It's Welcome to Dinner meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers with new British Indy horror Hosts and this film deserves your time - Young Couple Jack (Neal Ward) & Lauren (Nadia Lamin) are looking forward to sharing their Christmas Dinner with their local friendly neighbours, the family who live close by, consisting of Mum and Dad (Frank Jakeman & Jennifer Preston) Sons Eric & Ben (Lee Hunter & Buddy Skelton) and daughter Cassie (Samantha Loxley) but when some strange lights are seen in the couples garden and Mum has some heavy news to break to the family, you just know things are going to go from Turkey to Tits Up in a matter of a heartbeat over the Yorkshire Pudding.
I won't say any more about the story itself, as we don't want to get into spoilers here.
HOSTS began its life as an on-line Crowd Funding Campaign, via the Youtube channel of its creators, and while it might not be the next Saw of the Horror Genre (Nor should it need to be) it's an extremely well made, tightly directed, film with a number of well thought out camera shots and clever design concepts.
Any indy film without exception always has a more challenging road from script to screen than most and the team behind this movie put it out on line for all to see, so you could follow their journey from day one. While films must always be ultimately reviewed on the final result on the screen (because ultimately that's all your viewing audience cares about) the team of Oakes and Leader are among a small number of the new generation of film-makers, to have made their journey of getting this film out there so transparent. So even if I hated the film, which I didn't, I still wouldn't be dishing out some bell end of a one star review.
HOSTS, yes, was made on a tiny budget, (I think it was 20k?) and is shot around incredible limitations, but the fact that up and coming talents and entertaining comedy duo Leader & Oakes (Check out their amusing and informative channel Dark Fable Media on Youtube) have been able to deliver with a film this polished is a testament to their creativity, passion, drive and skill behind the camera. Few would dare to try such an enterprise with so few resources and such a punishing and extremely short shooting window, let alone those who thoughtlessly would see fit to dismissively give this film a one day star review. (Doing so makes those reviews have absolutely no value and they should be ignored and only underscores the fact that these reviewers have no concept of what makes the genre of horror great in the first place.)
I'm not going to shower the film with endless false praise because it's not a movie without some issues. While occasionally the lack of an adequate budget betrays itself and some moments of the story do jar briefly, the many strengths of the film allow these, for the most part, to be overlooked.The acting is a mixed bag, but all the roles are competently played, with some notable stand out performances (Especially from Samantha Loxley & Buddy Skelton) But from the creepy opening, you know this film will be a little bit different and deliver in the right boxes for it's well worn genre. It's not a film for the faint hearted and probably not one to have on during Christmas Dinner either and what you make of the ending, will depend on how you like to digest your entertainment at the end of your meal.
Oakes and Leader are both self taught at their trade and you can see their numerous informative videos regarding film making on their channel, and they have put everything they've learned to good use here. As a first outing, this product is impressive and they should, quite rightly, be proud and pleased with the result and its well deserving of distribution the film had been searching for. .
Overall, this is a solid indy film, made by a duo of determined and extremely talented filmmakers, who instead of procrastinating from the sofa, got up and made their first feature, allowed us to follow their journey and produced a very worthy product. It would appear many horror critics agree with my assessment, so fans of the genre, check out this film out and STUDIOS, give these guys a shot at something with the proper financial support they deserve. For even the smallest but decent budget I am certain they will deliver an absolute corker for the normally difficult second album. Recommended.
I won't say any more about the story itself, as we don't want to get into spoilers here.
HOSTS began its life as an on-line Crowd Funding Campaign, via the Youtube channel of its creators, and while it might not be the next Saw of the Horror Genre (Nor should it need to be) it's an extremely well made, tightly directed, film with a number of well thought out camera shots and clever design concepts.
Any indy film without exception always has a more challenging road from script to screen than most and the team behind this movie put it out on line for all to see, so you could follow their journey from day one. While films must always be ultimately reviewed on the final result on the screen (because ultimately that's all your viewing audience cares about) the team of Oakes and Leader are among a small number of the new generation of film-makers, to have made their journey of getting this film out there so transparent. So even if I hated the film, which I didn't, I still wouldn't be dishing out some bell end of a one star review.
HOSTS, yes, was made on a tiny budget, (I think it was 20k?) and is shot around incredible limitations, but the fact that up and coming talents and entertaining comedy duo Leader & Oakes (Check out their amusing and informative channel Dark Fable Media on Youtube) have been able to deliver with a film this polished is a testament to their creativity, passion, drive and skill behind the camera. Few would dare to try such an enterprise with so few resources and such a punishing and extremely short shooting window, let alone those who thoughtlessly would see fit to dismissively give this film a one day star review. (Doing so makes those reviews have absolutely no value and they should be ignored and only underscores the fact that these reviewers have no concept of what makes the genre of horror great in the first place.)
I'm not going to shower the film with endless false praise because it's not a movie without some issues. While occasionally the lack of an adequate budget betrays itself and some moments of the story do jar briefly, the many strengths of the film allow these, for the most part, to be overlooked.The acting is a mixed bag, but all the roles are competently played, with some notable stand out performances (Especially from Samantha Loxley & Buddy Skelton) But from the creepy opening, you know this film will be a little bit different and deliver in the right boxes for it's well worn genre. It's not a film for the faint hearted and probably not one to have on during Christmas Dinner either and what you make of the ending, will depend on how you like to digest your entertainment at the end of your meal.
Oakes and Leader are both self taught at their trade and you can see their numerous informative videos regarding film making on their channel, and they have put everything they've learned to good use here. As a first outing, this product is impressive and they should, quite rightly, be proud and pleased with the result and its well deserving of distribution the film had been searching for. .
Overall, this is a solid indy film, made by a duo of determined and extremely talented filmmakers, who instead of procrastinating from the sofa, got up and made their first feature, allowed us to follow their journey and produced a very worthy product. It would appear many horror critics agree with my assessment, so fans of the genre, check out this film out and STUDIOS, give these guys a shot at something with the proper financial support they deserve. For even the smallest but decent budget I am certain they will deliver an absolute corker for the normally difficult second album. Recommended.