Hosts (2020)

It's Welcome to Dinner meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers with new British Indy horror Hosts and this film deserves your time - Young Couple Jack (Neal Ward) & Lauren (Nadia Lamin) are looking forward to sharing their Christmas Dinner with their local friendly neighbours, the family who live close by, consisting of Mum and Dad (Frank Jakeman & Jennifer Preston) Sons Eric & Ben (Lee Hunter & Buddy Skelton) and daughter Cassie (Samantha Loxley) but when some strange lights are seen in the couples garden and Mum has some heavy news to break to the family, you just know things are going to go from Turkey to Tits Up in a matter of a heartbeat over the Yorkshire Pudding.

I won't say any more about the story itself, as we don't want to get into spoilers here.

HOSTS began its life as an on-line Crowd Funding Campaign, via the Youtube channel of its creators, and while it might not be the next Saw of the Horror Genre (Nor should it need to be) it's an extremely well made, tightly directed, film with a number of well thought out camera shots and clever design concepts.

Any indy film without exception always has a more challenging road from script to screen than most and the team behind this movie put it out on line for all to see, so you could follow their journey from day one. While films must always be ultimately reviewed on the final result on the screen (because ultimately that's all your viewing audience cares about) the team of Oakes and Leader are among a small number of the new generation of film-makers, to have made their journey of getting this film out there so transparent. So even if I hated the film, which I didn't, I still wouldn't be dishing out some bell end of a one star review.

HOSTS, yes, was made on a tiny budget, (I think it was 20k?) and is shot around incredible limitations, but the fact that up and coming talents and entertaining comedy duo Leader & Oakes (Check out their amusing and informative channel Dark Fable Media on Youtube) have been able to deliver with a film this polished is a testament to their creativity, passion, drive and skill behind the camera. Few would dare to try such an enterprise with so few resources and such a punishing and extremely short shooting window, let alone those who thoughtlessly would see fit to dismissively give this film a one day star review. (Doing so makes those reviews have absolutely no value and they should be ignored and only underscores the fact that these reviewers have no concept of what makes the genre of horror great in the first place.)

I'm not going to shower the film with endless false praise because it's not a movie without some issues. While occasionally the lack of an adequate budget betrays itself and some moments of the story do jar briefly, the many strengths of the film allow these, for the most part, to be overlooked.The acting is a mixed bag, but all the roles are competently played, with some notable stand out performances (Especially from Samantha Loxley & Buddy Skelton) But from the creepy opening, you know this film will be a little bit different and deliver in the right boxes for it's well worn genre. It's not a film for the faint hearted and probably not one to have on during Christmas Dinner either and what you make of the ending, will depend on how you like to digest your entertainment at the end of your meal.

Oakes and Leader are both self taught at their trade and you can see their numerous informative videos regarding film makin

Fmovies: Acting's ok. script was overstretch time wise. had potential. you may like it. Needed to feel more thrilling , images and sound track ....

I really feel this may be on of the most ferocious horror movies of the year. The acting if first rate, the story feels a little familiar in that it's sort of home invasion movie, but like most interesting indies they make it seem new. This movie is terrifying and there is one scene that is going to blow your mind. It's little indie gem that I feel I've unearthed.......definitely recommend!

Hosts fmovies. Absolutely shocking film. Never got going. People running round with light bulbs in their mouths. Just typical of 2020 with the way it's all gone. I'm %100 sure this has got to be the worst film I have ever seen. Some of the effects look like they have been drawn up by a Nokia 3310....

I love horror movies, and I think that, with only a few exceptions, I haven't watched a non-horror film for 3 years. Some of them were absolutely tremendous, some of them were decent and others were quite poor.

But none of them was absolute garbage. Well, Hosts it is.

The directing, writing, dialogue, cinematography, plot, sound mixing are disgustingly bad. You are sitting in front of your TV hoping that something will happen that will reedem this movie. Maybe one coherent plot point, maybe a decent piece of writing, maybe a good shot. Anything, really. It never happens.

I saw some people bashing the acting, but with this kind of incredibly idiotic directing and writing, you can't really blame them. The had absolutely nothing to work with.

The directors, writers and producers should be ashamed of themselves. In this times, when the movie industry is crashing and talented directors are scraping for a minimal budget, they just insult them by making this sorry excuse of a film.

The fact that this has 5.6 (actually a decent rating for a horror movie) is an absolute joke. If you're thinking of paying money for this, don't, just don't. Just drink them away or gamble.

2* just because I feel bad for the actors. Hope this doesn't end their careers.

Imagine someone writing a script, having a fairly good idea for a horror movie , getting it only 25% done but then having it turned into a film anyway. At first I thought this was going along OK, if not great, with the usual horror film mistakes. The obvious stupidity of characters, the non-reactions when there should be a reaction and scenes that add nothing to the plot. One great scene, well planned out made me think this film might be something exceptional and then just as quickly fell apart as if there were no script at all. More idiot moves on the part of the characters, random scenes that make no sense, many scenes that just go on way too long. You'll be sitting there asking yourself just how stupid any one character can be, or even worse, why is this even happening ? The movie jumps the tracks, crashes and burns until you'll be wishing for it to end. Some of the acting is very bad, but there is nothing to the script after a certain point in the film as if they decided they just needed to finish it and release it without it even making any sense. Awful !