Host (VOD) – Movie Review
While it’s hard to keep track of how many movies have been called ‘The Host’ the last few years, the next movie tries to drop the titular ‘The’ from the equation to diversify itself from the competition. Rob Savage’s short horror flick revolves around hosting an online séance in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. All participants are close friends, who sadly, because of the measurements in place, cannot see each other in real life. We get to see what happens when summoning spirits goes horribly wrong.
Host’s story is quite simple as it revolves around a group of friends who wish to do a séance via a Zoom call. As they are confined to their homes, and not allowed to do social activities together, they planned a special evening such as this, to still experience new things. Haley (Haley Bishop), who organized everything, asks her friends to be serious and open-minded when listening to the medium and contacting the spirit realm. When Jemma (Jemma Moore) treats the entire experience as a joke, it seems they summoned an evil spirit into their homes, with a very bloody outcome.
The flow is quite decently handled, but then again, with the movie only spanning around 60 minutes, it’s hard to make such a short experience dull or boring. That being said, the intro does take some time and it actually gives you the impression that all ‘action’ will be squeezed into the last five minutes. The opposite soon becomes reality, and you’ll find yourself thoroughly entertained with the ‘spooky business’ that unfolds. Minimalistic as the movie may be sometimes, as it’s in the ‘found footage’ genre, a lot of effects have still been nicely handled.
While some of the cast members have had very small parts in big productions, the faces you’ll see throughout the movie will not look familiar to most viewers. Nonetheless, as the cast comprises mainly young women, these ladies do a very good job at portraying how a situation like this would play out. No Oscars will be awarded at the end of the film, but everything feels rather natural, from the bickering between the girls to the panic that follows suit.
As we watched the VOD version of Host, there weren’t any special features to explore. We wonder if this is included with the regular version or not, but after the credits, we saw the actual team behind the movie, including Rob Savage, perform a Zoom séance. While nothing special happens in these extra ten minutes, it is still a fun addition that the team actually tried to experience what they wanted to mimic in the movie, albeit in a non-horrific fashion.
Conclusion
What first seemed like an arts-project that got out of hand, actually turned into an interesting bite-sized horror experience. While even for the short experience that is Host, the stage has to be set properly and this might be a bit dull for some viewers. Nonetheless, things do get interesting and impressively handled the further you delve into the experience. Those looking for a proper horror experience may find it in Host.
Host (VOD) - Movie Review,
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