Well, Christmas is getting closer but we still have a little way to go with our Awful Advent feature. Behind door 17 is a British horror flick set around Christmas. A family invite their young neighbours over for Christmas dinner. Only, something seems off about them. The family will come to almost immediately regret it as a day of joy and celebration turns into a nightmare. As far as Christmas horror movies go, this is a bit of a weird one.
Closer to Await Further Instructions than other Christmas horror. Apparently us Brits don’t like to go for the usual Xmas horror tropes. You don’t find many slasher movies coming from this side of the pond. Still, it is something a bit different which is always good. The Christmas slasher genre is a bit crowded, after all.
Before we get started, I should point out. Don’t get this movie confused with the similarly titled but far superior Host. That is a screenlife horror movie coming from the UK in 2020. While sharing a name, they are vastly different movies. Why not click the link to check out our review of Host? Its a great movie well worth a watch. Unfortunately, I can’t really say the same for its compatriot Hosts.
A Very Loose Plot
To sum things up here, the aforementioned couple are due to head to Christmas dinner with the neighbours. They see some spooky lights in their back garden, they go out to investigate and then come back changed. 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, we have possession, we have religious allegory. 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. It hints at a level of intrigue that the movie never manages to deliver on. 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.
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, seemingly, 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 a bit of added flavouring. Who needs story, though? We have to get to the ultra violence after all.
A Brutal Kill
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. 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’s hard not to imagine that this is the case. 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 film making 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.
Unfortunately, they asked fans to go and give their movie positive reviews on IMDB and Amazon Prime. The result was a disproportionate number of 9s and 10s and a lot of pissed off people. If there is one thing IMDB users don’t like, it is being duped. 30 1 star reviews later and a bunch more that were only slightly less negative. Hosts’ score has dropped to 4.3 and there is a lot of negativity surrounding it. A cursory browse through a few of the reviews will see the words “worst movie ever” appear frequently. Obviously this isn’t fair but neither is asking your viewers to rate the movie. It is only going to lead to the proliferation of non-organic views. At the end of the day, even if you like this movie. You simply can’t ignore the myriad issues it has.
Unbelievable Character Reactions
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. Host’s Characters frequently make decisions that make absolutely no sense. In one scene, someone has access to a phone. In a moment of unbelievable stupidity, said character decides to phone someone they know rather than the police. In another scene, a character makes a break for it. And while 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, Host’s 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 host characters are almost comical, as well. That’s without mentioning character’s tendencies to launch into monologues. 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.
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 sounds incredibly bad. Honestly, this is something I have never noticed in a movie before. I get that this is low budget but this simply feels cheap. Even basic YouTubers can produce content without this hiss. Sure they are whispering directly into a mic but these parts should have been dubbed. It is horribly noticeable.
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. This is particularly praise worthy when you consider how bad the script it. Samantha Loxley’s performance was fantastic. She really bought into her character and just looked to be having a ton of fun with it. I sincerely hope that, if nothing else comes of this movie, she gets more roles from it. Neal Ward is more uneven. Some of his scenes were 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. 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 is very noteworthy for how strange it feels placed in the middle of a film.
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.
Should You Watch Hosts?
You probably shouldn’t bother wasting your time watching Hosts. It’s simply not that good. Aside from the one brutal kill early on. It is a movie that is fairly devoid of originality. The script is poor, sound production is a nightmare, it is boring, repetitive, and absolutely farcical in parts. Give this one a miss.