I REALLY liked it and it was NOTHING like what I expected.
The Basics:
"The Host" is a modern version of the classic monster movies; think “King Kong,” “Godzilla,” “Jaws,” and “Jurassic Park.” Add in a dash of the realism of "Cloverfield" (which I also loved).
Basically, some animal mutates due to toxic waste in a river in South Korea to become a giant half frog, half squid, ugly thing that craves human flesh. The monster wreaks havoc in the city next to the river it resides in. It spirits off with a little girl that her family assumes has eaten her. Or did it…? A cell phone call from the girl gives the family hope that she’s still alive. As it turns out, she is alive and trying to survive in the monster’s urban waterfront lair.

The Twist:
This movie was nothing like any monster film I’ve seen. I was expecting the usual bad acting and lead characters being plucked off one by one in order of most expendable until none remain and a sequel is required. Here’s the deal though: this movie played out like a serious drama with moments of comic relief and sparse horror, but heavy on heart—truly.
Pick any drama like “Schindler’s List” or "Legends of the Fall" and “The Host” played out much more like one of these. The family that is the focal point of the movie is completely dysfunctional. You have a grandfather who runs a snack shack on the riverfront. He has one son who is a frustrated unemployed college graduate, a daughter who is a competitive archer with major confidence issues, and another son who seems mentally slow— very childlike; and it is he who has a child himself. The granddaughter, about 10 years old, is raised collectively by her father’s siblings and grandfather since her mother left her when she was born.
What’s really going on in this movie is watching the family rally together, led by the grandfather, to get his pathetic children to work together to hunt the beast and find the little girl. Along the way, the Korean government spreads misinformation or lies (I was never sure which) about the toxic nature of the beast. The family has to escape and avoid quarantine and martial law in their city while they try to find the granddaughter.
Additionally, unlike most monster movies that slowly reveal the featured beast over the course of the film and show it in all its glory at the end (like "Aliens"), this movie surprises by revealing the monster in the first five minutes in broad daylight as it rampages through a park next to the river. Oddly, this approach made the movie and the monster seem very real. And the monster is FREAKY: a gross, mutated mix of sea and amphibious creatures.Is the movie great? Yes. Is it a horror? I’m not so sure. I liked it more as a heartwarming story of a family in crisis pulling together in hard times to triumph in spite of great odds. I’m serious. Check it out; it’s a good film.





