First Zoom Movie ‘Host’: Cinema in the Time of Corona
A problem is a chance for you to do your best. – Duke Ellington
The global corona virus pandemic has set new challenges before creative world to deliver stories… While filmmakers are finding ways to cope up the lockdown limitations and getting inventive, UK based director Rob Savage has come up with a horror film Host, which was shot completely under quarantine.
While people around the world are using the video chatting service Zoom to stay connected with one another and pursuing their profession and work, the film embraces that tone by connecting its characters using the Zoom itself. Host is the story of six friends who hire a medium to hold a spirit rapping session over Zoom during lockdown, but things quickly go wrong when they contact an evil spirit. This plot, forces the film to find inventive ways to not only craft a compelling narrative for viewers, but also to deliver effective scares.
As revealed by the director Rob Savage the idea of the film originated from a video that went viral around the start of lockdown. This was a Zoom prank where he investigates a strange noise coming from his attic, with his friends on the app.
The film is mostly shot over Zoom and all the actors also operated their own cameras, helped pull off their own practical effects, and lit their own scenes. As told by Rob due to social distancing precautions, he never set foot in the same room as his actors at any point during production and instead directed them remotely.
Host is premiering exclusively on July 30th on an OTT platform Shudder, known for streaming only horror content. Unfortunately Shudder does not stream in India…. so wait for the ‘inspired’ version that Bollywood must have started working on.
Enjoy the trailer of the movie