YOUR HOST movie poster | ©2025 RNF Productions
Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Jackie Earle Haley, Ella-Rae Smith, Jamie Flatters, David Angland, Joelle Ray, Tom Claxton
Writer: Joey Miller
Director: DW Medoff
Distributor: RNF Productions
Release Date: October 14, 2025 (VOD)
YOUR HOST concerns a torture game show, videotaped by the Host (Jackie Earle Haley). Since what seems to be happening at the outset is in fact the substance of the movie, it’s not too spoilery to say that the Host is doing this for his own reasons and that it’s not supernatural.
We see “winner” Jake (Tom Claxton), shackled and bloodied, get shot after the Host breaks his promise to free the prisoner.
We then cut to a sumptuous summer house, owned by the family of James (Jamie Flatters), who is here with his best friend Matthew (David Angland) plus Melissa (Joelle Ray) and Anita (Ella-Rae Smith).
The women seem to get along with each other well enough, but James and Matthew needle each other, James is awful to the women, and they’re nasty right back. It’s not a fun (or clever) dynamic to watch.
This section doesn’t last too long, as by seventeen minutes in, all four have been rendered unconscious by the Host and chained up in his warehouse lair.
There follows a lengthy sequence of the aforementioned torture, which goes on long enough for any viewer who isn’t squeamish but still likes some plot or forward momentum or psychological insight or some other general dynamic to get a little impatient.
Then we get a backstory, and it’s a doozy. How to describe the problems without giving too much away: let’s just say the script by Joey Miller seems to seriously misunderstand how and why financial settlements are reached. Even people whose jaws don’t drop at the way this is handled may wince at the pileup of clichés.
After this, YOUR HOST brings us back to the main action. We soon have more questions than ever, and we don’t get answers to many of them.
Director DW Medoff keeps things physically lively enough for us not to feel cramped by the setting. He handles the ultra-violence effectively enough, often as an end in itself.
Haley makes the Host relatively intriguing, though he’s never terrifying. The rest of the cast do well with what they’re given.
By the end of YOUR HOST, there’s a sense that the basic concept was not developed enough before the screenplay was finalized and filmed. For those who enjoy physical abuse for its own sake, there’s plenty. Otherwise, YOUR HOST is liable to get on your nerves.
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