Hosts

Basically, a new spin on The Invasion of the Body Snatchers and certainly one of the best, most intense, harshest and most uncompromising horror experiences available in this weak year of COVID. It’s likely that this year we won’t see a more brutal scene, the one where things get properly “serious” at last (I’d rather not spoil it). However, to my taste the film as a whole is unfortunately too one-dimensionally evil for me to be fully satisfied. Maybe, if they had developed a deeper mythology that would give some sort of meaning to the events, I would take it, but they never move that initial premise in any interesting direction. 7/10 (02/10/2020)

A fairly decent invasion genre flick for little money that turns into an atmospheric, evil, wild and violent ride from the Christmas dinner onwards. One of the gore scenes is already virally roaming the internet and getting a nice thumbs up. Visually, it's average and the actors don't impress much either, but for a film I knew nothing about beforehand and that flew under the radar, I'm pleasantly surprised. I would definitely rank the film among the better things to come out in the last month. Story***, Action***, Humor>No, Violence****, Entertainment***, Music***, Visuals***, Atmosphere****, Suspense***. 6.5/10. (05/10/2020)

After the opening 45 minutes I would have had no hesitation in giving it a full score, because I haven't seen such an atmospherically dense, intense and chilling film in years. The gore scenes mentioned by all the users are really worth it and the dinner scene is the most brutal carnage in a long time. The whole time you are asking questions about what the hell is going on and how it's going to continue, and for that a huge thumbs up because I haven't been this tense in a long time. The problem comes in the second half, which pauses unnecessarily long, as if they are groping for how to proceed. The basic idea is good, but the translation into reality breaks down a bit in the second half, and it feels that they don’t how to carry on the idea, let alone how to end it. The biggest draws of the film are definitely the skilled actors (unknown, but their performances are great), the excellent music, nothing has grabbed me like this in a long time, it takes the experience to a whole other level (Benjamin Symons is a future talent), and the gore. Hosts is perhaps most harmed by the finale, I sincerely feel sorry for it, because such a promising first half could have clearly made it to the film of the year. As a result, I unfortunately don't get the point of the film or its ending, it doesn't tell the viewer much and leaves only a big question mark. In the same way, I search in vain for a deeper allegory the film would like to hit us with. (10/10/2020)