Superhost
review by Bobby Blakey
Shudder continues to deliver some fun original flicks and shows no signs of stopping. Their latest Superhost stars Sara Canning, Osric Chau, Gracie Gillam, and Barbara Crampton from Z director Brandon Christensen. Could this flick bring the scary chaos or will it fail to get the clicks?
Superhost follows Teddy and Claire, travel vloggers who run a channel called “SUPERHOST” where they travel and share their experiences in and around vacation homes, and until recently, had become successful doing it. With a dwindling subscriber count, they find the perfect opportunity to create content that people want to see when they meet Rebecca, the host of their most recent trip. Slowly they start to realize that something isn’t right with Rebecca, and as they investigate it further, they unlock a horrifying truth. She doesn’t just want a great review, she wants something far worse.
The premise to this movie is pretty terrifying if you think about the realistic nature of it all. I have told people numerous times how these Air BnB’s and house rentals can go horribly wrong and this film dives right into that premise. In addition it also brings the obsession with social media clicks as taking over people’s lives and causing them to ignoring the real world.
This story is pretty simple and pretty clever on the surface. You easily buy into the duo and their fight to build their channel. I was a bit on the fence on believing their relationship as it seemed a bit all over the place and rocky. It makes sense on some level with the focal point being their channel that it has affected their relationship, but at the same time it just never felt like their was much of a connection between them. They are fine in the film and it felt more like the writing for this part, but just felt off for me.
Getting into the meat of it offered a good slow build bringing in Rebecca perfectly played crazily by Grace Gillam. She is the shining light of chaos in the film. She is cute and likable, but you know from the first moment you meet here something is off. Where the film really struggles is in the same issue a lot of these films have and in the decision making. They make so many strange and dumb decisions that you kind of want them to all die on principle alone. Once you throw that aspect aside it is a pretty fun flick. Sure its predictable and silly at times, but the premise, good cast and great performance by Gillam helps to make it one that delivers exactly what it set out to do.
Decide for yourself and grab your copy of Superhost when it hits Blu-ray and DVD on February 1st from Shudder and RLJE Films.