Six friends hire a medium to hold a seance via Zoom during lockdown, but they get far more than they bargained for as things quickly go wrong. Sounds like a simplistic plot doesn’t it and in some ways it is, especially when you read it on paper (or screen) but there was nothing simple about Host, the hit 2020 film from Director Rob Savage, and writers Gemma Hurley, Rob Savage and Jed Shepherd. which blasted across social media in Summer 2020 and to say that it generated some ‘buzz’ would be an understatement.  The film didn’t have a huge budget,  , nor did it have exotic locations, but what it did have was a great cast, a great crew and an story and production that gave film fans what they craved, a good old escapist terrifying experience and boy did it work! Watching ‘Host’ in the right environment was key. a dark room, later at night, with the sound up and boy were you in for a near pants wetting experience. (for the record I didn’t wet my pants, but I did skip quite a few heart beats in the hour long run time) Even on the second viewing it still worked just as well  and it was one of those gems of a film that had you recommending it to your friends and social media followers and made you eager to find out what they thought.

Fast forward into 2022 and people were eagerly wondering what the crew of ‘Host’ would bring to the world next, would it be another Zoom-tastic horror thriller. (answer: kinda, but no not really)

Then the news popped up that Rob Savage and Co had teamed with Blumhouse (who Im a huge fan of and actually am working my way through all the Jason Blum produced films as part of a rewatch/first watch project) for Dashcam, a film that I knew nothing about other than the film would be told through a ‘livestream’ format. I avoided all the articles and even still images for Dashcam as I knew I would be watching the film and always prefer to head into films knowing as little about them as possible. and so. last night I turned off the lights, and checked out Dashcam

To go into the plot of Dashcam would remove a lot of the purposely created chaos of the film and I rarely do delve into plots when it comes to my thoughts about a film, but for the basics of the film it tells the story of Annie Hardy (played by Annie Hardy) who travels to England to see her friend Stretch (named because hes tall) (played by Amar Chadha-Patel ) You’d expect a journey across the ocean to see your friend to go quite well wouldn’t you, well it doesn’t. The friendship is fractured pretty quickly and Annie takes off in Stretch’s car to get some space. Now that’s when things really go go off the rails and the characters and the viewers are plunged into a hellish chaotic experience (for the viewers that’s a good thing, for the characters in the film- not so much) The character of Annie does take a little bit of getting used to, as she does share some views that might be super annoying to some people and she isn’t afraid to vent them to anyone who will hear them (whether they like it or not) and when your lead character plays the role so well that they annoy you, well that can be a struggle- but persevere and you’ll be fine, you’ll settle into the film.  (great work by Annie by the way, playing Annie). The other thing that might ake a bit of getting used to, for some people is the camerawork. Think ‘The Blair Witch Project’ but then give it some acid and turn it up to 12! and you might be on the right road. I am a huge fan of the camerawork for Dashcam and the filming of this would be an experience to have seen im sure. Very clever work and very chaotic on the senses.  I do get the impression that there would have been a large amount of improved dialogue from Annie Hardy and she is a whirlwind of a poet, but the script to Dashcam and the story created by Rob, Gemma and Jed, I bet was also one hell of a good read and blueprint for what we see on screen. 

Dashcam wont be for everyone (because of the film style) , but everyone should check it out. I loved it, from the natural feel of the acting, to the camerawork, to the fact that even though I didn’t know what was going on for quite a part of the film, that was the point, as the characters I was watching on screen, had no clue what they had ended up in either. Very clever work by the team of Rob Savage, Gemma Hurley and Jed Shepherd.  And as a greedy film fan that I can be, With the wonderful Host and the wonderful Dashcam, I wonder whats next for this cracker of a team!