Host (2020)

I saw a trailer for this appearing on the IMDB homepage and I told my wife to look it up! Looks good! The movie was very in the moment as far as the quarantine, and a lot of people can find that relatable. Plenty of jump scares and I was on the edge of my seat! Very entertaining and it kept my interest. The acting looked intense and real. These people looked terrified! Getting down to the point, I thought this movie was great and It's not even an hour, so even If you're a hater and don't like it, it wasn't much time lost. Peace.

Fmovies: ... in this lockdown inspired thrill that sees a group of girlfriends take part in a Zoom seance that leaves them with a little more than they originally bargained for. Not for the faint of heart and brilliant.

I'm no great fan of horror, but I had seen several of the director's short films, including the 2 minute video that led to this one, so I got a trial on the horror channel just to watch this. I've also only used Zoom once, and rarely use video during conference calls, so in that sense I am not quite target audience for this. Despite this it worked very well. The plot sees a group of friends all stuck in their various homes, using Zoom to get together and do a virtual séance for a bit of fun. Sticking with the Zoom format in a sort of 'found-footage' approach for the modern age, it follows the séance as it 'goes wrong'.

At a tight 60 minutes running time, the film doesn't waste a lot of time, but opens nicely so that we are in familiar territory - the technical issues, the glitches, the slightly forced air of 'fun', the people who put in too much effort, and the people who are showing off a bit too obviously. Whether you find that engaging or annoying, it is certainly convincing. From here we move into the bangs and odd occurrences, and things escalate quickly. The cast do a lot of good work in convincing of their fear - and given that mostly we are focused on faces looking at screens, it is an important factor. Mostly the scares are jump scares, but the consistency of them does create its own mood and tension. It is very much a genre piece, with Blair Witch, (Rec.), and endless other horrors in its construct - rather than seem derivative though, it manages to feel like it is drawing on the past to inform the current; it may not date well, but certainly for the current time the use of lockdown, isolations, Zoom chats etc, it does fit and works well.

Best watched like you're on the call - on a laptop in a darkened room.

Host fmovies. It's unfortunately a little bit dull until the last 20 minutes. Things kick into gear with a particularly well-executed (and properly set up!) jump scare, and then escalate accordingly.

Even then, the finale isn't that much more impressive than the final act in your average paranormal horror movie, but the ZOOM stuff does become a bit more than a gimmick at that point, with some clever ways to deliver scares in a slightly new way.

Until then though, it's a bit dull, with characters + a set up and middle third that feel like a pretty standard horror movie.

Still, it delivers some pretty decent spoopiness in just under an hour, so I'd say it's worth a watch for horror fans.

This movie is terrible! Who on earth carries their notebooks around the house, to check on noises and such?! Complete waste of time.

Happen to see this movie by chance and was blown away. The best part of this is movie is original and the brilliant writing keeps us glued towards the seat. The entire zoom concept was nice and interesting, which makes this stand apart from other session based or found footage movies. All the lead characters portrayal was great and the casting was aptly done. All the vfx shots was pretty much credible and gives genuine scare. Though initial few moments dragged a bit, it was for the ambience to keep us hooked. Once in, it was dark and ominous then. Being an avid horror genre fan, have got accustomed to most of the cliche based movies. But this gem which was made on shoe string budget would be one to look out for! Don't miss this movie!!!