There’s nothing cutting edge about séance films. One of the earliest—”House of Mystery”—was released in 1934. Found footage movies also don’t qualify as novelties. Long before “The Blair Witch Project” (1999) there was “Cannibal Holocaust” (1980). But when UK director Rob Savage made “Host” by combining those two shopworn genres into a 57-minute Zoom horror movie, the result is astonishingly fresh. What makes the terror intense is that the characters don’t get into trouble by something stupid like entering an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. Here, six ordinary people fall prey to “something” simply by doing what we all do everyday: hopping online. The trailer follows. If you want to to go all in, here’s the link to Shudder.com. This is a subscription site, but you get a week to cancel if you don’t like Shudder’s scary offerings.

“Host” Trivia

• All characters used their own real first names.
• The movie was shot during the Covid-19 lockdown.
• The actors handled the camerawork themselves.
• Because of social distancing requirements, the director Rob Savage was not in any of the locations with the actors.
• The actors set up their own locations, handled the lighting and camera work, and did their own stunts.

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You can learn more about Rob Savage at his website, on Twitter, and at IMDb.

The editors of MobileMovieMaking have chosen “Host” as the Mobile Movie of the Week.