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.

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