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Host, The
Magnolia Pictures


6.2

based on 35 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 119 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Memories of Murder

MPAA RATING: R for creature violence and language

Starring Kang-ho Song, Hie-bong Byeon, Hae-il Park, Du-na Bae, and Ah-sung Ko

Utilizing state-of-the-art special effects, The Host is both a creature-feature thrill ride and a poignant human drama. (Magnolia Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Comedy \| Drama \| Fantasy \| Foreign \| Horror \| Sci-fi \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Chul-hyun Baek Joon-ho Bong Won-jun Ha
DIRECTED BY:	Joon-ho Bong
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: July 24, 2007 Theatrical: March 9, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	119 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	South Korea
LANGUAGE(S):	English / Korean (with English subtitles)

Original title "Gwoemul"

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

The mix of dark humor, creeping suspense, and a sort of apocalyptic tenderness makes this the best horror flick in years.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

A great piece of filmmaking and a legitimate science-fiction/horror classic.

100

Film Threat Felix Vasquez, Jr.

Joon-Ho's epic is a masterpiece of monster cinema that's intelligent, innovative, and reaches down to the basic core of family unity to propel its story beyond mere conventions of science fiction.

100

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

The Host isn't just a terrific monster movie. This South Korean box-office smash is also a laugh-out-loud comedy and a surprisingly angry political satire.

100

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

I have seen The Host twice and have every intention of watching it again.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

The sudden turns of temperament are a treat after the smart-ass attitude of American horror flicks, and the film is full of minor surprises, squirming in unexpected directions without leaving the conventions behind.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Bong Joon-ho's wildly entertaining saga should become the hip, thinking-person's monster movie of choice.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

A cross between "Godzilla" and "Jaws," it manages to be both truly scary and truly funny – sometimes all at once.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

The Host is a cautionary environmental tale about the domination of nature and the costs of human folly, and it may send chills up your spine. But only one will tickle your fancy and make you cry encore, not just uncle.

Slate Dana Stevens

The movie pops up out of nowhere, grabs you in its big, messy tentacles, and drags you down into murky depths, where social satire coexists with slapstick, and B-movie clichés mutate into complex metaphors.

Time Richard Corliss

If this madly entertaining movie has a fault, it's that it's too ingenious for the genre it ostensibly inhabits.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

With a subversive streak as wide as the Han and a title open to interpretation, The Host confounds our expectations while providing top-notch entertainment. For Bong, the monster movie is an ample vessel, one that he can fill with social criticism while discovering exuberant amusement in the process.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

The Host is a freewheeling mix of high style and goofy, good-natured fear-mongering.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A wonderful, witty mix of horror and social satire, The Host takes its simple, time-tested premise - menacing creature terrorizes the populace - and runs with it.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

The first 20 minutes of the South Korean film The Host represents one of the most entertaining movie openings in memory. It's the same kind of pop-culture thrill provided by Steven Spielberg's "Jaws," with the same sense of astonishment, fear and pleasure at something genuinely new.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The tone of The Host is slippery in the best way; you're never sure if you're in for a joke or a shock, yet nothing feels random.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Is it that scary? Yes. Will it reduce you to quivering jelly? Oh, my, yes! Does it bust the bonds of the Godzilla formula to fuse fright with feeling? Better believe it, dudes.

USA Today Claudia Puig

This Korean-made film takes the well-worn creature-feature genre and spins it on its head thrillingly.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

A fantastical genre-buster.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Boon's film is both funny and heartbreaking, a supremely confident mix of political satire, free-floating paranoia, fractured family dynamics and the kind of comedy that regularly reconfigures itself into tragedy.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Mostly, though, it's "Godzilla" with a severe case of Murphy's Law, and it is never less than bizarrely delightful.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

When the movie isn't being scary, it's crazily funny, so much so that critical watchers will wonder if Bong might tilt the balance of the picture too far in a comic direction and water down the scares. He doesn't.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Most of all, The Host functions as a popcorn movie par excellence, loaded with the most familiar conventions, but shot through with such conviction and visual panache that even its clichés seem invigorating.

Variety Derek Elley

On almost every level, there's never quite been a monster movie like The Host. Egregiously subverting its own genre while still delivering shocks at a pure genre level, and marbled with straight-faced character humor that constantly throws the viewer off balance.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

The Host packs a lot into its two tumultuous hours: lyrically disgusting special effects, hair-raising chases, outlandish political satire, and best of all, a dysfunctional-family psychodrama--an odyssey that's like a grisly reworking of "Little Miss Sunshine."

