Host - The Paranormal Activity of Our Lockdown Generation
Well, 2020 will obviously go down in the history books. But what will go down in the horror history books will be a much different story. On July 30th, 2020, horror fans were gifted the movie Host; A Shudder original that will be the Paranormal Activity of our lockdown generation.
A scary, wild look into a Zoom meeting séance gone completely wrong, Host perfectly encapsulates what we’re going through in the pandemic part of 2020.
Premise:
Six fiends hire a medium to hold a séance over Zoom during lockdown. But when the medium’s internet gives out, leaving the six friends stuck in the middle of a séance gone wrong, the friends must fight for their lives to survive in their own homes.
Rob Savage directed this insane flick completely remotely and co-wrote the script with Gemma Hurley and Jed Shepherd. It took place in the actor’s own homes and stars Haley Bishop, Radina Drandova, Edward Linard, Jemma Moore, Caroline Ward and Emma Louise Webb.
Here’s what I loved (full spoilers):
This is a super effective jump scare flick! I dare you to watch it with the lights off and your headphones in. It’s a pretty short film but we manage to get a tone of great understanding of who these characters are before diving in. Haley, the leader of this adventure, obviously takes this very seriously and has a lot of faith in Seylan, the medium. But while the other women range from believers to “bored in the house and I’m in the house bored”, Jemma truly doesn’t believe at first. She makes up her own ghostly experience and a ghost named Jack to fuck with her friends.
And most of the first few “jumps” are based on fake experiences with Jemma. I love this because when the real scares start to take place, you’re just as much a skeptic as the rest of the girls until we quickly realize as things escalate – this is very real.
There’s some really fun scares here – I think my favorite moment is when Caroline hears noises in her attic and as she’s panning the camera around, we see a set of pale, naked legs dangling above her. Reminded me of the spooky scene in Sixth Sense in the school. I also really enjoyed the use of the silly filters. People on Snapchat for the past few years have been convinced they’re catching spirits on camera as they use these face filters. The filter only shows up when it recognizes a face. But on Snapchat people have caught filters hanging in mid air as if the app recognizes a face that we can’t see. Host plays on that a lot with Emma’s camera as well as using equally effective ghost moments; footprints in the flour, blankets hanging in mid air over an invisible figure, lights swaying, etc.
As things ramp up, the deaths start to happen and it gets surprisingly violent for a ghost flick. Radina witnesses her boyfriend somehow fall from the ceiling and slam into the ground dead, Caroline’s face is continuously smashed into the computer keyboard until she’s a bloody mess, Emma is thrown out the door and onto a picnic table that shatters and splinters. And worst of all, in my opinion, their friend Teddy who only makes a brief cameo, watches his girlfriend be thrown up into the air, neck snapped, and dumped unceremoniously into the pool. Quickly followed by Teddy being knocked out and set on fire, only to wake when it’s too late.
But ultimately, the real secret fear in this movie is still the quarantine we’re in. When Jemma escapes from her house she ensures she puts a mask over her face first. When she arrives at Haley’s house and finds her alive, the two go to embrace only to stop, laugh nervously, and bump elbows. To me, this is the most horrifying part. Because even with ghosts tearing apart your house and your friends, the pandemic is far deadlier and something we constantly need to be aware of.
Our entire lives have changed in how we interact with other humans and our fears are now around other people coughing near us or not wearing a mask, coming too close to you. Horror is a great placeholder for our anxieties and fear, but subtly Host reminds us that the pandemic is the real horror out there.
So, stay safe folks. Masks on, 6 feet apart, and maybe don’t hold seances over Zoom until 2021, this year has had enough bad luck.
ABOUT SHUDDER:
AMC Networks’ Shudder is a premium streaming video service, super-serving members with the best selection in genre entertainment, covering horror, thrillers and the supernatural. Shudder’s expanding library of film, TV series, and originals is available on most streaming devices in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland and Germany. To experience Shudder commitment-free for 7 days, visit HERE.
Scared to miss a post? Subscribe to our newsletter HERE
Want more horror movie reviews? Just search below:
