Zo's Reviews: HOST


Wow...it's been a while since I did one of these. Welcome back, dear readers! I've missed you all. So, I've been busy as a senior contributor/editor over at one of my favorite websites ever, Horror Bound, where I've created a great deal of fiction, made some amazing friends, and haven't really had some time to create one of these reviews lately. Thought I'd change that with my take on a new horror classic that recently hit Shudder, which by the way, if you haven't...seriously consider getting a subscription. It's inexpensive and you get tons of great content. So, without further ado, let's dive into this gem...

HOST was directed by Rob Savage, written by the team of Gemma Hurley, Rob Savage and Jed Shepherd, and stars Haley Bishop, Jemma Moore, Emma Louise Webb, Radina Drandova, Caroline Ward, Edward Linard, and Seylan Baxter as a group of friends who hire a medium (Seylan) to perform a seance via a Zoom meeting during the Covid-19 lock-down. Some of the friends consider it a silly thing and don't take it seriously, albeit to their dismay as the seance goes wrong and they invite an evil entity into their homes and they may not survive the night...

So, what did I dislike about this movie? Not a whole lot. The entire gimmick is something I've not been a fan of in the past. I don't enjoy movies done over Zoom or Skype (see: Unfriended) but this one I decided to give a chance. I thought that the entire idea of a sort of 'found footage' style movie done during a lock-down/pandemic and done over an app that everyone is using these days for meetings would add to the feeling of dread and horror that we are all feeling. In other words, I thought it'd take something we're all comfortable doing these days and turn it the f*ck around on us and ruin our psyche. It totally worked, albeit it was hard to tell sometimes what was going on. The cameras would go all crazy or something.

For what I did like, and there's quite a bit here...I adore this cast. Every character has their own little quirk about them, and we get a good look into their world in this very short film (57 minutes) that actually gave the characters quite a bit of depth. The plot itself was based on a short film that the director, Rob Savage, did as a prank to his friends over a Zoom meeting which was part of the fun I had researching for this review (if you haven't seen it yet, check it out on YouTube, it's great!) The scares...of which there are plenty...had me screaming 'WTF WTF WTF' over and over again. The jumps were very effective and there were plenty of great tense moments throughout that had me on the edge of my seat. I felt like my nerves were being torn apart at the seams during the third act that I had to pause the movie to catch my breath.

This movie overall is something you should all check out. It's relevant to today's standards of living, the cast is fantastic, there are some surprisingly amazing jump scares and great tension, and the effects? Oh man, those effects were great. You should definitely check this out and let me know what you thought. It's streaming on Shudder right now!

FINAL SCORE: A

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