Host (2020) Movie Review: How the “Quar-Horror” Speaks to Our Greatest Fears

By: Ashley Welling

Host is a delightfully entertaining, tension-filled, and truly unique horror movie inspired by the challenges of staying connected during a global pandemic. In April 2020, Host writer and director, Rob Savage, decided to use his filmmaking skills to play a particularly scary prank on his friends during one of their regular Zoom hangouts. On the video call, Savage tells his friends about strange sounds he’s been hearing in the attic before taking them with him to discover the source. 

Thanks to some expert editing and clever sleight of hand, the attic clip his friends see is actually from the movie REC, a Spanish horror film about a TV crew quarantined in a building during a deadly virus outbreak. Savage posted the two-minute video of the prank to Twitter where it went viral, becoming one of the first “quar-horror” short films of it’s kind. The short was so successful, in fact, that Savage decided to create a feature-length version based on a similar spooky premise. 

Is Anyone With Us? 

Shot remotely over 12 weeks, the 56-minute film follows six friends as they attempt to hold a seance over Zoom. To add to the sinister sense of reality, most of the characters have the same first names as the actors portraying them. The tension starts in the first frames as Haley (Haley Bishop) opens the call with a facial expression of quiet unease. Jemma (Jemma Moore) is the next to join and it’s clear right away she’s going to be a bit of an antagonizer — laughing as her phone and computer audio cause screeching sounds that push Haley from tense to fully annoyed. Soon, Emma (Emma Louise Webb) and the others join the call and we get lighthearted conversations that clue us in to the early-pandemic timeline. Caroline (Caroline Ward) laughs about the laments of moving back in with parents who aren’t taking government regulations seriously, while Radina (Radina Drandova) moved in too quickly with a new partner and is starting to feel a bit stuck. 

Soon, Haley invites the medium, Seylan (Seylan Baxter), into the meeting and the seance officially begins. From Seylan getting a package delivered right when she asks the spirits for a knock to Jemma playing a prank on the group with a fake encounter, the spooky session is off to a comedic start. These silly moments serve to build the tension even more as audiences prepare themselves for the part that’s not actually a joke. As the action starts to pick up, everyone watches helplessly as their friends face off against a sinister spirit bent on taking advantage of their isolation from each other.

Practical Magic 

To keep everyone as safe as possible, practical effects were left up to the actors to create in their own homes. Kitchen cabinets blasting open, objects moving and falling over, all of it was impressively carried out by the cast after only a few crash courses. For the more body-focused effects, Savage leveraged a team of stunt professionals living with one of the actors. To set the scene, the stunt team found rooms in their own home that looked similar to the actors’ homes and carried out their stunts in there. 

As the demonic activity ramps up and characters start meeting their demise, Zoom reminds the group that the meeting will end in ten minutes if they don’t upgrade to a paid account. This quick break from the chaos on screen serves as a clever tension-builder, giving the audience a clue that the climax is just around the corner. 

As the final seconds count down, we get one final jump before the screen cuts and the meeting ends, leaving the fate of the survivors up to audience interpretation.

A Subgenre Is Born 

Coined in an NPR article from August 2020, quar-horror exemplifies the fears and feelings amplified by COVID-19. Isolation, disconnection, and overwhelming helplessness all dominate the atmosphere throughout. Production of these films operates under a lot of constraints, the health and safety of cast and crew being paramount, of course. As a result, they can be a bit lo-fi — relying less on spectacle and more on building the tension around what you can’t see. 

As the first feature-length film to fit into the category, Host feels like a look back at the early, more optimistic days of quarantine. Friends getting together in a virtual environment and playing games, hosting happy hours, and catching up in a space that is a little glitchy, but good enough for now. Unlike a virtual game night, however, the friendly hangout in Host quickly takes a sharp turn towards the demonic. 

Overall, Host is an expertly crafted, creative horror film that will appeal to both genre lovers and the more casual viewer alike. Excellent acting, clever editing, and a strong vision for how to navigate the anxieties of the time make Host a film that will stay relevant long after the pandemic is over.