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

The Host is a miracle of breathless play with form and tone that also seethes with attitude and ideas, from pure movie love to pointed sociopolitical commentary to a bleak existentialism about the inherent cruelty of our world.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

A thrilling ride and a sometimes dry, sometimes sweet comedy, but beneath all that is a humane and tragic view of life worthy of the greatest films. Even those without rubber monsters.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Bong's primary point is dead-on: Battling bureaucracy, from dishonest government leaders to indifferent civil servants, is the biggest horror of all.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

I never thought I'd crack up watching a family mourn the death of a beloved daughter. But I've never seen a film quite like The Host, and that's far from the most bizarre thing in it.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Although it strikes a perfect balance between otherworldly, slimy menace and 1950s B-movie cheesiness, The Host's computer-generated mutant isn't what makes this frantic, wild picture so much fun.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

It's the last thing anyone expected: an old-fashioned monster movie with a heart.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Gross-out horror is never far from comedy and The Host, Bong Joon-ho's giddy creature feature, has an anarchic mess factor worthy of a pile of old "Mad" magazines.

The Hollywood Reporter Elizabeth Kerr

Bong has pulled together a multilayered horror-drama that works more often than not. The film gets back on track after a clumsy middle section that's too long and finishes strong, and Bong fans, horror fans and Asiaphiles are likely to be thoroughly satisfied.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The Host is a strange little movie: part creature feature, part social commentary, and part slapstick comedy. The problem with the film is that the sum isn't greater than the parts and the pieces don't fuse in a way that's consistently pleasing or cinematically satisfying.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

In "Jaws," you didn't know whether to laugh or to scream. In The Host, the yocks rarely mesh with the yucks.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.2 (out of 10) based on 119 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ethan S. gave it a9:
If you're looking for a horror movie then you have come to the wrong place. But, this movie is not a horror movie failing to be one. It is something completely different. It is one of the best 'monster movies,' if not the best, that I have ever seen. It is full of drama and darkish humor. It develops the characters extremely well, even succeeding in giving the monster personality. The struggles that the characters go through are real and do not seem to be fabricated for cinematic effect (besides the monster) and therefore do not leave you with any unanswered questions or loose ends. It is intense, although it is able to calm itself down in times of character development and more intellectual interaction between the characters. It involves much more than the standard Man Vs. Monster theme as seen in so many other movies of its kind. The only gripe I would have with this movie would be the very beginning because it makes it slightly corny. But, nonetheless, you forget about that and any questions of why there is a 50 ft fish going around and eating people are eliminated. The presence of the monster becomes noticeable on a perfect scale as the story progresses. It does an excellent job of showing societal reaction to the monster and makes sure that the magnitude of the public and government reaction is not allowed to go out of control save for maybe some over-the-top government action (but, hey, its Korea). All in all, I'd say that this movie is fast-paced when it needs to be, but also allows itself to have emotional and heartfelt themes.

Peter J. gave it a5:
The dialog, or lack thereof, pretty much killed this movie for me. With the review it received I was expecting much better. If they took this movie more seriously and left out the idiocy I would have given it an 8!

Sophia K. gave it a10:
Used interesting sources. never got bored during whole film. Great!

Ted S gave it an8:
If you rent this movie, beware that your DVD player doesn't default to play you the dubbed version, as mine did. After sitting through half the movie and wondering how anyone could have enjoyed it, I switched over to the original Korean dialogue with English subtitles. It becomes a different movie, almost literally--and a far superior one. Some of the dialogue is so different between the dubbed and the subtitled English, you can't believe it's coming from the same source. What seems clownish in the dub becomes effective and even stirring when the original dialogue is playing. Whatever you do, don't watch this dubbed; the film's dark humor and queasy tonal shifts make it suffer even worse than most from the process.

Val H gave it a5:
Why do these foreign films have to get a 0 or a 10? The Host is a solid 5 or 6. The family are a sort of Korean version of the family in "Liitle Miss Sunshine". A likeable mess that you want to win in the end. The horror takes a big second place to the comedy. Overall it wasn't a disaster, but it was no masterpiece, either as a thriller or as a relationship piece. As I said, it was a solid 5 or 6/10. Rent it if there's nothing else calling to you at Blockbuster. I'm still trying to work out why so many professional critics pronounced it a masterpiece. It was fine, but nothing worth catching a bus in the rain for.

Dave L gave it a10:
Fun, action-filled, humorous film. A must see for those who enjoy Asian films.

Oliver C. gave it a7:
Let's not get carried away here.. This movie was good for a monster movie. The acting and special effects were mediocre, the movie itself was hardly frightening. I found myself rooting for the monster at times. However, the directing is really a lot of fun and the movie has a point its trying to make, for which it deserves some credit. Not great, not jaws, but certainly one of the better monster flicks. Definitely better than cloverfield.

Host, The Magnolia Pictures

Host, The
Magnolia Pictures