It was only a matter of time before the first films inspired by the lockdown periods imposed by COVID-19 appeared. ‘Host‘ (2020) by British director Rob Savage is not only one of the first horror films made during the pandemic, but it is a film that uses the collective experience of what we have lived through and are living through in the last year. Zoom teleconferencing software with which at least half of humanity has become familiar is one of the main technical means that define the film both visually and thematically. It can be said that ‘Host‘ has the ambition to become something similar to what was ‘The Blair Witch Project‘ over 20 years ago, only that the role of the video camera is taken over by Zoom teleconferencing. Remarkably, the ambitions of the director and the producers are largely achieved.
Six friends (five women and one man) meet in a Zoom conference, one of those that have become familiar for many people during long and repeated periods of lockdown. Everyone is at home, in the environment in which they feel best. For entertainment, they decide to invite a medium who will organise a spiritualism seance on Zoom. The guest warns them that although it takes place online, the seance can summon the spirits, that there may be signs of the presence of those who have left this world and that the spirits must be respected. The friends don’t really take the warnings or the session in general very seriously. The man leaves the conference after a few minutes, one of the girls allows herself a prank of those that can arouse spirits, the internet connection of the medium moderator is interrupted, and from here things start to get complicated. We slip into the world of internet spiritism, which turns out to be a nightmare. Lockdown can protect against viruses, but not from the actions of spirits.
Rob Savage makes excellent use of Zoom conferencing conventions to build the visual concept of the film and to create the feeling of fantastic. One of the laws of the genre says that the horror effect is amplified when dangers appear unexpectedly in an environment that is familiar and that normally suggests protection. Zoom conferences have become a psychological comfort for us by connecting with the world, family, friends. In the film, they do represent a socialising framework between friends at first, but as things get more complicated the temporary virtual community created by the conference turns into a space gradually invaded by horror. The familiar Zoom grid is used to create the split screen effect in which some of the participants are spectators, only to become actors or even victims. The effect is effective and shocking. The film lasts a little less than an hour, which would be too little for a commercial distribution but works perfectly in screening. I think Rob Savage did very well not to add time, and in addition the duration of the movie falls within a standard duration for many Zoom conferences. The actors’ performances are all excellent and the remote interaction works just as well as in any conference. ‘Host‘ is a minimalist and efficient film, intelligently using convention and transforming the computing environment limitations into qualities and means of expression. I read that director Rob Savage is preparing a new film that could be considered a sequel. I just hope that it will include enough new and independent material. The precedent exists, as the sequel films of ‘The Blair Witch Project‘, although much more generously funded, were far from equaling the success of the original. The expectations created by ‘Host‘ are high.