Shudder Saturday: Superhost (2021)

Writer-director Brandon Christensen may not be immediately recognisable to most horror fans, but he's been creating some enjoyably solid genre fare over the past few years, and seems to be improving slightly with each film (I thought Still/Born was okay, I liked Z a bit more). While Superhost may not be the darkest or scariest horror movie you see this year, it's a hell of a lot of fun, helped by a completely unhinged turn from Gracie Gillam.

Gillam plays Rebecca, a young woman aiming to be reviewed as a "superhost" by Teddy (Osric Chau) and Claire (Sara Canning). Teddy and Claire have had a successful YouTube series for some time, but are currently losing followers, and relevance in that crowded field. Rebecca hopes to keep everything perfect though. A bad review from Teddy and Claire can ruin someone's business, as Vera (Barbara Crampton) discovered. 

Best summed up by the tagline "don't forget to like and survive", Superhost is generally fun from start to finish. The main potential problem that it has is the fact that Rebecca seems quite batty, to put it mildly, from the very beginning. But that's part of the fun, because Teddy and Claire think what they can get on camera will end up getting them a great reaction online, and push their numbers back up. Christensen does a good job of mixing the thriller element of the plot with a nice bit of full-on creepiness, at least one great gore moment, and the commentary on how things are presented online compared to how things are in reality. 

The leads do a good job, with both Chau and Canning believable in their normal interactions and equally believable when using their louder and more lively personas for their online videos. Crampton may only be onscreen for a few minutes, but she's as welcome as ever. Then you have Gillam, the manic and unbalanced heart of the film, giving a performance that easily puts her up there with the very best of the modern movie psychos. There's no surprise when her potential is fully realised, it's just up to the viewers to try and figure out what her actual motivation is.

Christensen gets everything right here. I can easily imagine a version of this movie that would have been painful to sit through, (either not casting the right people, deciding to go the found footage route, or any of a multitude of ways this could have felt wrong) but his instincts steer him right. And the fact that it all builds to an ending that is as darkly comedic as it is obvious means the whole experience is a satisfying and entertaining one.

I look forward to whatever we get next from Christensen. He's been on the right path for years, and if he delivers some minor modern classic in the next decade or so then remember that I told you so. Because I'll also say "I told you so".

8/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Shudder Saturday: Dark Summer (2015)

After being found guilty of stalking a young woman, Daniel (Keir Gilchrist) is sentenced to some time spent under house arrest. He's not allowed access to computer devices or social media either. He breaks the rules immediately, of course, with the help of a couple of good friends. And then the woman he has been stalking gets in touch with him, allows him to witness a horrific event, and things start to get spooky and odd.

There's a moment in Dark Summer when one of the main characters mentions Disturbia, another film that features a main character under house arrest. All that moment does is serve to remind you of how enjoyable Disturbia is, and how you could spend time rewatching that rather than watching this flat and unimaginative chiller.

Written by Mike Le, this is a turgid mess of familiar horror movie tropes. You get the jump scares, most of them in apparent dream sequences (but, hey, there are times when the main character cannot be sure if he was dreaming or not, of course), you get a mystery element to be investigated, and you get a finale that thinks it is being clever with a couple of twists or turns that most will see coming a mile away. Le hasn't written anything else of note, from a quick skim of his filmography, and I can't say that I will ever look forward to any of his future projects, going by his laziness here.

Even the main premise just feels thrown together haphazardly. Okay, this kid needs to be under house arrest. Let's say his mother is away on business so that his friends can immediately visit him. And we can have them able to connect him to the internet from another area. And let's not bother about the practical side of things, the HORROR will carry everyone along just fine.

That would be possible. If there was actual horror, or even thrills, here that worked. None do. Alongside the lazy script, you get direction from Paul Solet that feels genuinely disinterested in anything going on. That's more disappointing than the weak script because Solet has done some good work elsewhere (mainly Grace, the 2009 feature that expanded his 2006 short, and his segment in Tales Of Halloween). I wonder whether he realised at some point that he couldn't do enough with the script to even polish this turd and just decided to finish the thing as painlessly as possible.

Peter Stormare appears in the cast, setting up the house arrest and explaining the rules, and he's the best of the bunch. Stella Maeve also does well, in the role of Abby (a good friend to Daniel), and Maestro Harrell is okay as the other main friend, Kevin. Gilchrist, however, is a weak lead. He's not very likeable and doesn't seem worth rooting for, even as things get more and more dangerous and your perception of certain events is changed. Gracie Gillam (billed as Grace Phipps) is okay as Mona Wilson, the woman who Daniel took a bit too much interest in.

Some may think I am being unduly harsh on this one, a film that simply wants to provide a bit of teen-centric chills and jumps. No. There's no excuse for this level of laziness, and I resent it more than so many other failings that a movie could have.

3/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.