Tuesday, March 13, 2007

The Host = Cool Monster

So an evil American scientist (Scott Wilson) tells his Korean aide to flush a bunch of poisonous chemicals down the drain. Guess what happens next? If you picked "a Government investigation fines the scientist for polluting", WRONG. Nope, that idiot Wilson's lack of respect for the environment produces a bizarre, sea-going, elephant-sized man-eating monster that proceeds to rampage across Korea.

Incidentally, that's not a spoiler. One of the fun things about THE HOST is that the filmmakers don't do the usual dance of hiding the creature in shadow for two acts, then bringing it on full force in the climax. One of the best scenes in THE HOST comes early, when folks trying to enjoy a Summer day on the river are suddenly beseiged by this thing. The first shot of the creature loping toward our featured characters is simultaneously spine-tingling and audacious.

When the creature drags a couple of youngsters down to its lair, the story becomes one of survival, and a family fighting an insensitive government to save their own. There's more on the story's mind than just the monsters, and that's fun. Definitely worth checking out!

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