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We love promoting Indie moviemaking talent at Last Movie Outpost. We were recently sent a screener for a new horror movie, Your Host, which will receive its world premiere at Frightfest London on 22nd August 2025. Boba Phil has had his fill of Indie horror for this week, so I bravely stepped into the breach to review it.
How I imagine myself when I step up – “I’ll drive that tanker”
The Plot
Your Host stars Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen, A Nightmare on Elm Street remake) as Barry, a quirky individual who imprisons four Gen Z wankers and forces them to take part in a sadistic gameshow, where losing has deadly consequences.
If you think this sounds like Boomer wish fulfilment, you might be onto something.
The four unlucky ‘contestants’ are played by Ella-Rae Smith (Anita), Jamie Flatters (James), David Angland (Matthew) and Joelle Rae (Melissa). We first see them larking about at James’ rich uncle’s beach house, and I hated them immediately. It’s okay – I’m pretty sure I was supposed to.
James is a toxic, rich asshole. Anita is uptight and talks about cancelling people. Melissa would choose the bear. Matthew is a simp. Basically, all the worst parts of the internet.
They don’t even like each other very much. The one thing uniting them is the beach house, and that’s about to go bye-bye.’
The quartet is drugged, abducted, chained up in a dungeon, and forced to play a series of games that could result in pain, injury, disfigurement, or death. Barry is the host and films the show on a VHS camera.
Why Em See Ay
It’s… Showtime!
There’s a roughness to the game show proceedings in Your Host, with homemade props and a scant audience of dressed mannequins. Barry himself is quirky and odd rather than frightening. He wears half a mask that’s a bit shit, and he makes things up on the fly a lot of the time.
I wasn’t sure what to make of it at first, but the more I watched, the more I liked it. Barry isn’t Jigsaw from the Saw movies, whose overly elaborate schemes are figured out in advance. It feels more real, if less theatrical.
While Saw is the obvious movie to compare Your Host to, it’s different enough not to come across as a cheap knock-off. But there are similarities: games and gore.
Early on, James says he is sick of ‘jump scare bullshit,’ which seems like a message from the filmmakers to the audience. Indeed, Your Host isn’t a jump scare horror movie – it’s a gory horror movie. I’m no fan of blood and guts, but the effects are practically realised, well executed, and never feel gratuitous.
The group’s already tense dynamic works nicely as the game progresse,s and they find themselves having to choose between hurting themselves or one of the others. Without giving too much away, they rarely pick themselves.
Exhibit A
I’m The Bad Guy?
It’s a risk when you populate a movie like Your Host with unlikeable characters and then ask you to care about what happens to them. But unless you lack basic human empathy, it’s hard not to care a little, even when the movie doubles down during a round where each contestant is compelled to reveal their darkest secret. I won’t spoil it, but it’s clear they are all awful people.
As for Barry, he becomes simultaneously more frightening and more sympathetic as the movie progresses. His actions are extreme, but he has a reason for doing this, and the movie dares you to make him the good guy.
As I said, it could have been more theatrical. Barry isn’t broadcasting to anyone and films the show only for himself. It might have been better if he were broadcasting to an audience of weirdos over the internet.
The characters might be too annoying for some, but they’re meant to be, and it’s not like they don’t pay for it. The actors all perform well in their roles.
Your Host is directed by DW Medoff, who has two previous director credits on IMDB. It was written by Joey Miller, who has one credit. This one. We’ve all got to start somewhere, so congratulations to Joey.
Your Host premieres on August 22nd 2025, at FrightFest, London.
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