Film Review: Host

Look, as the saying goes, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” So, with that mindset, when life gives you an absolute nightmare of a year plagued by rising authoritarian practices, acts of violence against protestors asking for basic human rights, and the presence of COVID-19, which only continues to rise in the U.S. while most of the world is starting to flatten the curve, leading to more deaths, more misinformation, more politicizing of issues that should instead be prioritized with the perspective of science and medical experts…you make a horror movie through Zoom!

At least, I’m guessing that’s the what director, Rob Savage, and his co-writers, Gemma Hurley and Jed Shepherd, were thinking when they put together the new film, Host. The film was made entirely through Zoom, a video conferencing application, and it follows a group of friends, Haley (Haley Bishop), Jemma (Jemma Moore), Emma (Emma Louise Webb), Radina (Radina Drandova), and Caroline (Caroline Ward), plus a guy who gets cut off early on, who get together through Zoom for a séance led by a a medium, Seylan (Seylan Baxter). And who’da thunk, things go really south really fast.

And I do mean fast. The film is a few minutes short of an hour, so the filmmakers avoid anything that would remotely resemble padding. Sure, that might lead to characters being a bit thin, and not a whole lot to dig into thematically – at least, nothing that isn’t already tied in the cultural context of the film coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, in keeping with a short running time, the film avoids some of usual frustrations that come with supernatural films like this, immediately going for the good stuff. And the film very much delivers some effectively creepy moments throughout.

Films that take place entirely on a computer screen, often utilizing the “Screenlife” software has typically yielded mixed results. The first Unfriended didn’t impress me, but I found its sequel a touch more interesting, and Searching was one of the best films made the year it came out. I don’t think Host is as good as Searching, but in making sure its ambitions are modest, the film ends up working quite well. It does a great job escalating the tension, and whatever editing and choreography the actors had to work with in order to make sure everything is perfectly timed and properly in sync is very fascinating to watch unfold.

Host is a film of the moment, and its context practically guarantees that it won’t age gracefully. But that doesn’t mean it won’t hold up as an entertaining curiosity. It’s cool to see filmmakers take the limitations of this particular point in time, and try to make something interesting and compelling out of it. The actors all do really good work, bringing a believable dynamic with realistic dialogue. With the film moving as fast as it does, it is easy to get sucked up in all the chaos, keeping you engaged in the narrative, even when it dabbles into familiar territory. If you’re in the mood for something spooky, this will do the trick, and it doesn’t demand much of your time in the process.

Host is currently available on Shudder.