Fortunately those friends included actors who didn’t mind a challenge as well as performing, they operated their own cameras and lit their own scenes. Mr Savage says he then called the friends who had filmed the prank video with him and asked if they’d be willing to take on another project. It took only two weeks from initial concept to finished screenplay. Along with Jed Shepherd, his producing and writing partner, Mr Savage sketched out some ideas before calling in Gemma Hurley to refine them into a script. He was still in touch with the mediums and, upon hearing that they were doing digital rituals, decided it would be a great fit for the film. The concept came from one of Mr Savage’s earlier projects, the research for which had required him to join a spiritualist church and attend interventions every Wednesday night for six months.

“Host” tells the story of six friends who hire a medium to hold a video séance during lockdown. So I thought: ‘Maybe I could do that.’” The resulting movie, “Host”, was worldwide on July 30th. When the coronavirus pandemic took hold “everyone was saying who’s going to make the first film on Zoom,” Mr Savage recalls (via the same video-conferencing software, somewhat disconcertingly). The video soon went viral on Twitter, winning praise from Michael Flannagan, an American director of horror films, and Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, the directors of “REC” (2007), a Spanish horror classic (a clip from that film was used in the prank video).Įncouraged by this success, Mr Savage decided to try to put together a full-length horror film from home. The apparent victim was Rob Savage, a 28-year-old British director known for creating horror shorts such as “Salt” and “Dawn of the Deaf”, and the prank was his creative solution to boredom in self-isolation.

Suddenly something horrible happens the man appears to lie lifeless on the floor.

Egged on by his chums, and armed with a torch and his phone, the man goes to investigate. Then one of their number hears a strange noise coming from his attic. A group of friends log on to Zoom to chat: some are enjoying a glass of wine, one goofs around with a virtual background. THE SCENE will be familiar to those who have endured the strangeness of socialising digitally in lockdown.

Zoom meeting horror movie