Before 'The Boogeyman,' Rob Savage Made the Scariest Horror Movie Ever (original) (raw)
Updated Aug 29, 2023, 1:01 PM EDT
Emma Kiely has been with Collider since 2021 and has been Horror Editor since July 2023. Emma has a degree in English and Film from University College Dublin. For a while, due to pandemic-induced existential dread, Emma thought she wanted to be a capital-G Girlboss so she got a Master's Degree in Digital Marketing. Emma worked in marketing for a total of three months before she got the opportunity to go to the Cannes Film Festival. As they say, the rest is Herstory.
Emma is used to defending her horror interests because she prefers the likes of Host, Lake Mungo, and Unfriended. Outside of horror, Emma enjoys just about any detective miniseries, particularly the ones where they wear big puffy coats and investigate the death of a sixteen-year-old girl in an obscure town in England. When not burning her eyes out from a screen, Emma enjoys detective novels, gluten-free baking, and writing bios that make her sound like a 60-year-old woman. (She's in her 20s.)
Emma is Collider’s resident Irish person and will find out where you live if you say you enjoyed Wild Mountain Thyme.
Summary
- Rob Savage's film Host is a terrifying and thrilling horror movie that keeps viewers on the edge of their seats.
- The film's unique format, shot entirely through a Zoom call, adds to its authenticity and intensifies the suspense and fear.
- Host has been recognized as one of the scariest horror movies according to scientific studies, with its jump scares and clever use of classic horror tropes.
This year, Rob Savage, known mainly for his online tales of terror, stepped out of the internet and into the closet with The Boogeyman,which is now available on VOD. One of the most anticipated horror releases of the year, The Boogeyman got horror lovers and tempted scaredy-cats alike back in cinemas. The Boogeyman might have been Savage’s first theatrical, major release, but that doesn’t mean he hadn't harnessed his skills already. Despite being only 31, Savage already announced that he was a name in horror to be excited about with his 2020 release, Host, a Shudder original. Despite being just under an hour (a short film if you ask Pedro Almodóvar), this movie packs in so much fear, dread, excitement, and downright terror all in such a fleeting amount of time.
How Did ‘Host’ Get Made?
Host Poster
Image Via Shudder
The story of how Host came to be is almost as fascinating as the plot of the film itself. Near the start of the pandemic, Savage shared a 2-minute video on his Twitter. In the video, he is on a Zoom call with a few friends, most of whom end up being in the feature-length Host. Savage tells the group that he can hear something in his attic and they him to investigate and joke about it being mutant rats. Savage carries his device with him up to the attic, mirroring a scene in the movie where Caroline does the same thing, and it ends up being the “Shit Just Got Real” moment of the film. As he slowly pans his camera around, a terrifying and bloody face pops out. The friends don't seem to be in on the prank, but they look as amused as they are terrified, and since they obviously know their friend is a horror director, they probably copped right away that this was down to some great directing and editing. Savage borrowed the terrifying clip of the bloody man from the iconic found footage movie Rec. Savage was so dedicated to the prank that he tweeted weeks leading up to the prank about the “man in his attic.”
Most of the final cast of Host is present in the prank video. Savage rounded up his friends to star in his movie, not even giving them different names for their characters. The actors were responsible for their own makeup, lighting, cameras, and practical effects. The production seemed to be a very “play by ear” approach with Savage telling Yahoo, “We didn’t have a script – we worked off a 10-page treatment – so we started every day working with the actors and if something didn’t ring true we were able to change it and play around until we discovered what the film was going to be.” And that very much comes across in the final product — in a good way.
What Is ‘Host’ About?
Host 2020 Movie
Image Via Shudder
Host keeps the details around the pandemic vague, but it very much seems to be in the throes of the COVID-19 outbreak. A group of friends, led by the anxious Haley, get together on a Zoom call to catch up, have a few drinks, and just forget about everything that’s going on, right? Wrong! Nothing goes with a glass of pinot noir like a good ol’ séance. Before things start to get spooky, Savage makes incredible use of his time (a permeating tactic throughout the entire film) and lets us get to know every character. Caroline is the most nervous about the séance, Radina isn’t getting on well with her boyfriend, Teddy is under the control of his girlfriend who doesn't like the group, and there’s tension between the polar personalities of the uptight Haley and the jokester Gemma. And then we have Emma, the sweet one, and we know that because she has her hair in pigtails, obviously!
There’s also the older Seylan, the Scottish psychic who leads the séance and tries to placate the fears of the girls. All seems to be going only a bit spookily until Gemma makes a joke about a made-up spirit, which, unsurprisingly, isn’t such a good idea. The rest of the runtime sees the friends deal with the repercussions of disrespecting a spirit and being picked off one by one.
