An Ideal Host (2020)
8/10
Fun
1 January 2024
This is a legitimately fun little low budget Australian indie horror comedy. The microbudget is used well and while some of the effects show the limitations of what they were working with, that's really about all that does.

The opening, while very much comedic, set such a good stage about something being decidedly wrong about the main couple, Liz and Jackson, and their relationship beyond their obvious superficiality that I expected the nature of the horror reveal to be something entirely different than what it ended up being, even if it was honestly fairly telegraphed in retrospect. The script is smarter than I'd expected as well, and the cast does really well with the material. No intended shade to the Australian horror comedy tradition, but most of the ones I've seen previously seemed to be trying too hard to be early Peter Jackson to bother actually being well made, interesting, or even attempt anything of their own, so I'd not had the highest hopes for this movie to be different. Happily, that was not the case here at all.

Take a chance on this one if you like quirky little character-driven indie comedies alongside your dose of over the top splatter. The latter reminded me a bit more of a slightly more grounded Evil Dead approach than early Jackson or really even later Raimi - gory and at not intended to always be entirely realistic, but not necessarily fully goofy and goopy.
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