Hosts (2020) Review – A Spiteful and Narratively Messy Holiday Horror

Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today we are reviewing Hosts (2020).

A loose yet spiteful plot

Before we start, do not get this movie confused with the far superior British screenlife horror Host that released in the same year. That will be a recipe for disappointment. This is Hosts.

“Hosts is not going out of its way to win any narrative awards. In fact, it seems as though writers Richard Oakes and Adam Leader are going out of their way to throw as many different horror tropes at the story as possible.”

The story follows a young couple are due to head to Christmas dinner with the neighbours. Before they leave, they see some spooky lights in their back garden. Investigating, it appears the lights come from some alien source; an alien source with ill intentions. When the couple finally make it to dinner, they arrive changed and turn a holiday celebration into a night of chaos and violence.

Hosts is not going out of its way to win any narrative awards. In fact, it seems as though writers Richard Oakes and Adam Leader are going out of their way to throw as many different horror tropes at the story as possible. We have science fiction, possession, religious allegory, and more. It’s a real hodge-podge mix of stuff, most of which feels messy and doesn’t really work.

It is something of a shame because the first thirty minutes or so are fairly compelling. There is a heavy domestic drama element and it is quite engaging. If a more involved story could have been written, this might have been a completely different film. As it stands, however, the initial plot is pointless and, in the grand scheme of things, redundant.

The movie’s only selling point

Our family of “victims in waiting” range in age from young to old. Mum Cassie has been recently diagnosed with terminal cancer, a fact that will come into play later on. Everyone’s gathered around for what might be their last Christmas together. Father Michael has been keeping a bit of a secret – a secret that actually doesn’t play into the plot at all and is just added flavouring. Who needs story, though? We have to get to the ultra-violence after all.

Within about 20 minutes, I began to get the feeling that Hosts is a film made with one scene in mind. Sitting at the dinner table, we have our first kill. Honestly, it is absolutely brutal. Coming shortly after a sentimental moment shared between the family, it is completely and utterly designed purely to shock the viewer.

“Sitting at the dinner table, we have our first kill. Honestly, it is absolutely brutal. Coming shortly after a sentimental moment, it is completely and utterly designed purely to shock the viewer.”

It’s not just violent, however; it is weirdly spiteful. Now I am not one to complain about horror violence. As long as no one harms any animals and everyone involved knows what they are getting into, it’s all fair game. Still, when it comes to the setup for this kill, it all feels a bit cheap.

Part of me thinks Hosts was made purely with this kill in mind. The rest of the movie feels so disjointed compared to this initial part. It almost feels like a different film altogether. The moments leading up to this are so well developed compared to everything that follows. It also goes without saying that this is the most violent part of the film. Nothing else comes close. I imagine this scene is, also, the only thing you will remember once you step away from the screen.

An interesting process

This movie was made by Adam Leader and Richard Oakes who are known, collectively, as Dark Fable Media. These two are a pair of YouTubers who make videos on the filmmaking process, something they did throughout Hosts. I believe this film was partly crowd-funded but I am not sure. It’s an interesting approach to making a horror movie. I most definitely applaud them for their openness to share. They also asked fans to share positive reviews on IMDb which resulted in a plague of fake 10/10 scores. Not so cool!

The characters here are dumb and oblivious to a level of ridiculousness. When Jack and Lucy walk into the house, they don’t greet the family, they don’t make eye contact, they literally stare blankly ahead and march on past everyone. Nothing is said about this; apparently it is not worthy of note. Stupid shit like this goes on throughout. Nobody in the family acknowledges the couple’s strange behaviour.

It gets worse, however. Hosts‘ characters frequently make decisions that make absolutely no sense. In one scene, someone has access to a phone and, in a moment of unbelievable stupidity, said character decides to phone someone they know rather than the police. That’s not all however, as in another scene, a character makes a break for it escaping from the house. Despite the fact that they appear to be running for ages, they look back and are only about 30 feet from the house. It’s silly and things like this happen over and over again.

A bad script and poor sound production

Unfortunately, Hosts‘ issues don’t end there. Scripting is terrible, some of the worst I have seen in quite awhile. There is an almost “written by AI” quality to some of the dialogue. The pseudo-philosophical ramblings by the characters are almost comical, the sole purpose being to avoid them having to acknowledge how bizarrely the antagonists are acting. Characters will ask Jack or Lucy questions before immediately cutting them off with drawn-out rants. It’s like a cartoon with a mute character that almost speaks but is then cut off to leave the audience hanging.

“Samantha Loxley’s performance was fantastic. She really bought into her character and just looked to be having a ton of fun with it.”

Sound production is shockingly bad. Characters often whisper and poorly set up mics struggle to pick this up. Rather than re-recording those lines, the makers decided to boost the audio. The result is vocal delivery full of distortion and a clearly audible hiss. It’s one of the worst examples of this I have ever heard in a horror movie.

On the positive side, some of the acting in Hosts is okay. The family has a fairly natural rapport and they try really hard in their roles. Samantha Loxley’s performance was fantastic. She really bought into her character and just looked to be having a ton of fun with it. Neal Ward is more uneven; some of his scenes are slightly overacted. This may be more down to the way he was directed. I really shouldn’t have been laughing at his character as much as I was but some of his expressions are unintentionally comical.

Some decent visuals

Cinematography was, generally, decent. Outdoor scenes look very nice and most shots are framed well. Everything is sharp, well-lit, and suitably moody. The camera can be a bit antsy at times. Some of the more experimental shots feel very out of place, as well. One, in particular, looks like Jack and Lucy are about to drop the sickest rap album of the year. It feels so out of place.

Still, this looks like a much higher budget movie than it is. I enjoyed some of the more horror-focused shots. Lucy drooling on a character’s head with her tongue hanging out is a fantastic visual. It made me chuckle but I loved it, it’s a great shot. The practical effects were excellent throughout, as well. There are buckets of gore and some of the detail is seriously good.

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