Host (Film Review)

2020 Shudder
Directed by: Rob Savage; Written by: Gemma Hurley, Rob Savage, and Jed Shepherd
Starring: Haley Bishop, Jemma Moore, Emma Louise Webb, Radina Drandova, Caroline Ward, Teddy Linard, and Seylan Baxter
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 56 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 7/10

Though COVID-19 has forced Hayley's friend circle to quarantine apart, the group have been meeting weekly by Zoom to stay in touch. Perhaps as an effort to keep things fresh, Hayley has decided that this week, the friends will hold a séance. She's hired a medium and everything, and while their mediator with the dead admits she's never done one of these by video before, she's up for the challenge. However, when one of the group doesn't take things seriously, it seems that in the place of a kindly spirit, a mysterious, malevolent force has arrived, out for mayhem... and blood.
Not only has the found footage horror genre somehow survived over the last 22 years, but it's evolved to match whatever ways people are filming things. 1999's The Blair Witch Project features footage purported to be shot by young folks with a low-res camcorder, and last year, we got Host, a film shot entirely on the videoconferencing software, Zoom. Most people never heard of Zoom before March of 2020, when the majority of the U.S. population went into at-home quarantine, but rather unfortunately, it's become a staple of many of our weekly lives, even as quarantine fades into the rearview.
Horror, at its best, can present metaphors for our deepest issues and fears. The anxieties of last year's quarantine, where we were physically separated from friends and loved ones and in constant fear of a mysterious virus, is certainly something explored by Host. When weird and eventually harmful stuff starts to befall the friends in the film, the others can do little more than sit there and offer up a panicked "are you okay?!" While timely, Host also falls into the general rhythms and patterns of the found-footage genre. The budget is small and the acting is raw. You know after a short while that you won't see much because the budget simply doesn't allow for it--and considering this genre is predicated on only showing you a little, Host is tailor-made for success. The film has to mainly rely on jump scares, and though you'll know they're coming, they're still mostly effective.
There is thankfully some creativity within the Zoom frame, as well. For instance, one girl has created a looped background of herself walking into her room and walking around. This means, not only can we not see what's actually happening behind her, but when she gets up, she vanishes, and we can't tell what's happening to her...or what will be happening to her when she arrives back in the frame. Overall, I didn't find much to fear in Host...but I applaud is timeliness and its efforts. It's a solid hour of entertainment.