its scares. Best experienced at night and in a dark room, the film’s spooky set pieces run the gamut from cheap jump scares to ingenious tech-based frights, and you’re never quite sure which one you’re going to get around the next corner. Not every scare is successful, but for every seen-it-before pop-up ghoulie, there’s another clever shock that just plain works. Whether it’s a gruesome swerve with Zoom’s custom backgrounds, or a filter that recognizes a face that isn’t actually there, Host is filled with delightfully clever turns that fully take advantage of its app-based setting. Savage and his production make smart and economical use of Zoom, and they’re easily able to elevate the film above gimmickry.
Host is brief and just plain fun, but with a real-life pandemic in the background, it also taps into our own deep-rooted fear of a dire fate outside our control. The biggest draw of Savage’s film is the pang of familiarity it induces, a thrill derived from its innate relatability. With a particularly funny gag about covering up a cough with a fart, or an all-too-familiar elbow-tap greeting late in the movie that has wormed its way into all of our own friendly interactions these days, Host acts as an escapist microcosm of this harrowing year. The film may not land all its attempts to scare us, but it proves that horror is still one of the best therapies for trying times.
