Subscribe to "Superhost" for Gracie Gillam's flat-out insane performance

Superhost (2021)


Without going full-blast with the found-footage format, homestay vlogging horror-thriller “Superhost” exploits a timely fear and takes a bleaker-than-expected outlook on using Airbnb. Written and directed by Brandon Christensen (who’s back on the Shudder Original wagon after 2020’s startling imaginary-friend chiller “Z”), the film goes where viewers expect it to go, only to knock the wind out of them later. Residing in the same community as Patrick Brice’s “Creep” and “Creep 2”—the disconcerting, darkly amusing found-footage horror movies where Mark Duplass played a psycho—“Superhost” makes for an engaging weekend nightmare, relieving awkward tension with nervous chuckles.


Travel vlogging couple Teddy (Osric Chau) and Claire (Sara Canning) go to different vacation rental homes and share those experiences with their subscribers. This time, Teddy loops in their viewers that he’s planning to propose to Claire during their latest stay. Arriving at the mountain home they booked, the couple can’t seem to get in with the alarm code (and their cell service is spotty), only for the host, Rebecca (Gracie Gillam), to pop in. Rebecca seems very friendly and hospitable, and she really doesn’t want Teddy and Claire to give her a bad review. Once realizing they’re losing followers, Claire decides to pivot their angle with their latest “superhost” who has cameras set up all over the house and may be out of her mind. 


Osric Chau and Sara Canning are likable enough and bring the fake on-camera energy as Teddy and Claire. The legendary Barbara Crampton also swings by as “The Bitch from Draper,” an angry homeowner that our protagonists rented from, in an extended cameo that initially doesn’t go how we expect. But you come to “Superhost” to see the hostess with the mostess go cray-cray. Gracie Gillam (2015’s “Tales of Halloween”)—not Elizabeth Olsen—commits to the manic, lunatic Rebecca, switching from short-fused death threats to giddy enthusiasm on a dime, even with blood spattered on her face. Her Rebecca will just cackle at non-jokes, while Teddy and Claire quietly stare at her, that it makes one nervous waiting for her to finally snap. The first act of violence is both quick and brutal, and the end payoff is cruelly effective, though it seems it could have concluded differently had our lead couple put their heads together and not go back to the house. “Superhost” won’t provide an unforgettable stay in your mind, but it sure has some solid shocks and a big, flat-out insane performance from Gracie Gillam.


Grade: B -


Shudder is releasing “Superhost” (83 min.) to stream on September 2, 2021.

Comments