[FrightFest 2025] FILM REVIEW: Your Host

Your Host - FrightFest UK Premiere Review

Director: DW Medoff

Starring: Jackie Earle Hayley, Ella-Rae Smith, Jamie Flatters, Joelle Rae, David Angland

Written by: Joey Miller

Produced by: Sara Sometti Michaels, Seth Michaels

Cinematography by: Paolo Carnera

Original Score by: Sam Ewing

Synopsis:

Four friends get trapped in a sadistic game show, forced to outwit a twisted serial killer while racing against time. Every move brings them closer to freedom or a gruesome fate.

Thoughts:

If the horror genre has taught us anything it's that when it comes to survival you have to play to win. There have been so many examples of this over the years but the most obvious example is the 'Saw' franchise. It's the simple premise of people finding themselves in life threatening traps where they have to endure extreme physical and psychological torture in order to survive and atone for their transgressions. In the wake of the huge success of this franchise there have been many other films that have followed similar premises such as 'Escape Room' and 'Would You Rather' in trying to attain a similar level of success. The latest of this type of offering comes in the form of 'Your Host'. 

The film follows four friends who get more than they bargained for when a birthday getaway to an isolated luxury cabin leads them being drugged and kidnapped by a mysterious figure. When they awaken they find themselves chained to a wall in what appears to be an abandoned factory that has been transformed into a twisted gameshow set. It is at this point we are introduced to the host of the show, where contestants are made to suffer for the games they lose, but not everything is as it seems. 

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Director DW Medoff describes the film as being an exploration of the good and bad that coexists in all of us, and the brutal fallout of selfish choices. When you read that you can't help but feel like it is an all too familiar description of a 'Saw' film and watching 'Your Host', you get the same impression. It may be dressed up in a more elaborate game show setting but you can't shake the feeling of it being somewhat derivative of what we have seen before as we move from round to round. With this approach there doesn't really feel like there is much of an escalation in the nature of the games making the film feel tensionless and inconsistent in this manner. 

The four young people who are victims to the deranged gameshow host are all guilty of some terrible secret wrongdoing but there is very little redeeming qualities to them outside of this one thing, so when they go through some brutal (and effectively realised) torture on screen you don't feel any real sympathy for them. They feel underwritten and rely on tired cliches and tropes we have seen many times before to add to their characters. Out of the four characters, Jamie Flatters as the obnoxious rich kid James stands out. He is absolutely repugnant but Flatters really hams up his performance making for an entertaining watch. 

The best part of the film though is Jackie Earle Hayley's performance as the titular host. He approaches the role with a childlike glee which injects so much energy into the film anytime that he is on screen. There is a mild mannered approach to how he speaks that makes his actions all the more disturbing and it also opens the door to a dark past for the character which is alluded to without being addressed, fleshing out what is basically a simple revenge narrative for his character. 

For a film that is all about morality, there is a twist around the halfway point that explores cancel culture. Its approach to it feels a bit muddled in how it looks at the consequences of false accusations. It isn't done for shock value and there is a degree of thought put behind its inclusion but the execution feels ill judged given how it feeds into the overall story and characters. 

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The premise of 'Your Host' is one that feels all too familiar and unfortunately it doesn't do enough to set it apart from similar fare. Whilst the bloody makeup effects are impressive, the script (whilst ambitious in the themes it wants to explore) delivers fairly flat characters. The only exception being the host who is all the more compelling thanks to the great performance from Jackie Earle Hayley. It may not be a winner but it certainly isn't in last place when it comes to this subgenre. 

Verdict: ⭐️⭐️

-Joseph McElroy

'Your Host' received its UK Premiere at FrightFest '25 on August 22nd