Host. (15.)
Directed by Rob Savage.
Starring Haley Bishop, Jemma Moore, Emma Louise Webb, Radina Drankova, Caroline Ward and Edward Linard. Out on Limited Edition Blu-ray from Second Sight Films. 57 mins
When Michael Bay attempted a lockdown action film, Songbird, set in a 2024 ravaged by Covid-23, audiences were repelled by it. Too soon. In contrast, the cheeky opportunism of this British horror film set entirely in a quarantine zoom meeting has been widely welcomed as a perfect way of letting off steam and venting frustrations and fears.
Beyond the novelty, there's nothing new here. It's a girls-hold-a-séance-that-goes-wrong plot with the kind of jump scares that have been the currency of every found footage horror since Blair Witch. Even the horror film set entirely on a laptop screen has been seen before in the Unfriended films. These are old scares, but done well.
There's an easy, unforced realism to the setting up of the five ladies trying to spice up their regular boozy Zoom get together with a larky attempt to contact the other side. They do genuinely seem like friends and you really don't think anything can happen to them. What Host does particularly well is the transition from normality to danger. In the five boxes on the screen, they all seem so secure as to be almost impregnable. Stripping away this safety, particularly in a time when we have been drummed into the idea that home is the only safe place, is exquisitely unnerving. Best of all, it doesn't outstay its welcome but those 57 minutes feel like a full-length feature film.
Does this deserve a bells-on blu-ray release? Having grown wearily accustomed to seeing films on pisspoor steaming links, it seemed perverse to have to wait on the vagaries of the British postal system rather than see it in its natural habitat. It's worth the disc though partly to appreciate the care that has gone into the composition and for two short films made by Savage. Salt, starring Alice Lowe, is as intense a calling card as any filmmaker could hope for. In two minutes it sets up its premise – a mother and daughter menaced by a demon that can only be held back by rings of salt – and just hammers it. No back story, no explanation but just pure intensity. It probably doesn't say anything more than gissajob, but it does so with berserk intensity. The longer Dawn of the Deaf, 12 minutes, is even better: a weak pun developed into something with depth and invention. They both suggest that this is a man who can make proper films, far more than just a cinematic Del Boy trying to milk the situation
Extras.
New exclusive commentary by Director Rob Savage and Producer Douglas Cox
• New exclusive cast commentary
• New exclusive cast interview
• Behind-the-Scenes feature
• ‘Is There Goblins Now?’ – the original prank video
• ‘Kate Scare’ – prank video test run
• Rob Savage’s short films Dawn of the Deaf and Salt
• The Host Team Séance
• BFI Q&A with Rob Savage, Gemma Hurley, Jed Shepherd, Douglas Cox, Haley Bishop, Brenna Rangott, Caroline Ward
• Evolution of Horror interview with Rob Savage, Gemma Hurley and Jed Shepherd
LIMITED EDTION CONTENTS
• Rigid slipcase featuring new artwork by Thomas Walker
• Perfect-bound booklet with the original story outline and new essays by Ella Kemp and Rich Johnson
• 6 collectors’ art card.
Directed by Rob Savage.
Starring Haley Bishop, Jemma Moore, Emma Louise Webb, Radina Drankova, Caroline Ward and Edward Linard. Out on Limited Edition Blu-ray from Second Sight Films. 57 mins
When Michael Bay attempted a lockdown action film, Songbird, set in a 2024 ravaged by Covid-23, audiences were repelled by it. Too soon. In contrast, the cheeky opportunism of this British horror film set entirely in a quarantine zoom meeting has been widely welcomed as a perfect way of letting off steam and venting frustrations and fears.
Beyond the novelty, there's nothing new here. It's a girls-hold-a-séance-that-goes-wrong plot with the kind of jump scares that have been the currency of every found footage horror since Blair Witch. Even the horror film set entirely on a laptop screen has been seen before in the Unfriended films. These are old scares, but done well.
There's an easy, unforced realism to the setting up of the five ladies trying to spice up their regular boozy Zoom get together with a larky attempt to contact the other side. They do genuinely seem like friends and you really don't think anything can happen to them. What Host does particularly well is the transition from normality to danger. In the five boxes on the screen, they all seem so secure as to be almost impregnable. Stripping away this safety, particularly in a time when we have been drummed into the idea that home is the only safe place, is exquisitely unnerving. Best of all, it doesn't outstay its welcome but those 57 minutes feel like a full-length feature film.
Does this deserve a bells-on blu-ray release? Having grown wearily accustomed to seeing films on pisspoor steaming links, it seemed perverse to have to wait on the vagaries of the British postal system rather than see it in its natural habitat. It's worth the disc though partly to appreciate the care that has gone into the composition and for two short films made by Savage. Salt, starring Alice Lowe, is as intense a calling card as any filmmaker could hope for. In two minutes it sets up its premise – a mother and daughter menaced by a demon that can only be held back by rings of salt – and just hammers it. No back story, no explanation but just pure intensity. It probably doesn't say anything more than gissajob, but it does so with berserk intensity. The longer Dawn of the Deaf, 12 minutes, is even better: a weak pun developed into something with depth and invention. They both suggest that this is a man who can make proper films, far more than just a cinematic Del Boy trying to milk the situation
Extras.
New exclusive commentary by Director Rob Savage and Producer Douglas Cox
• New exclusive cast commentary
• New exclusive cast interview
• Behind-the-Scenes feature
• ‘Is There Goblins Now?’ – the original prank video
• ‘Kate Scare’ – prank video test run
• Rob Savage’s short films Dawn of the Deaf and Salt
• The Host Team Séance
• BFI Q&A with Rob Savage, Gemma Hurley, Jed Shepherd, Douglas Cox, Haley Bishop, Brenna Rangott, Caroline Ward
• Evolution of Horror interview with Rob Savage, Gemma Hurley and Jed Shepherd
LIMITED EDTION CONTENTS
• Rigid slipcase featuring new artwork by Thomas Walker
• Perfect-bound booklet with the original story outline and new essays by Ella Kemp and Rich Johnson
• 6 collectors’ art card.
