I am Movie Monkey and am a true film addict.
Hope you enjoy my reviews. May contain spoilers.
Host
- Genre: Horror
- Release Date: 30th July 2020
- Director: Rob Savage
- Starring: Haley Bishop, Jemma Moore, Emma Louise Webb, Radina Drandova, Caroline Ward, Teddy Linard, Seylan Baxter.
Host is based around a small group of friends who are all housebound due to the current Covid 19 pandemic.
They have been having regular online meetings with each other via Zoom to stay connected during a very isolated time.
They all chat about what they've been up to. Emma is messing around with funny face filters and Caroline shows them her new background that she has made, which is a video of her walking across the room and brushing her hair. So when she is on screen it looks like there is two of her.
The meeting this time is being hosted by Haley who has invited her friend Seylan to help them perform an online seance. She has never before done so online but is willing to help the girls and Teddy, channel deceased relatives and friends.
They each have obtained what she calls 'trigger objects' which in some way are connected to the people whom they wish to contact.
They each light a candle and start the evenings group activity.
Seylan tells them that if any of them get scared or wish to leave the seance, that they should visualise a rope wrapped around their waist and then visualise themselves cutting the rope and this will mimic the act of leaving the circle safely.
Not long after they start, Teddy's overbearing girlfriend interrupts and says he needs to leave the meeting, before going offline.
The girls carry on the seance and Seylan explains that any of them can become a channel of communication and become possessed. The girls start to worry but Seylan assures them that everything is done in a safe and controlled way.
Seylan asks if anybody is there and to knock if they are. They hear a knock, then another. But Seylan then realises that it's actually her food delivery man knocking on her door.
When she comes back, Haley says that she felt a hand on her shoulder. Jemma then screams and says she felt something on her neck. The pressure on her neck is unbearable and she has the name Jack in her mind.
She talks about a boy from school who she used to speak to and that he hung himself so it must be him trying to communicate with her.
Seylan then suddenly goes offline. Jemma admits that it was actually a trick and that she didn't feel anything, she was just pranking them all.
Haley gets really annoyed at this as Seylan is her friend and she doesn't like the idea of her or what she's trying to do, made fun of.
The girls start to argue then suddenly Haley's chair is pulled back across the floor and she bashes her head on the wall.
The girls start to freak out.
Courtesy of YouTube
Haley hears something in her house and goes to investigate but doesn't find anything. Caroline also hears something in her house and she thinks it's coming from her attic.
She reluctantly pulls down the ladder to her loft, taking her phone with her so that the other girls can see where she is going. Whilst up in the attic she pans around using the light on her phone to look for whatever was making the noise she heard. The other girls shout out when they see a pair of creepy white legs dangling down from the roof but Caroline herself doesn't see anything. She pans back around and then they're gone.
Hayley gets her polaroid camera out and takes a photo in the direction of where she heard something but it does not show that anything there.
Emma's wine glass suddenly breaks and all the girls are now well and truly scared by what is going on.
Hayley phones Seylan and when she answers she apologises for going offline but she is having connection problems with her internet and it will not let her re join the zoom call.
Haley tells her what has been happening and Seylan suggests that it's probably just Jack trying to communicate like before. Haley tells her that Jemma made that up and that there is no Jack.
Seylan says that they have inadvertently disrespected the sprits and by making a spirit up they have created a mask that anyone can now wear. Jemma has made an open invitation for any spirit to come through.
Seylan says they need to close the seance down by thanking the spirits and visualising the cutting of their ropes to leave safely. The girls follow the instructions and do as she has advised. They all feel relieved that it is over and start to relax a bit.
Radina goes off to find her boyfriend who was in the apartment with her when she had just started the online meeting. She finds his mobile but not him.
Emma's camera shows a floating mask in the middle of her room and the girls call her out for using silly filters again. Emma walks towards the mask and tries to touch it. It moves to look in her direction and then vanishes.
Caroline's background screen comes on and the girls see her walk across her room and brush her hair. They know it's not really her but then they see the real Caroline being flung against the screen before going offline.
Emma throws flour around her room to see if it covers the invisible entity, but nothing happens. Her cupboards are then flung open and footprints can be seen in the flour that is now on the floor.
She runs off in fear and Haley and Jemma can only look on, upset and helpless as she is lifted up in the air and dropped.
Radina comes back on screen and says she can't find her boyfriend. Her oven then starts smoking on it's own and you see her boyfriend being dropped from above on to the floor.
Radina attempts to run out outside but something pulls her back and she screams and blood splatters on her screen and then there is silence.
Caroline is back on screen but the girls see that her face is being repeatedly slammed onto the keyboard and she is slowly being bludgeoned to death.
Haley and Jemma argue about who's fault all this is. Jemma thinks it's Haley for organising the event and Haley thinks it's Jemma's for the Jack trick which invited a bad spirit in.
Haley then gets dragged out of the room and goes off screen. Jemma panics and runs out of her house before then going offline.
Teddy's camera comes back on and he's wondering where everyone is and what he's missed. There is just Emma online and she's hiding under a blanket, crying hysterically.
A notification pops up saying that the meeting will end in ten minutes and then Teddy has a power cut.
He says he needs to go and find the electricity fuse box but as he's walking upstairs you see a demon jump in front of him and he runs off screaming.
He manages to get outside just before seeing his girlfriend getting pulled up into the air like she is being hung and she dies and then gets dropped into the pool.
Another one bites the dust!
Teddy hides behind a log pile with his lighter in his hand to give him some light in the dark garden. Something pulls him back and drops him. As he's lying on the floor unconscious the flames from his lighter spread on to his body.
He wakes up as the fire engulfs him and he screams out in pain as it burns at his skin.
He then goes offline too.
Emma stares at the four still screens in front of her, overwhelmed by shock and fear. She hears something and slowly comes out from under her blanket.
She slowly walks towards the door and throws a blanket in the open doorway.
It falls on to an invisible entity and she screams in terror. She runs for the window and falls out, crashing on top of a garden bench.
The viewer then hears knocking and glass smashing.
Jemma has ran all the way to Haley's house and broken in, frantically looking for her. She stands in the kitchen and a wine bottle flies across the room and smashes against her head. As she lies on the floor amongst glass and blood she hears something in the other room. She gets up and walks to the bedroom where she finds Haley hiding under a table.
As they both hear another sound, Haley grabs her polaroid camera and they inch towards where they heard it coming from. Haley takes a photo, then another and another. All while inching closer and closer to the empty door frame.
And just as she takes the fifth photo a terrifying demon jumps towards them and the zoom meeting ends.
Being a short movie (56 mins) you know it's gotta pack a lot into a small space of time.
I think the whole thing was executed really well and given the fact that we are indeed currently within the covid 19 pandemic, it was very relevant to us all.
Hands up who hasn't had some kind of online meeting lately? I bet not a lot of you.
The majority of us will know the ins and outs of the classic zoom meeting by now and have probably had some with regards to work and/or friends and family.
The content was current and the storyline was solid. The only real criticisms I have is that the demons could have looked slightly more terrifying, ( but were scary nonetheless) and that I feel it could have benefited from a more unique title as I'm pretty sure there's quite a few films of the same name already (or very slight variations of it).
Overall, I enjoyed watching this. It was scary and kept you intrigued on what was going to happen.
I liked the fact it was quite short as it kept the length of a real zoom call relevant and it added a bit of panicky suspense to it, knowing that the meeting would end soon and would they manage to resolve the situation in time for us to see?
All in all, a good short scary movie. Add it to your list folks!
Movie Monkey Rating: 4.5
