Host reviewed by Mark Kermode 

I write and research horror for a living and can genuinely say _Host_ is a gloriously creepy experience. Some of the set-pieces are just brilliant - and scared the hell outta me. Highly recommended.

One of the most, if not The most, compelling, creative contemporary horror films ever made. Imaginative play on the lockdown scenario, use of internet and Zoom meetings! Highly convincing and creepy.

It scared the s-t out of me. For real. After it finished I left my bedroom to make a cup of tea and the hall light was *FLICKERING* Too much. Just *too much*

We thoroughly enjoyed it in my house - definitely the spookiest film we've seen this year - and a great example of how much can be achieved with limited resources. I very much look forward to the team's future work.

Hands down the most effective horror I’ve seen in years.

There's a particularly nasty quality to it that's hard to put your finger on. It's like, yeah, we've seen all this stuff before a billion times, but somehow it hits harder than usual here and I'm honestly not sure why.

Watched this twice in two days back in lockdown, genuinely enjoyed it! Would recommend it to anyone looking for a jumpy film

I thought it was really scary & as a jaded 40 year old horror fan that makes me super happy

"From the producer of Monkey Tennis". I will never tire of saying that.

If you haven't seen Host I would highly recommend it.

I have been watching Aneesh Chaganty's "Searching" a few weeks ago. It's not a horror movie but it has a similar concept. Very good film, and I liked the idea of telling a story on nothing but a computer screen. I think I will watch this film, too.

I need to watch your show more often, that was a solid recommendation. Thank you.

Saw this ages ago. It's just excellent.

Mark you should definitely watch "Searching" if you enjoyed this film. It's a proper thriller and one of the best movies I've watched in the last decade.

It's very good. Nicely creepy, inventive and effective. Great stuff!

Best use of Zoom since Hitch ‘n’ Spielberg. Outstanding film.

Amazing film. Properly scary even on repeat viewings.

Sounds like my kind of film. I shall be adding this on my ‘to watch’ list.

I wasn't expecting much, and was prepared for it to underwhelm me. Until....eeek!

Saw this a few months ago...it’s great. Properly spooky and well acted. Give it a go,

When we saw The Blair Witch Project at the flix on the day of release, we went in with the belief that it was genuine found footage (due to the marketing at the time, and presumably our youthful idiocy), the expectation that it wouldn't be convincing, and the intention of debunking it all. We left shaken, nervously exchanging sentiments of "Well, evil ghosts are real then", before sensible analysis took over and we concluded that the marketing must be a hoax on the basis that if it were genuine, it would have made international news and become the target of scientific enquiry. It got us for a moment, though.

I mean ... It's a better and far more effective movie than 'Covid 21'. Who greenlighted that mad film? Host made during lock down? That deserves some applause. It does have a Blair Witch 'edge' as Mark says. I enjoyed it.

Short and sharp. And we have all recently been in that strange space (lockdown, no contacts). This little film was gripping, and scary, and real because this is how all our lives are now. Also, no one should ever try a seance. Not from this film; from personal experience. It gets real quick; and what you summon does not leave. And may never have left.

This movie and "His House" truly terrified me in 2020.

I watched it earlier. It's everything MK described to a tee (unsurprisingly). Not just one of the best found footage horrors ever made, it's one of the most insanely effective horror films ever made PERIOD! I am a hardcore horror fan and I could barely watch this through my fingers in places! 😝😉👌

Loved this!!

I saw Host a while ago on Shudder. It is a great little horror film. Also no birdsong in the clip 😱

Who would've thought Mark would like HOST better than MANK?

I thought host was amazing and scary

Unfriended would've worked so much better without that dumb final jumpscare. This one sounds intriguing!

Movie released in April. Reviewed in December

My favourite horror movie of the year.

Host is brilliant, as was Unfriended.

Ha! Using Cannibal Holocaust as inspiration for this. Genius. I agree, it was a pretty “shiversome” flick indeed. I liked it. Jumped a few times and took me a few minutes to get to sleep for sure!

Brilliant film, I loved it.

This a great horror film! Really scared me!

Really surprised by Kermode’s take on this. Horror is just all about what rings true to you I guess. Personally one of the scariest movies I’ve seen Kermode emphatically thinks isn’t scary (Insidious) but I personally found Host to be really embarrassing.

No birdsong?

Great jump scares but it's been there done that.

EE why weren’t the naughty words tweeted out?

It was scary but not good. If this Demon was so powerful, why not kill everyone to begin with? Now is the world doomed now that this one Demon is released? Stupid and the Demon takes a ghost form and then takes a zombie form for two jump scares. None of it works, it's either a ghost movie or a zombie/ghoul movie. Mark compares it to Blairwitch but that's already been done! Done over 20 years ago.... 5/10

Don't think they're great films but Paranormal Activity deserves a nod in this review..

Hard to credit this review. I mean Host was pretty much only defined by two things: "found footage" and "quiet, quiet, quiet, BANG"...two sub-genres of horror that Kermode steadfastly professes to hate. So I'm confused...

WHERE WAS THE BIRDSONG????

Sounds great.

The two unfriended films weren't bad at all - this looks to be an exact copy..the conceit looks tired now

I wouldn’t have put Cannibal Holocaust in the same sentence. This isn’t bad but CH is in a league of its own when it comes to found footage

Unfriended the lockdown version

Shocked and dumbfounded that Mark likes this awful movie. Especially when he hated Paranormal Activity. It used every trick in that book. I loved PA 1 and 3 and I also thought BW was not in any way scary at all. So many times in this you felt yourself saying, um, either 1, turn your lights on!, or 2, run out of the house! or 3, didn't you find that in any way weird that your chair pulled you back across the room??!! There have been so many quiet quiet bang movies I'm just astonished this has caught Marks attention. Wow. My girlfriend gets absolutely freaked out by horror movies and even she thought this was really naff.

I thought it was okay, but both of the Unfriended films were better for me

This is everything terrible about the last decade of horror movies distilled into a 57-minute pile of garbage.

Watched it last night.. Its actually terrible. Paranormal activity is 13 years old... Nothing new here. Cringed at the "scares"

Absolutely gobsmacked at the praise I'm seeing for this film. Almost no redeemable qualities.

First view, just saying

Yet again Kermode gives me a bum steer. Longest 65 minutes I've spent in a long time. Big, wet, ugly faces whimpering and screaming into the camera for an hour. If that's your bag, have at it!

"shiver-somely scary" really? Were we even watching the same film!! I watched this (on Blu-ray) last night & found it kinda disappointing. If you've seen any of the Paranormal Activity films (from 2007 onwards) you will be pretty much in the same territory with this. It's not bad, but it's not great either.