Host is a 2020 independent British supernatural horror film directed by Rob Savage. The film takes place entirely in a screencast of a Zoom video call, and was shot during the COVID-19 Pandemic directly through Zoom over a 12-week period, also setting its story in the pandemic as well. It was released exclusively through Shudder on July 30, 2020, the same day the events of the film take place.
The film revolves around a group of six friends who hire a medium to conduct a virtual séance. However, they get far more than they bargained for as things quickly go wrong. When the possibility emerges that the strange happenings they start to witness may be the doings of an evil spirit that has invaded their homes, the group begins to realize they might not survive the night.
Savage developed Host as the feature-length version of a short prank skit of his that went viral on social media in which he investigated strange sounds in his attic while on a Zoom call with a group of friends, including some of the eventual cast for Host, and captured their genuine reactions. The cast and crew set up their own cameras, lighting, and stunts.
This film contains examples of:
- Alone with the Psycho: Emma is left completely alone shortly after Teddy's death. The spirit hunts her down and kills her the second she attempts to escape her apartment.
- Back for the Dead: Teddy leaves the call early on, and is attacked and killed by the spirit soon after re-joining.
- Creative Closing Credits: The people who worked on the film are presented in a list as participants of the Zoom call after the call ends.
- Credits Gag: Going along with the previous trope, the credit for sound designer Calum Sample appropriately has its camera off and the microphone on full volume reacting to the sound of static crackling.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The spirit favours some horrific deaths, including bashing one person's head against their own computer and setting another on fire.
- Decoy Protagonist: Haley. she starts the Zoom call, instigates the plot, is implied to already be haunted, and has top billing. However, she gets dragged away about 3/4 of the way through the movie, only appearing alive again at the very end just before she gets killed. Jemma is the film's actual protagonist.
- Downer Ending: It appears as though nobody is left alive by the end, as the only ones not explicitly killed — Haley and Jemma — are last seen having the spirit lunge at them right before the Zoom call ends.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The movie has its events happen over less than one hour, occurring during a Real Time Zoom call that lasts about 50 minutes before ending.
- Facial Horror: From what we see of the spirit's physical form at the end, it seems to have had its face ripped off.
- Failed a Spot Check: Radina completely misses Alan's corpse hanging just above her while going to the bathroom.
- Found Footage: In a similar manner as films like Unfriended and Searching, the entire film takes place on a computer, and presents a realistic (supernatural elements notwithstanding) depiction of a Zoom call.
- Haunted House: The opening scene has poltergeist activity occurring throughout Haley's house before the séance even begins, implying her home was already haunted.
- Hope Spot: With Seylan cut off, the girls attempt to replicate her instructions to banish the spirit. They briefly believe they were successful. If anything, their efforts only made things worse as they start dropping like flies the second they believe they've succeeded.
- Jump Scare: The film is packed with sudden shocks, especially in the second half once things go sideways. The film even ends with one courtesy of the spirit lunging towards the screen, although this one is kind of predictable because you can see there are only a few seconds remaining before the call automatically ends.
- Kill the Lights: The spirit is fond of shutting off or outright destroying lights.
- Meaningful Background Event: Alan's hanging body can be seen in the background when Radina goes to use the bathroom shortly before the Jump Scare where it's dropped onto the ground.
- Neck Snap: Teddy's girlfriend Jinny is killed this way by the spirit after being lifted into the air.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: The spirit makes short work of its prey, systematically killing them off one by one without any warning over the course of about 20 minutes. It is also smart enough to go out of its way to cut Seylan off from them, as she's the only one capable of banishing it. Its deadly efficiency leaves the entire cast presumably dead by the end of the film.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The movie was written, produced, and released in the middle of the COVID19 pandemic, and said pandemic is baked right into the very premise of the movie.
- See the Invisible: Once Emma realizes the spirit is in her home, she tries this with flour (generating footprints) and then again with a robe (which drapes over the invisible spirit). It kills her anyway.
- Spooky Séance: Conducting one over Zoom is what kicks off the plot.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: As soon as he runs outside, Teddy sees his girlfriend and yells out for her. She instantly gets jerked into the air, has her neck snapped, and is then dropped into the pool below her.
- The Nameless: The spirit is never identified — nobody even attempts to identify it, for that matter — and it is referred to in the credits simply as "The Spirit".
- Too Dumb to Live: Multiple example, but Emma takes the cake. She comes across a floating mask in the middle of her house, tries to touch it and attracts the attention of the spirit, then reasonably throws some flour around to try and see something invisible. When footsteps DO appear, she runs out of the room, stops, then TURNS AROUND and walks back towards the room again. When the spirit follows her yet again and actually grabs her before letting her go, instead of even attempting to get out of her house, she runs and hides under a blanket and just sits there crying while she watches other people die until it finally gets around to coming back for her and she FINALLY tries to actually run away.
- Uncertain Doom:
- Jemma and Haley's fates are unknown after the spirit attacks them, as the Zoom call ends at the instant it does so.
- Seylan's ultimate fate is left unknown as well — the spirit makes absolutely certain to cut her off from the others, but just before she gets cut from the Zoom call, Seylan can see something moving toward her.
- Caroline's father also disappears shortly after the haunting begins, and is never seen again after the opening scene.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- Jemma is the one to come up with someone to contact for their seance. Unfortunately, she invents a story out of whole cloth with no actual spirit to contact, meaning anything can slip through to contact them. Including something demonic.
- Haley has apparently been conducting multiple séances throughout the pandemic, and the film implies her house was haunted long before the ill-fated séance. Haley neglects to mention this throughout the entire film. It's implied that Jemma's lie gave the spirit already haunting Haley the power to manifest and attack everyone else on the Zoom call.
