THE HOST

The Host is a film which recently came out of South Korea. While it is a commendable piece of filmmaking, I found that in the end, I wasn't as impressed as some were. I also found that it tried to do a little too much even in its more than ample running time. While I did laugh a few times, I found that the humour was injected rather than being part of the story; and did so in an all too conscious manner. This is hard to do well. By way of comparison, Hal Ashby and company were much more successful in this respect when they made The Last Detail. This film is unrelenting in its gloomy drive, but there are moments of humour. These laughs come out of the absurdity of the proceedings as much as anything else. Stanley Kubrick taps into this quality also with his treatise on warfare and incompetence in the brilliant Paths of Glory. The other problem with The Host is the film is not dark enough -- quite literally in fact. It goes to show you that the unknown or uncertain is often more effective than showing a 'monster' as runway model. (Look how scary I am, everyone!) Again, as comparison, this is why I think the classic Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" is much more effective than the later feature film version directed by George Miller. In the half-hour episode, the monster on the airplane wing is presented as an almost goofy-looking or cuddly bear (made-up by the late makeup artist, William Tuttle). Miller decided, for some reason, to have the monster as a 'look how scary I am' creature... long teeth, demonic eyes, and all that sort of impressive jazz. All they didn't do was put a sign around the beastie that said "I'm Scary!", just to make sure we did not misinterpret what he was supposed to represent. The TV "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" monster worked because we didn't see too much of it, and its appearance worked against convention. You are always startled and affected when that centipede goes running by your feet at home when you are just trying to enjoy your cup of coffee; but after you look the bugger over for a few moments, you think, more and more, "hey, they're kind of pretty little things, aren't they?".