I saw The Host on Sunday. It was a runaway success in Korea, and I had heard that it was a social-political satire. Based on that, I was expecting The Host to be similar to Godzilla, in that a mutated creature wreaks havoc on Seoul while the military and politicians battle each other (and perhaps the monster). Instead, The Host focused on a dysfunctional family who band together to attempt to rescue their young family member after she was abducted by the monster and became deceased (but not dead).

The Host was done like a campy, B-movie Horror film. There was a lot of (hilarious) slapstick humor amidst the spooky scenes. It was a bit weird that some of the jokes were slowly setup (e.g., the slow archer) but they were still funny. Overall I found it a bit slow, but maybe that is a side effect of seeing too many Hollywood movies that are all about advancing the plot.

There were numerous allusions and scenarios that highlighted how boneheaded our social routines and responses are; which was clever, but would require repeat viewings to fully appreciate. I thought overall it was alright and give it 3 out of 5 stars.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: korea, moviereview