It's 2020, the world is in lockdown, and you are an impassioned filmmaker. What do you do? Like everyone else, you turn to Zoom.
Rob Savage, director of Host, guested on The Movies That Made Me, so I feel like I know him a little. Like us, he's a Stephen King fan. I've seen footage of him in a Susperia shirt. The guy is A-OK by me.
Host deals with a group of people in isolation who decide to hold a seance via Zoom meeting. Some friends and a medium gather round their devices and try to summon something from beyond the veil. There's an an earnest believer, a couple of clownish goofs, a reluctant woman dragged in against her will, and a curious individual.
One woman fabricates a story of a boy who helped her once, but later hanged himself. She says she felt a hand on her neck and the name "Jack" whispered in her ear. This opens the door for a malignant demon to enter the remote gathering.
It's an ingenious setup. People in quarantine who are afraid to leave their homes. They don't want to exit the Zoom meeting because they'd be alone. Ominous things begin to occur, and they quickly become terrifying. Soon they are prey to a deadly entity and there's no way out.
I try not to stream, Zoom, TikTok or FaceTime, so on the surface Host wouldn't be for me, However, I was sucked into the movie and it frankly scared the hell out of me.
Host isn't the kind of thing to watch while partying with a group of junior league movie riffers. It should be watched alone, late at night, or like me very early in the morning before sunrise. Lights off and a quiet house is the best way to go.
This may sound strange coming from an old gorehound, but I like the less-is-more approach to horror. Don't expect a lot of elaborate violence or in-your-face horror. Host is subtle, and you have to watch all the screens very closely. No second screen viewing here. It demands rigid attention or you will miss something.
Host clocks in at a tight sixty-five minutes, which is the perfect length for this sort of movie. We've all seen decent stories padded out to a commercial running time. There's room for Killers of the Flower Moon and also for something shorter than the generally-accepted length of a feature. Especially in a time of way too many three-hour blowfests.
This is one Zoom meeting horror fans won't want to miss. Just hope you don't get bumped off as things are getting good.
Written by Mark Sieber
Rob Savage, director of Host, guested on The Movies That Made Me, so I feel like I know him a little. Like us, he's a Stephen King fan. I've seen footage of him in a Susperia shirt. The guy is A-OK by me.
Host deals with a group of people in isolation who decide to hold a seance via Zoom meeting. Some friends and a medium gather round their devices and try to summon something from beyond the veil. There's an an earnest believer, a couple of clownish goofs, a reluctant woman dragged in against her will, and a curious individual.
One woman fabricates a story of a boy who helped her once, but later hanged himself. She says she felt a hand on her neck and the name "Jack" whispered in her ear. This opens the door for a malignant demon to enter the remote gathering.It's an ingenious setup. People in quarantine who are afraid to leave their homes. They don't want to exit the Zoom meeting because they'd be alone. Ominous things begin to occur, and they quickly become terrifying. Soon they are prey to a deadly entity and there's no way out.
I try not to stream, Zoom, TikTok or FaceTime, so on the surface Host wouldn't be for me, However, I was sucked into the movie and it frankly scared the hell out of me.
Host isn't the kind of thing to watch while partying with a group of junior league movie riffers. It should be watched alone, late at night, or like me very early in the morning before sunrise. Lights off and a quiet house is the best way to go.
This may sound strange coming from an old gorehound, but I like the less-is-more approach to horror. Don't expect a lot of elaborate violence or in-your-face horror. Host is subtle, and you have to watch all the screens very closely. No second screen viewing here. It demands rigid attention or you will miss something.
Host clocks in at a tight sixty-five minutes, which is the perfect length for this sort of movie. We've all seen decent stories padded out to a commercial running time. There's room for Killers of the Flower Moon and also for something shorter than the generally-accepted length of a feature. Especially in a time of way too many three-hour blowfests.
This is one Zoom meeting horror fans won't want to miss. Just hope you don't get bumped off as things are getting good.
Written by Mark Sieber
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