Thursday, August 20, 2020

QUARANTINE HORROR: New Zoom Platform Scare Movie-Maker


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Tired of those all those house-bound old low-budget scary re-runs? Got the jitters about Zoom multiscreen ?? Well then this is made for you . . .Here's "Host" the first in a new creative genre that  stands out for the way it taps into the undercurrent of unease produced not only by the pandemic, but also by the new forms of communication that have taken over our lives and changed how we interact with others
 
The Movie That Will Change How You Look at Zoom Meetings  

Shot remotely over 12 weeks, Host is the first great entry in the new genre of “quarantine horror.”
Elizabeth Horkley  
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020
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BLOGGER NOTE: Elizabeth Horkley is a writer based in Brooklyn
They want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.
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"An old house. Sleepaway camp. The woods outside Burkittsville, Maryland. Every generation has its dark places, settings where horror filmmakers stage the zeitgeist’s fears. During a pandemic, just about any spot where people congregate will do. But the new film Host takes an unexpected approach. The director Rob Savage sets his movie in a familiar virtual zone—a Zoom session—flipping the script on the current conventional wisdom that online meetings are a safe alternative to in-person gatherings. In reality, of course, they are. But Savage’s film portrays the paranoia that haunts the housebound this summer as a demonic entity unleashed by a Zoom call. . .
. . .Fans of horror know to steer clear of haunted mansions, dense forests, and bucolic cabins after sunset. But showers? The beach during summertime? These are places associated with comfort and relaxation. And while Zoom isn’t exactly that, it is—unlike the beach—unavoidable for many Americans, a necessary evil. The insidious power of Host is how its terrors follow viewers as they leave Shudder’s website and go to a Zoom work meeting, or to yet another Zoom happy hour.
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For many people, however, Zoom was already a sinister place. Though the platform was widely adopted to facilitate social distancing at the start of the pandemic, its status as a digital sanctuary was short-lived. “Zoombombing”—a practice in which bad actors hijack meetings to bombard patrons with disturbing videos and imagery—became so common that the company was forced to enact new safety measures . . .A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified an increase in depression, anxiety, and even post-traumatic stress disorder during the pandemic, especially among young adults. A New York Times story published last week cited research from April that listed more screen time, more time indoors, and fewer face-to-face interactions as “tremors in the [country’s] mental-health firmament.”
As The Atlantic’s David Sims wrote last month, low-budget horror films are thriving during a summer-movie season devoid of the usual blockbusters and packed theaters. . .
READ MORE > The Atlantic
 
 
 
 
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Rehearsal: take one.