Director Rob Savage’s latest horror film, Host, premiered exclusively on Shudder, and features an imperative means of communication during the current global pandemic, Zoom. While found footage films have by and large lost their ability to frighten audiences, this all too familiar platform mixed with the presence of COVID-19 in the film makes for an all new fear factor and a scarier movie.
Paranormal found footage films gained immense popularity with franchises such as Paranormal Activity. When Unfriended released in 2014, the subgenre implemented a new means of portraying the horrific events that unfold while a webcam records it. The film received generally mixed reviews but it remained a refreshing new take on found footage films that were starting to become predictable and stale. In 2018, its sequel Unfriended: Dark Web released and was fairly successful despite its convoluted themes that were lost as the film progressed. Despite the few films in the webcam found footage realm, they have yet to receive the recognition for creating genuine frights, but Host changed that.
Host is not unique in its use of webcam footage and the paranormal aspects depicted in it, but it is a time-specific horror film unlike any other. There are a multitude of factors that make it one of the scariest films to come out of 2020, but its use of the COVID-19 pandemic is the most remarkable element in elevating the movie's terror.
Host & COVID-19’s Impact On The Film
Rob Savage wrote, developed, and directed the film in its entirety during quarantine, which means this film was made in approximately four months. It is an impressive feat to make such a strikingly horrific film such as Host in such a short time frame. Ultimately, without COVID-19, it is likely that the film would not have been made, or it could have taken an entirely different route. Regardless, the entirety of Host is based on the pandemic and the means of communication people have utilized, such as Zoom. In the context of quarantine and the individual characters, nearly all of them live alone. Therefore, they have no one to turn to except for a webcam for comfort from the evil entity threatening their lives.
Haley, Jemma, Emma, Caroline, and Radina are quite literally alone without any means of finding comfort in a neighbor, friend, or family member. There’s a level of risk that comes with social interactions in a pandemic setting. Each of these women are given two choices: stay in their apartment and possibly die or leave their apartment and possibly contract COVID-19. This specific use of current events creates an all new sense of isolation. Cabin in the woods films, for example, normally benefit from characters being left by themselves in an unfamiliar environment. However, it's rare that a paranormal film takes isolation so literally and transforms the most familiar place in a person’s life into the epicenter of horror.
Host mixes elements of the paranormal, the familiar, technology, and current events in order to create one of the most horrifying found footage films of all time. Rob Savage masterfully wrapped COVID-19 into the narrative of the film, but ensured that it didn’t overshadow the paranormal aspects. The fact that he was able to use a platform society by and large are familiar with—such as Zoom—and transform it into a horrifying tool used by an evil entity solidifies Host’s position as an integral film in horror history during the pandemic.