The Host
The Host – Humans are all but extinct; the Earth has been occupied by an alien race. ‘Souls’ possess a human host and take over their consciousness. When Melanie is captured and becomes host to a Soul (called ‘Wanderer’) her spirit fights on inside her head. Together they seek out Melanie’s boyfriend, Jared, and her little brother, who she swore to protect. She finds them with a small band of survivors, but Jared can’t stand the sight of her, Wanderer starts to develop feelings for another, and everyone else wants to kill them both.
The Host (2013) – Director: Andrew Niccol
Rating: 12A
Running Length: 125 mins
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Max Irons, Diane Kruger
Genre: Science Fiction, Romance
REVIEW – ‘THE HOST’
Adapted from the novel by Stephenie Meyer (author of the ‘Twilight Saga’ – each film of which we have reviewed previously), ‘The Host’ sees Meyer move away from mythical monsters and instead focus on science fiction. ‘The Host’ is set in a world where an alien race has taken over Earth by occupying the bodies of human hosts (as evidenced by bright blue circles in their eyes). This process essentially wipes out the consciousness of the person so possessed. However, when Melanie is taken over by an alien ‘Soul’ ,which calls itself ‘Wanderer’, her consciousness clings on. This leads to the odd situation where much of the dialogue consists of Wanderer talking out loud to herself, whilst the disembodied voice of Melanie argues with her in voice over. Melanie convinces Wanderer to run away and try to find Melanie’s family. In doing so she finds a small colony of humans hidden and surviving. And then ‘The Host’ reveals itself for what it really is underneath the science fiction backdrop – another strained and tedious exercise in stretching out a barely believable love triangle.
Whereas in the Twilight Saga the plot revolved around a human teenage girl choosing between a vampire and a werewolf, this time we have the rather more torturous plot line of an alien entity possessing a human girl who is then torn between her past love (who can’t stand the sight of her anymore) and a new love interest. This leads to many weird scenes where Wanderer kisses someone only to have Melanie shout at her inside her head, be it anger at kissing her lover or even more anger at kissing someone other than her lover. This is then almost the entirety of the plot. There is the obligatory earning of the other humans’ trust (who spend a rather distressing amount of time trying to strangle Wanderer or punch her in the face), there is the obsessed Soul who tries to hunt Wanderer down by flying round and round in a helicopter until it is deemed plot convenient for her to spot something, and there is also a self-sacrifice decision to be made for very hazy reasons.
All these elements exist to pad out the fact that ‘The Host’ is nothing more than another love triangle story – and ‘love’ itself seems to be based on no other reason than ‘he was the first human I’d seen in years’ and ‘he told me he liked me not long after trying to strangle me’; hardly the things that dreams are made of.
CONTENT: IS ‘THE HOST’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?
‘The Host’ makes the strange choice to open with a dramatic moment and then spends 15 minutes doing nothing but flat flashbacks, instead of the more effective method of building character first then subjecting said character to conflict. The opening drama is the attempted escape of Melanie. In her desperation to get away she throws herself out of a window and falls several stories. Although we do see her hit the ground, there is barely any blood. However, when she is later in a medical unit the ‘Healer’ says that she has ‘barely a bone not broken, or organ ruptured’ and we see more in the way of cuts on her face, but this is quite minimal. The ‘Healer’ then makes a small incision in the back of Melanie’s neck which is shown in close up, but this is not particularly gory.
There are several instances of people being shot. On one occasion an incidental character is shot in the back of the head causing them to lurch forward. A large blood arc is shown to spurt from his face. This shot lasts around 5 seconds. A little later the body is on the floor with blood pooling around the head. Similarly when another character is shot later, the impact causes a visible arc of blood. Also, Melanie’s father is shown in flashback to shoot himself rather than be taken. We see him raise the gun but then the camera cuts away with only the sound of the shot being heard. These moments are quite brief and spaced out so children won’t be exposed to constant bloody violence.
Other graphic scenes include when Wanderer / Melanie intentionally cuts herself with a knife as part of a plan. She cuts her forearm but we do not see the injury itself, only her wincing. She does, however, run the knife over her eyebrow to cut her face and this is shown on camera albeit done quickly and matter-of-factly. Also, Melanie’s brother, Jamie, accidentally cuts his leg with a scythe. Later there is a graphic close up of the now infected wound but it is also in the process of being attended to by the resident Doctor. Jamie isn’t shown to suffer particularly from this injury although at one point he is sweating and clearly suppressing pain. Melanie / Wanderer is very concerned for his well-being but hides it from him. As no character really breaks down in tears we feel that most children will be fine with these scenes and they aren’t overly upsetting.
