A group of friends get together on Zoom during quarantine to take part in a séance in the new Shudder original, Host, directed by Rob Savage.
The world as we know it has changed with the pandemic, and with film suffering because of it, it’s prime time for creators to really push the boat out and innovate in order to keep this industry alive – and Savage, along with his writing partners Jed Shepherd and Gemma Hurley, have done just that with an ingenious horror that provides tons of natural, and supernatural, scares.
Haley (Bishop) invites her friends Caroline (Ward), Jemma (Moore), Emma (Webb), Radina (Drandova) and Teddy (Linard) to join her in a fun evening of contacting the afterlife with medium Seylan (Baxter). But Haley and the group unwittingly unleash a demonic presence with dire consequences.
Whereas we’ve seen this screen-life genre of film fairly recently with the likes of Unfriended, what Host does to set itself apart from the rest is really ground the story in the heart of the pandemic and elevate the real-life fears of those watching whilst also giving us strong characters that actually have great chemistry.
The film also utilises some very effective in-camera effects be it practical or taking advantage of the tools that Zoom has – including constructive use of the video conferencing apps free limit of one hour. However, the ending does drop the ball slightly but that doesn’t detract from the fact that Host is a well-crafted, anxiety-inducing thrill-ride from start to finish – and the fact that it was all made during quarantine is a technical marvel in itself.
