This is the one. It was inevitable that the Covid pandemic would leave some kind of lasting imprint on Art, and it has. But this movie, this is the one more than any other that will forever bear the timestamp of the lockdown, capturing on celluloid all the angst, the zeitgeist and ortgeist, the uncertainty and awkwardness of it all. HOST is the movie literally created by the pandemic, as much of a trendsetter and a placeholder as THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, or any of those other rare films that manage to so perfectly reflect the times in which they were made.
I’d been hearing about this one since it was first created, but had to wait until it got released on DVD before I could see it. Perusing the movie section at my local Walmart, I was thrilled to see it sitting there on the shelf and I promptly snatched it up, took it home and popped the disc into my trusty DVD player. Was HOST worth the wait? Did it live up to the hype? Is it as good as I heard it was? An enthusiastic yes to all three questions!
It isn’t quite perfect. I think they went a little overboard with some of the FX shots. I think they made the movie a little too “big”, too “Hollywood”. This is a relatively minor quibble, though. Also it doesn’t really make sense according to the rules of the movie that the malicious entity would have been able to “get” the guy character, since he technically did not participate in the séance that summoned it. But this too is a minor complaint. HOST is still a good solid A, and deserving of its designation as an instant classic.