What is of more concern is the rather odd mixed messages of romantic content. As Melanie is constantly shouting directions and orders to Wanderer inside her own head this leads to a strange scene wherein Wanderer is kissing a character and Melanie is heard to shout, “No! No! No! Stop it!” in voice over. We cannot quite tell if this was supposed to be a comedy moment or not, but the idea of kissing someone against your will may be potentially unsuitable for younger children. There is some mild to moderate nudity in ‘The Host’. Wanderer / Melanie washes herself in a pool and although we only see her shoulders and collarbone from the front. Later in a dream sequence we see Melanie (before being possessed) kissing Jared passionately on a bed. Both of them are only wearing underwear and it is clearly a memory of previous physical intimacy. This scene is a little protracted and lasts a minute or two. In terms of dialogue, Wanderer is told that humans have ‘strong physical drives’. Also in a flashback Melanie tells Jared that ‘when you touch me I don’t want you to stop’ and ‘sleep with me’.
Lastly, and most potentially worrying, is the sheer amount of physical violence directed at Wanderer / Melanie once she finds the other humans. Although their hatred of her for what she represents is understandable, the audience has previously seen that she is a sympathetic character and acts like a normal teenage girl. Therefore, the brutality of the violence against her is unpleasant to watch and simply comes across as men being abusive to a young, defenceless woman. The fact that she is in love with two of these abusers does not make it any easier to watch. As they can tell from her eyes that she is possessed, almost all the humans want her dead. They only refer to her as ‘it’ and at first go to decapitate her with a machete, only stopped by Melanie’s uncle preventing her death. When Jared first sees her he strikes her face hard with the back of his fist causing her to fall to the floor. Shortly after, she is held in a cell and several men make it clear they want to take her away and kill her. In the confrontation one character, Ian, grabs Wanderer by the throat and tries to strangle her. Shortly after this assault, he tells her that he has feelings for her and she falls in love with him. Melanie protests and reminds her of what he did, however after this one mention, none of the other characters show any concern for her safety.
Later, Ian’s brother, Kyle, who was involved in the previous assault, pursues Wanderer / Melanie without any provocation. She is shown to be terrified of him and holds her breath underwater to avoid him. In the next scene she is trying to get away and he lunges out from an enclave and punches her hard in the face before trying to push her into a stream (which was earlier pointed out as deadly due to the strong current). When the other people are trying to get to the bottom of what happened, Wanderer / Melanie decides to stay silent rather than speak up about the assault. Although the other characters can clearly see what has happened and do confront her attacker, he receives no real punishment and no-one mentions the attempted murder after this scene. Indeed, this is typical of the violence towards Melanie / Wanderer in that no-one is really chastised for their actions, something that sends out a potentially poor message: that it is better to stay silent and trust that things will work out rather than speak up against abuse.
CAN I SEE A CLIP?
VERDICT – IS ‘THE HOST’ FOR KIDS?
Whilst the blood and romantic content are more or less what you would expect from a 12A rated film in that they are moderate but infrequent, it is the explicitness of the violence towards Wanderer / Melanie that create most cause for concern in younger viewers, especially as it doesn’t seem particularly important to the plot to have the lead female character punched in the face several times in the film. Otherwise the biggest problem ‘The Host’ faces is pacing. Much like the Twilight Saga, very little happens for a long time and no amount of thin science fiction decoration can hide the fact that the plot is entirely focused on a rather bland love triangle that doesn’t make use of the genuinely interesting concept it has introduced.
In terms of taking children under 12 to watch this movie we would state that ‘The Host’ is unsuitable for under 10s. There is nothing too inappropriate for older children (between 10 and 12) who may watch this movie but we advise caution due to the physical violence directed at Wanderer / Melanie as we feel this could send a rather poor message to children – that hitting girls whom you don’t like is ok and consequence free.
- Violence: 4/5 (gunshots result in blood splatter and the main female lead character is repeatedly punched, slapped and strangled)
- Emotional Distress: 1/5
- Fear Factor: 0/5
- Sexual Content: 4/5 (the focus of the story is love and kissing. As detailed above there is several mild to moderate references to physical intimacy)
- Bad Language: 0/5
- Dialogue: 3/5 (constant threats directed at Wanderer / Melanie)
- Other notes: Deals with themes of prejudice, believing in better and not losing touch with one’s own humanity)
Words by Mike Record
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