'Host' Proves That Screenlife Movies Are Worth Your Time
Host Horror Movie
Image Via Shudder
As someone who has always adored computer screen movies, I know how many eye-rolls it musters just when they're mentioned. Yes, it may seem like too far a departure from “classic cinema,” and more gimmick than story. But bring Orson Welles back from the dead and I'll bet he couldn't make a computer screen movie as terrifying as Host or Unfriended! Computer screen films or "Screenlife" means movies that take place through the computer screen of a character, with 2014’s Unfriended kicking off the current trend of them (but the first one ever was actually back in 2002 with The Collingswood Story). Screenlife movies always push the boundaries of what directors can employ to scare us. A simple Facebook message or friendly Zoom call doesn’t seem like it can be as terrifying as a knife-wielding Ghostface or a possessed girl with her neck turned 180 degrees — but trust me, they can be. They can incite such an equal measure of absolute dread and paralyzing fear, and it’s a brand new way to both tell a story and terrify the audience. This is where Host shines.
Savage’s pacing of the film is really where the magic lies. He wavers between, “Yeah, I’m in no rush to scare you” to “Here’s a full minute of just absolute horror.” There is no way to predict what is going to happen, and since the runtime is just 56 minutes, you have absolutely no time to prepare yourself. “The film pulls you in” is a compliment used to death for movies, but this really does apply to Host. Due to the fact that you’re looking at exactly the same screen as the characters, you're basically implicit in the story, you’re just as vulnerable as they are. But there are no breaks, no flashbacks to give you a breather, it is non-stop thrill and horror. As aforementioned, the group all know each other in real life, and there was less of a script and more of an outline. The lighting and practical effects were done by the actors themselves. Host genuinely feels like a real Zoom call without ever feeling like it's too low-budget or amateur. It's authentic enough to give the effect that you are looking in on a real call but refined enough to still be an exciting and terrifying horror watch.
'Host's Strength Comes From Its Authenticity
Four friends scared on a Zoom call in Host
Image Via Shudder
Compare Host to another film with a very similar format, Safer at Home. Despite having a terrible script, the forced performances negate any of the authentic feel that screenlife brings. In Host, these really do feel like regular, out-of-their-depth everyday people, friends just looking to distract themselves from a pandemic. Usually, horror movies alleviate some of the tension by having an "expert" character such as Elise in the Insidious movies. As long as that character is there, we know everything will be okay. Savage gives us that in Seylan but takes out faster than you can say "astral plane." Removing Seylan fairly quickly only adds to the feeling of chaos, no one knows what’s going on. We don’t have the usual “one victim who survived this curse before” or “American actor playing an Irish priest with a questionable accent.”
The friends are on their own, and they have no idea what to do. This also makes the violence and death more horrifying. You really do imagine what it would feel like if this happened to you and the besties. Savage emphasizes this at the start of the film by adding little touches that make these characters so recognizable to the average viewer. They joke and are skeptical about the séance, they make up a drinking game, and they have petty arguments because that's what all friends do. Anyone can see one of their friends in one of the characters. You're invested in the group before you even realize it, and that's what makes everything that comes later so petrifying. The line between reality and fiction is so tactfully blurred by Savage and the cast.
Science Declares ‘Host’ the Scariest Horror Movie
Host Horror Floating Mask
Image Via Shudder
The Science of Scare Project from Broadband Choices carries out studies to declare which horror movie gets audiences' hearts beating the fastest. In 2021, Sinister was declared the scariest, causing audiences’ heart rates to reach 86 BPM on average and spike to 132 BPM from jump scares. The following year, Host took the crown as the Scariest Horror Movie According to Science as it increased its audiences’ heart rates up to 88 BPM on average. This is no surprise as there are some truly terrifying jump scares as well as tons of build-up to get that heart racing. The jump scares are few and far between though. It really is all that time in the middle, when the audience is left to predict for themselves what is going to happen next, that the true terror lies.
But don't let that make you think that there's no actual gore or practical frights. The jump scares are truly terrifying and there is plenty of violence and gore. But the movie in no way relies on them too heavily and Savage gets creative in how to scare us. He combines the internet with classic horror tropes like putting the Zoom filter in the middle of the room to show that an invisible figure is near. He takes the Christmas tradition of putting flour footsteps on the ground to make it look like Santa came and instead uses it to show an entity chasing Emma. Host breathes new life into classic horror tropes, giving them a 21st-century update fit for the internet landscape.
If you're a horror fanatic or someone who loves to test their endurance, you need to watch Host. If not for its effective scares, for the fact that it proves that less really is more when it comes to horror. Savage turned a 2-minute prank on his friends into one of the best horror movies we've ever seen. He followed it up with the less acclaimed Dashcam which didn't quite have as much charm or effect as Host but still demonstrated Savage's talents.