The circumstances of Host’s production lend the film a realism that makes viewers feel as though they themselves are on the call. Made remotely over 12 weeks during lockdown, Host is about a group of friends who hold a virtual séance over Zoom on July 30, 2020: the same day the movie premiered on the horror streaming service Shudder. The first great entry in a genre already dubbed “ quar-horror,” Host imparts the message that nowhere is safe-especially not the online spaces that Big Tech offers as refuge. But Savage’s film portrays the paranoia that haunts the housebound this summer as a demonic entity unleashed by a Zoom call. The director Rob Savage sets his movie in a familiar virtual zone-a Zoom session-flipping the script on the current conventional wisdom that online meetings are a safe alternative to in-person gatherings. But the new film Host takes an unexpected approach. During a pandemic, just about any spot where people congregate will do. Every generation has its dark places, settings where horror filmmakers stage the zeitgeist’s fears. The woods outside Burkittsville, Maryland.

Film horror zoom