The Host (2006)

The Host (2006)

Directed by: Joon-ho Bong

Starring: Kang-ho Song, Hie-bong Beyon, Hae-il Park

I really didn’t know anything about this movie going into it. I didn’t know that it’s the highest-grossing South Korean film in history or even that it was a giant monster movie, and the title sure doesn’t give any clues as to what it’s about. It’s refreshing being able to go into something with absolutely no expectations at all.

The Host begins with some scientists dumping gallons of formaldehyde into a river. Of course, this creates a giant monster which goes crazy and starts eating people. Also, the monster seems to carry a terrible virus, and the government quarantines everybody who was at the site of the first attack, including our family of protagonists. After they all break out of the quarantine area, they go their seperate ways to find the daughter of our main character, who was captured and believed eaten by the monster at the beginning (right there on the poster, even!).

This was actually a pretty good movie. The special effects and CGI were actually really well done, especially for a foreign movie (just because they have lower budgets over there, not because they’re worse at it or anything like that), and it’s awesome to see a monster movie like this where you actually get to see the whole monster… a lot. It’s never treated as a Cloverfield-type thing, and is instead more of a main character, an antagonist you see all the time. It’s kinda goofy, actually, running around like a dog with no balance, careening into things and falling over all the time. It’s cute until it starts spitting out all the bones of the people it’s eaten…

Anyway, my biggest problem with this movie is that after the family escapes from the quarantined area, the plot just goes nuts. Some people go after the monster, some go back to work or something, I honestly have no idea what was supposed to be going on for a full half hour in this movie, and then everything finally comes together in the end and the monster is killed by this family, and with the help of a random hobo they met on the street. That hobo is awesome.

But overall, it was a really good monster movie. If you didn’t like Cloverfield, this is the perfect antidote movie for you. And if you did… you should watch The Host anyway, just so you can see how a monster movie is supposed to be made.