I'm not sure my reaction to Host would be the same in any other year, but it being 2020, and 2020 being...what it is, I thought it was just great.
It's really kind of ingenious, a meta bit of horror set in the now, centered on something so many of us have gotten used to - the Zoom party - filmed the only way a horror movie really could safely be filmed right now - using Zoom (or at least, the appearance of Zoom).
It's a movie that is about this year, that is also a result of this year.
In my post about Lake Mungo I mention my general disappointment in the majority of "mock doc" and found footage sub-genre of horror movies, post The Blair Witch Project, and I think one of the things a lot of those movies do wrong is repetition. Show something fishy happening on a blurry video for two hours and it loses its shock value. Host avoids this curse because, for one thing, it is barely an hour long. And for another, its multi-screen viewpoint is basically built in variety.
It's not perfect. It relies a little too heavily on jump scares instead of creepiness, and some characters do the same dumb things horror movie characters always seem to do. (Who in their right mind would go look in the attic --any attic!-- to find out what that noise is?!) But that said, I definitely jumped a few times, and found myself yelling at the screen, which is much less embarrassing when you're alone at home. Ironic, isn't it?
Host is currently streaming on Shudder.
1 comment:
Really enjoyed this film and liked the ending better on a rewatch.
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