10 Horror Movies That Brutally Punish Your Curiosities

9. Host

The Houses October Built
Shudder

From Rob Savage, Gemma Hurley and Jed Shepherd, last year's Host was a dollop of great horror at a time when horror hounds needed it most.

With the very real world having largely shut down, Host proved to be one of the freshest, most unique horror movies to come along in many a year. While we'd seen online-driven efforts previously - such as Unfriended and Smiley - Host was a different level of quality and terror across the board.

As its lead characters find themselves quarantining at home, Host sees a group video chat take a turn for the sinister when curious Haley decided to spice things up by hiring a medium to perform a séance during said catch-up.

To be specific, it's not necessarily the séance itself that causes things to go array; more how one of the group, Jemma, lies about making contact with a deceased friend. It's from here on out that things get spooky, as this prank summons a real spirit who, by the time Host concludes, has caused the death of six of our main characters, and presumably killed the remaining two.

Famously, Host was impressively put together in just 12 weeks, filmed solely through Zoom, and relied on each of its cast members to do their own lighting, make-up and general setup work.

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Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.