Shut-In Horror: "Host" one of the scariest things to come out of COVID-19 lockdown

Host (2020)

56 min.

Release Date: July 30, 2020 (Shudder)

The thought of a Zoom-call horror film shot during the real-life COVID-19 quarantine seems like a case of "too soon" and more than a little tacky that it would be very easy to write off. What a pleasant surprise, then, that “Host” is one innovative thing to come out of the lockdown (until a vaccine arrives, of course), and it is smartly devised and extremely effective for what it wants to singularly do, which is scare the hell out of you. Whereas some films can’t even achieve their simple goal to entertain, this one is exactly what it needs to be, looking deceptively easy, and does a lot with a little in 56 increasingly nerve-rattling minutes.

During a lockdown one evening, five girlfriends Haley (Haley Bishop), Jemma (Jemma Moore), Emma (Emma Louise Webb), Radina (Radina Drandova) and Caroline (Caroline Ward)—and for a short time, the obnoxious Teddy (Edward Linard)—plan to have a virtual séance on a Zoom call. Before her medium friend Seylan (Seylan Baxter) comes in, Haley makes her friends promise to show respect to the process. As they come to discover, just because these friends are not geographically in the same place does not mean that a supernatural presence can’t play with them all.

Simple, no-budget ingenuity happens to be writer-director Rob Savage’s best friend for the conception and delivery of the lean and mean “Host.” Savage and co-writers Gemma Hurley and Jed Shepherd excel in efficiently setting up characters who feel like friends and aren’t irritating to be around for an hour, and then spooking the viewer vicariously through these five girls. Playing young women with their same first names, the actors—all of them fresh-faced newcomers—are convincing in the heightened emotions they must convey. This is particularly true of Caroline, who's intensely put through the wringer, and the filter-happy Emma, who cowers underneath her covers as she watches her friends disappear from their Zoom windows.

The most accomplished found-footage movies find a way to keep the characters holding the camera or still signed into a chat room, and “Host” never breaks its sustained spell of immediacy. The film showcases how to do right by the blueprint of the “screenlife” horror format and keep the circumstances feeling grounded like another “Paranormal Activity” crossed with 2015’s Skype-based nightmare “Unfriended." The timing of the scares in the dark are also key, and Rob Savage has the appropriate tools to make no-frills silence and anticipation hair-raising. Virtual backgrounds, filters, a polaroid camera, and throwing a blanket over empty space make for fiendishly clever "how did they do that?" tricks that keep one on edge. Tightly paced and running exactly the right amount of time (cleverly as long as a free Zoom call), “Host” is a merciless, goosebump-inducing chiller that might make perfect viewing on your laptop.

Grade: B +