Hosts (2020)

I guess if there is enough fracking, penetrating the earth brings forth a kind of evil certain to do some real damage. On Christmas Eve, Jack and Lucy weren’t expecting their own holiday together to be interrupted so hostilely, much less Lauren’s family, having invited the couple over kindly for a warm supper that…well, let’s just say it all gets a little out of hand. How could it not get out of hand if Jack and Lucy are possessed by demons looking to have plenty of violent, sadistic fun?

It might take a strong stomach for some viewers to see a family all happy and cheery when their mom tells them she’s in remission after an ugly six months of cancer treatment and just as the celebration begins, with lots of love, warmth, and hugs, out comes a hammer that obliterates a head. It really doesn’t last long but sure feels like it goes on for an eternity.

I give Ward and Loxley a lot of credit for totally convincing as human shells occupied against their will. Getting to spend just enough time with them before whatever inhabits them takes devilish control, we know who they were, just decent, good people undeserved of what possesses them. A schoolteacher and her visiting boyfriend arriving off the train, exchanging gifts, happened to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time. Revelations about Jack and Lauren’s father, Michael, sort of answers why Jack and Lucy were invited, but, personally, I didn’t see why that was even all that relevant to what was going on…sure, it’s an extra wrinkle, but when Michael explains how Jack was a product of an affair prior to Cassie, I guess one might look at any guilt as somewhat unwarranted.

I totally get the criticisms about how foolish the family are in response to Lucy brutally caving in Cassie’s head with the hammer and not retaliating quickly to usurp the eventual hostage situation, but the ending pretty much declares the inevitability of any escape as futile. Especially when there is an accumulation of neighbors and locals with bright eyes outside the house.

I will credit the film for the tragedy of scenes where a possessed human will have release only for the other attacking them not to realize it, killing the person while the entity (fleeing the host like some spiritual vapor) basically leaves, certain to occupy someone else.

I agree with someone else who says this probably would have worked as a short film.

To be honest, it was over and I was basically like, “Okay.” Much like “Christmas Presence” last year, a film I was watching on Shudder, out of their “Unhappy Holidays” selection, I felt basically nothing. Besides the shock value of the violence, I guess the moral of the story is, dig into the earth as we do, expect the “angels of light” to come a callin’.