Review: Host

Cinema & Digital: Host (2020)

How do you make a successful film, on a low budget, during a global pandemic, coupled with a lockdown on movement?

Ask director Rob Savage because he has nailed it.

Starring Haley Bishop, Jemma Moore, Emma Louise Webb, Radina Drandova, and Caroline Ward, Host tells the story of a group of friends meeting on Zoom for a séance during lockdown.

Refreshingly, lockdown is mentioned, but not ad nauseam, so that ‘after this is all over’, this film will be watchable without masks and being 2 meters apart and locked in being a problem.

Haley has asked a medium, Seylan, to join the group in their weekly meeting, and as we get an insight into each of the friends personalities when Jemma claims to have made contact with Jack. a friend who committed suicide, things start to get weird.  Jemma admits that she made Jack up because nothing was happening, but creepy things DO start to happen.
Things break, legs are seen hanging from the ceiling, people are dragged out of chairs.

Bear in mind we see all the action as if we’re a participant on zoom.
Comparisons can be made to Paranormal Activity in tone and story and actually what’s on screen, but this still packs a punch and has some very JUMPY and creepy moments that made me squirm. It’s also quite a short film, so that makes the frights more intense.

To say any more would ruin a great experience for anyone who hasn’t watched it yet.

We at 60MW Towers, and also Thom (who’d seen it during Frightfest), really enjoyed it.

HOST will be released in cinemas and on digital platforms on 4th December.

Review by Tina from a streaming link kindly supplied by Vertigo Releasing via Fetch Publicity.