Host (2020) – Quick Movie Review – Shudder Original Horror Film

Host is a British horror film released in 2020, 
directed by Rob Savage. During the COVID pandemic,  
six friends hold a seance via video, and things 
get more serious than anticipated.

 
Hello, there! I’m dos Santos, and this is Ulven 
Reviews, with Movies and series from all over the  
world and all eras. Today let’s talk about Host.
Some family affairs require that I make shorter  
and simpler videos for one or more weeks. Because 
of that, I choose simpler movies, as well.  
We’ll see how things unfold, and I hope to 
normalize everything as soon as possible.
 
Before we start, I would like to 
ask you to subscribe to our channel,  
give the video a like, and share it on your social 
media. Comments would also be very appreciated.  
Thanks a lot, here we go!
Haley (played by Haley Bishop)  
contacted Seylan (played by Seylan Baxter), a 
medium, to lead a seance via videoconference  
with her four female friends Jemma (played by 
Jemma Moore), Emma (played by Emma Louise Webb),  
Radina (played Radina Drandova), and Caroline 
(played by Caroline Ward) and one male friend,  
Teddy (played by Edward Linard).
 
Already during the seance, Teddy’s inconvenient 
girlfriend takes him out of the call, Seylan’s  
internet connection keeps dropping, and Jemma 
is not taking the ritual seriously enough. So,  
the realm of the spirits is not pleased with 
the seance and will take action.

 
Host is a movie with a great premise for 
its use of our current COVID situation.  
The horror aspect itself is

not very
original, so it’s the use of this new
circumstance where the brilliance resides.
I knew very little about the movie before
watching it, so I didn’t know what could
happen. I kept looking all over the screen
and waiting for something supernatural to
scare me at any point. That only makes the
tension grow higher, and it was the tensest
I got in a movie in a long, long time.

Talking about scares, I get startled when shit
jump on my face, the infamous jump-scare, and I
also admire good creepy imagery. I don’t believe
in God, Satan, spirits, and the supernatural, so I
don’t get scared beyond the movie. However, we can
say the film is “scary” to my limited standard.

Most of the characters are really
relatable for being just ordinary people.
I enjoyed them, with all their peculiarities and
personalities. I just didn’t like Teddy and his
girlfriend because they were annoying.
They’re great as a group, as well.
We can understand the dynamics of the friendship
through their interactions. It makes their
relationship even more believable and easier for
us, the audience, to care for these characters.

Although the cinematography was just
the expected video call quality,
and couldn’t be anything better than that. The
movie was marvelous in the settings and framing.
These aspects were perfect for us to stay alert
for something that might be happening in the
background, keeping us always tense.
Host is a very simplistic film executed
with perfection. It gets an ordinary
occurance of our life during the pandemic
and turns it into a really solid horror
movie. I’ll give Host 7 Moons.

 
That’s it for now.
Once again, I encourage you to subscribe to  
our channel, give the video a like and share it on 
your social media. Comments would also be lovely!
 
Some suggested videos will appear on 
the screen in a bit, you might give  
those ones some attention too, if you like.
Thanks for watching. See you in the next video.