Debate is always going to rage over which movie can justifiably be named as the scariest of all-time, but science did everyone a favor by using data and statistics to certify Rob Savage’s unsung Host as the winner.
It also happens to be one of the genre’s best-reviewed efforts in recent history, too, with the screen-centric terror boasting a Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of 99 percent with almost 100 critics having weighed in with their thoughts, which is an undeniably impressive achievement.
Not only that, but the movie was shot for a paltry $35,000, unfolds entirely on computer screens, and runs for a fleeting 56 minutes, never mind the fact it released mid-pandemic when the last thing on everybody’s minds was sitting down and relaxing with a nightmare-inducing supernatural shocker that put an even grislier spin on the early stages of the COVID crisis.
The Science of Scare study saw 40 horrors screened to 250 test subjects, with the participants fitting with heart rate monitors and asked to view the features in question under observation, which then took an average in relation to a standard resting rate of 64. Based on the pure fear factor, Host was the uncontested victor.
With that in mind, a Reddit thread celebrating its many merits is entirely justified and fully vindicated by no less of an authority than the scientific community, who crunched the numbers and determined that yes; Host really is that scary. There’s a lot of hype in horror, but this is one title that lives up to the hyperbole and then some.
