When I rented The Host,
I did so because my husband wanted to watch something creepy, sci-fi, and/or
eerie. I remembered that this
movie was filmed in New Mexico in part, so decided to give it a try. (We like picking out locations from the
State we live in when we watch a film.)
What I didn’t realize when I rented it is that it was
written by Stephenie Meyer, the woman who wrote The Twilight Saga. Having
just reviewed those films at the end of the year, I thought I’d share my
thoughts on this one for my first review in awhile.
In this story, souls from an alien civilization have come to
earth to inhabit humans and experience life in a flesh and blood body. Once they enter a “host,” the human’s
memories disappear and therefore they are believed to be gone forever. But one human, Melanie (Saoirse Ronan), somehow
is able to share consciousness with the alien soul inhabiting her body, who is
called Wanderer.
The interesting thing about these aliens is that they make
earth “better,” less violent, more peace loving and how humans really should
be. But it seems to me their
individuality is missing when they inhabit human bodies. They are all too much the same with
wooden smiles and an eagerness to do for others, but not necessarily for
themselves.
The Seeker (Diane Kruger) is driven to hunt down
Wanderer/Melanie in order to find more host humans for souls from the other
planet. She is as cold as steel
and single minded in her pursuit of humans. Wanderer/Melanie manages to escape her clutches, and makes
her way to where her uncle is hiding out, a place in Shiprock in a cave that he
has made into a safe haven for other human survivors.
The Seeker eventually shows up in the area hunting down
Wanderer/Melanie, who is now being held captive by the surviving humans who are
distrustful of her. Could Melanie
really still exist even though another soul has invaded her body?
The thing I couldn’t help but think about during this film
is that it’s really not that far fetched as a plot or a concept. After all, who are we but souls that
come to earth to inhabit a body in order to experience this planet and life on
it? Of course we don’t take over someone else’s body, but rather we inhabit a
fresh, new one.
We watched the entire movie, which was rather low key,
really not that much violence, with enough going on to keep us engaged. Ms. Meyer has really keyed in on her
teenage girl audience once again with a story such as this one. Rated PG-13,
there is nothing remotely racy about the relationships in this film. It is chaste throughout most of it,
although lovemaking is shown at one point, very tastefully done. Would I recommend it to you? I think so; just don’t expect too much
in the way of action sequences.
