Host uses Zoom and all its familiar conventions marvelously. RELATED: Dave Franco's Horror-Thriller The Rental Is Uneven But Effective

Linard brings a sense of humor to the proceedings while Moore's dynamic performance brings humanity to her character. However, two performances stand out the most: Edward Linard as Teddy and Jemma Moore as Jemma. Most of the actors capture the naturalistic attitude necessary to make a found-footage film feel raw and real. There are few surprises in Host other than that all the pieces of the whole work so well together.Īiding this are the performances. Writers Savage, Gemma Hurley and Jed Shepherd manage to be very economical, utilizing naturalistic writing to ease audiences into a by-now incredibly familiar setting, while also establishing events that will pay off in the second half. This is not uncommon in and of itself, but due to its length, this means that roughly half the film consists of scares that are setup in its first half. The story essentially has two acts: one where we see the friends goofing off and a second where the supernatural hijinks begin. It purportedly takes place over the course of a 'free' Zoom call, and while the runtime's significantly longer than the forty minutes free Zoom calls are really limited to, the plot is tight and quick. However, Host does a few things that sets it apart enough to make it one of the horror highlights of the year.įor one, Host is short at only 56 minutes in length. Host is a found-footage film that owes a lot to movies like Unfriended, The Den and Kairo, using both Zoom and the pandemic as a framing device to tell a familiar story about ghostly and demonic mayhem after friends fail to take the supernatural seriously. The idea of a horror film that takes place on the internet is not new. RELATED: Deep Blue Sea 3 Is Just Another Dumb Shark Movie While one of the friends is very experienced, the others don't take the process all too seriously, until, without warning, they draw the attention of an entity - or series of entities - that has far from their best interests at heart. The film focuses on six friends - Haley, Jemma, Radina, Caroline, Emma and Teddy - who decide during the pandemic to host a seance for fun.

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