Running Time: 93 Minutes
Starring: Jackie Earle Haley, Ella-Rae Smith, Jamie Flatters, David Angland, Joelle Rae, Seth Michaels
Over the past few years, DW Medoff has moved into feature work at a rapid pace. After 2023's one-two punch of Pollen and I Will Never Leave You Alone, the director returns with his third feature film, Your Host. The film opens with a camera running, as a bloodied man in chains awakens. Told that he is a winner, who has made it to the final round, he is instructed to pick the correct box by pulling a string under the belief that he can go home if he chooses correctly. As expected in such an early moment, an incorrect choice is made, with the decision resulting in the man's life ending.
Viewers are then introduced to a friendship group consisting of Anita (Ella-Rae Smith), James (Jamie Flatters), Matthew (David Angland), and Melissa (Joelle Rae). The quartet spend a holiday together at James' dad's summer house, but their plans are upended when they are captured by a sadistic serial killer (Jackie Earle Haley). As they are made to take part within a gruelling game show, each round leaves the group at the host's mercy as they fight to avoid a gruesome fate.
In the horror genre, all it takes is for one successful work to open the inspirational floodgates. The shadow of the Saw series looms largely over this film, but where the Tobin Bell led franchise offered elaborate and gruesome traps, this film does decent work offering painful visuals on a smaller budget. Whether it is a wince-worthy edition of rock, paper, scissors, or the ticking time bomb of identifying specific locations, the simplicity of these games delivers a nasty edge in tremendously realised ways. Add to that how impressively the practical effects bring alive the kills, and this is a high point of the film. How unfortunate that the remaining work is a mess.
A key issue lies with the friendship group. When they are chained up, the characters are forced to reveal dark truths which are supposed to change how viewers see these four leads, yet there is an emptiness to this. There is little reason for these revelations to hit hard, as it does not alter perceptions from what little was already established in Joey Miller's screenplay. There was the chance before hand to know these characters, but viewers instead got a montage of them drinking and partying. When half of the group have characterisation that stops at "entitled prick" and "has a sick mother", it is unfortunate that they are the more developed characters.
Opposite to the viewers, the villainous host seems to know who this core quartet are. In the role, Jackie Earle Haley delivers a lively performance that comes with underlying sadness that captures how broken this character is. What happened to make him venture down such a dark path? That is the biggest problem, as the film bizarrely takes a regressive path about women lying about sexual assault, all part of a conspiracy to topple powerful men. If the filmmakers wanted a sympathetic side to their antagonist, something that taps into Haley's acting prowess, there are different paths which do not contribute to already shameful ideas about assault victims. As a mid-credits scene piles on the strange decision, it leaves a bad taste in one's mouth. At least Your Host delivers on the grisly set-pieces, which makes it a shame about the film surrounding that.
Your Host made its UK Premiere at FrightFest 2025
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