It fits a ton of scares and character building into 57 minutes. Indeed, Host’s short running time is one reason it’s so impactful. Shudder was also open to something shorter than a standard 90-minutes. The cast shot themselves remotely, and also handled their own effects and lighting. It gave him the freedom to shoot the film in order sequentially and in creative new ways.

Shudder, an AMC-owned streaming service dedicated to horror, ended up being the perfect home for the film, Savage said. Then came the calls for a longer spin on the concept, which led Savage to enlist writers Jed Shepherd and Gemma Hurley to write up a 17-page outline.

He cut the Zoom recording down to a two-minute clip which, unsurprisingly, went viral on Twitter. Savage gathered a group for moral support as he explored the creepy attic in his new apartment -but what they didn’t expect was for him to be attacked by a zombie, throwing him to the floor. The idea for Host came after director Rob Savage pranked his friends over a Zoom call, he told Rolling Stone. I’ve been hearing strange noises from my attic, so I called a few friends and went to investigate… /CxmJAf44ob- Rob Savage April 21, 2020

Like the audience, they’re all clearly tired of this shit. The annoyance of joining a Zoom call properly (and the piercing sounds of bad audio reverb). There’s the frustration of wrangling an older parent who keeps going outside, even if a short walk may mean certain doom. While we don’t spend much time with the friends before things get creepy, we see them deal with issues familiar to anyone living through the COVID-19 epidemic. And the aforementioned guy friend is staying with his girlfriend’s parents in the country. One girl invited her short-term significant other to stay with her, but they’re clearly already tired of each other. Most are locked down in their apartments, but there are glimpses of the other ways people are sheltering in place. We meet the main characters, a group of young Millennial women and their obligatory, wild guy buddy. If you’re watching it on a laptop, it’s easy to mistake it for the ritual you may already be doing several times a day. The film starts with a Zoom call login (complete with manually selecting “Join with Computer Audio”).

Zoom meeting horror movie