The dialogue is funny and authentic, exposition-light, and a completely convincing picture of what a real Zoom call between those people would look like, including acknowledgement of new hairdos, slagging off of Teddy’s girlfriend when he can’t hear, and an incredibly endearing cameo from Caroline’s dad showing off his tan. Like The Blair Witch Project more than 20 years before it, Host opts to use the actors’ real names, and works best because of the incredibly naturalistic performances from all the cast. Radina (Radina Drandova), who moved in with her partner for lockdown, has bigger things to worry about and Teddy (Edward Linard) really just wants to get pissed with his mates. Caroline (Caroline Ward) and Emma (Emma Louise Webb) are more credulous but also more nervous. Jemma (Jemma Moore) is highly sceptical of the whole thing. Haley has done it before and implores her friends to be respectful.
Haley (Haley Bishop) has arranged for her and five mates to get together via Zoom where they will be joined by Seylan (Seylan Baxter), a medium who’s a friend of Haley’s and has agreed to help them communicate with the spirit world. So why not use it to hold a seance? Lots of good reasons, it turns out… Now the video conferencing software is ubiquitous, it’s how many of us run meetings, talk to our friends and family, engage in quizzes, and replicate the pub experience as best we can. Remember July 2019 when lots of people had never even heard of Zoom? We are not in that world anymore. Though Host certainly leans into horror movie tropes that existed before it – you can see shades of The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity and Unfriended here – Host is put together with such ingenuity, particularly given the whole lockdown situation, that it’s difficult not to be somewhat in awe of what Savage and his extraordinary cast and crew have achieved.
The result is Host, a horror set over a Zoom call that couldn’t be more relevant and more zeitgeisty, which will likely secure a place in horror history as a movie that captured a moment which, with any luck, will look like a bizarre blip.
That’s 12 weeks from conception to its appearance on streaming service Shudder. But that’s actually worked to the advantage of director Rob Savage who has managed to create an incredibly timely, sincerely scary and wonderfully shot horror movie in 12 weeks.
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