Written by Gemma Hurley, Rob Savage and Jed Shepherd
Directed by Rob Savage
Starring Haley Bishop, Jemma Moore, Emma Louise Webb, Radina Drandova, Caroline Ward, Edward Linard, Seyland Baxter, Jinny Lofthouse, Alan Emrys, Patrick Ward and James Swanton
UK, 2020
HOST is an interesting modern horror flick to watch right after UNFRIENDED because they both take place on a computer screen and although they're only five years apart from each other, they represent a huge gulf in not only technology but also culture. The world changed a lot in those five years.
I say HOST takes place all on a computer screen, but really, more specifically, it's all during a Zoom call, something few of us had heard of or participated in before 2020 and which almost all of us know about now. Just like in the real world, HOST takes place during the COVID lockdown, and features characters split up not just be geography but also by the pandemic, coming together online for companionship and... a seance! Ooooh.
Where in UNFRIENDED I thought to myself, "Did teens really hang out on Skype in 2015?" with HOST I had no such reservations, not only because I lived through lockdown, but also because the nature of the film's setting makes meeting online a necessity as opposed to just a decision.
While UNFRIENDED wins points for the authenticity of its representation of an online experience, HOST goes a step further by actually exploiting the quirks of Zoom and using them as both moments of humor but also as moments of suspense. My favorite part was towards the end as the terror was ramping up and a message popped up to alert everyone that since they were using the free version of Zoom, their session is about to expire... and then we watch it count down in real time until... well, that'd be a spoiler.
I'd say director Rob Savage has a promising career ahead of him except I don't have to -- he's already made THE BOOGEY MAN, which I reviewed earlier this month, and found surprisingly satisfying. So good on him!
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