Five reasons why Host is an expression of Covid-19 anxieties
WARNING: SPOILERS. As well as being the first great horror movie filmed during the Covid-19 pandemic, Shudder's Host is of the moment in more ways than one.
Though the scary-as-hell found footage flick has a relatively by-the-numbers plot involving six friends accidentally summoning a demon, dig deeper and there are several intriguing ways it can be seen as an expression of very specific lockdown anxieties.
1/ The title has multiple meanings
The host of a Zoom meeting. The unwitting host of a demonic presence. Yet it also could be the host of a virus like Covid-19. The idea of unwittingly inviting something threatening into our private space - as we see the characters do when they accidentally summon the demon - is very similar to our fear of bringing back the virus to our homes and harming our loved ones.
2/ Together yet alone
What Host does better than fellow desktop found footage film Unfriended is emphasise the simultaneous aloneness and togetherness of the characters. Just joining the Zoom meeting is enough for the demon to get you, as poor Teddy (Edward Linard) finds out. Yet each of the characters are also fundamentally alone in their respective hauntings, while their friends can only passively watch. It subtly riffs on the sense of isolation we’ve all had during quarantine.
3/ The banality of tech
Throughout the film, technology adds a layer of offbeat humour to the ordeal. Emma (Emma Louise Webb) is having a breakdown with a lizard filter over her face; Caroline’s (Caroline Ward) jokey Zoom background is interspersed with her getting her head bashed in; Seylan (Seylan Baxter) can’t do more to help because her broadband is not playing ball. As we’ve all discovered during lockdown, the internet and conference calls in particular are a poor medium to communicate our increasingly anxious inner states.
4/ Paranoia
Though Jack - the dead friend who hanged himself Jemma (Jemma Moore) makes up - isn’t real, the apparitions the group later see heavily feature nooses and hanging bodies. Similar to how the pandemic has led to a sense of paranoia, the characters’ fears determine the form the demon takes. In more ways than one, Jemma's fictional tale summons the demon into being.
5/ Rage and boredom
The two defining emotions of the pandemic - both drive the plot forward. It's daily tedium that drives Haley (Haley Bishop) to propose the risky seance and Jemma to invent the story about Jack which gets them into this sorry mess. Yet when the spooky stuff starts, boredom gives way to underlying rage. The demonic presence is noticeably angry - flinging people, chairs and household implements about with wild abandon. Is this a sign of our own inner fury, which we try and keep in check with endless Zoom calls to grasp at a sense of normality? Yes, I realise I’ve stolen this idea in part from the New York Times review.
Host is available to stream on Shudder.
Host is a found footage film, yet there is no recording of the evening's haunting to be discovered. Find out here how this is in keeping with developments in the subgenre in the 2010s.
Host is available to stream on Shudder.
Host is a found footage film, yet there is no recording of the evening's haunting to be discovered. Find out here how this is in keeping with developments in the subgenre in the 2010s.
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