A mutanted creature emerges from Seoul's Han River and starts to attack and eat people. While on a rampage spreading panic and fear throughout the city, it also kidnaps a little girl. The family members are left devastated since it stands quite clear that she's dead, but that's until her dad gets a phone call from the sewer close to the river where apparently she's trapped. Now the family has to do everything in their power to bring her back.
The Host has been swarming the internet ever since the production of it began - we've gotten to see posters, teaser trailers and most of all; we've heard people talk and talk and talk endlessly about this film for what feels like forever now. I must admit that my expectations for The Host were through the roof, as the film didn't seem like your normal type of movie, this one felt like it was gonna deliver something truly special. And while it did deliver something that was truly special, not to mention the fact that it was probably the best creature feature I've ever seen, I'm still not sure I liked it as much as I first had thought I would. The Host was a great film for sure, no doubt about that, but excellent it was not.
Looking at it from a horror point of view, it lacks a bunch of things. For one, this is a film that everyone can watch, except for maybe young children, but still, it's not just exclusively aimed at an horror audience. Ok, so I never expected it to be very horrific to begin with, but must still admit that it was a little too nice, a little too often. The monster looks cool, or absolutely awesome and it was fun as hell watching it on screen every time it appeared, but that's just it, it was just fun and sometimes exciting, but never the least bit horrifying or scary. People that never watch horror will probably get a good kick out of it while hardcore horror fans will probably wonder, was that it?
With the horror out of the way, let's focus on what else. The film mixes all kinds of genres which was both a positive as well as a negative thing. For most parts, it was just great; a little horror was there, but with what I wrote above that still applies - some of the action scenes were pretty awesome and there were a lot of them to be seen and to be excited about as well. The movie has a comical side to it too which I gotta say worked very well, but at the same time, it sometimes took away some of the seriousness and suspense that were there for the moment. What I mean is that while most of the comedy worked well, sometimes it made everything seem too light and you kinda lost that serious feel that was so needed every here and there.
 
When it comes to character development, it pretty much worked too a hundred percent, well, that's except for the creature itself. When it comes to creature features, you're supposed to feel something for the creature right? It can be a hideous beast, a monster or what else, but whatever it might be, you should also be able to feel something for it. In The Host it stands quite clear that you should root for the family that the movie follows, because you never get to know one single thing about the very monster in the Han River which makes it absolutely impossible to feel anything for it. The family on the other hand comes off as very strong and very tied together - when it matters that is. You have the somewhat semi-retarded adult Song Kang-Ho who loses his daughter to the monster, and together with the rest of his family, they do everything in their power to get her back. Even though we don't get to know any members of the family on a deeper level, we still get to know them enough to easily be able to root for them.
The pacing of the movie was pretty much terrific, even though it might've felt like it dragged a little at some places. There's a lot of action to be had and a lot of excitement as well as it was always accompanied by the interesting story. Talking about the story, it works wonders, but a lot of time is spent dealing with people trying to figure out the infection that the monster is apparently supposed to be spreading around. Later, we find out that there were really no infection and all time spent on it somewhat went down the drain and the whole story that dealt with that really went nowhere.
I've been pointing out a lot of minor issues, because while I really liked the film as a whole, I didn't feel like giving it another rave review (it has gotten that at plently of other places). All I'm saying is that while it was a great movie that provided a great entertaining time, it was not all perfect. Also, I believe that this is one of those movies that'll grow plenty on ya, as well as it probably requires a second viewing.
I had a great time watching The Host and while I felt that it had a few issues that it was struggling with, it was still one helluva ride. The work that Weta, Orphanage and Creature Workshop put in truly payed off and all I can say about the film in the end is that you just gotta see it for yourself. Forget everything you've heard about it and just enjoy it for the terrific film that it is, and I'm sure you'll have one helluva great time.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Gwoemul
MOVIE YEAR: 2006
DIRECTOR: Joon-ho Bong
WRITING CREDITS: Chul-hyun Baek, Joon-ho Bong
GENRE: Action, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
CAST: Kang-ho Song, Hie-bong Byeon, Ah-sung Ko
COUNTRY: South Korea
RUNTIME: 119 min
RATING: 9/10
Host, The Website/IMDB Click here
Host, The Trailer Click here
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