“We hired him, because we knew we could set his face on fire,” Savage says, laughing. When we pressed a button, she plummets.” Meanwhile, her on-screen boyfriend is set on fire - a stunt that Linard happens to specialize in. “We were able to rig a kind of goalpost over the pool, so she’s lifted up by a wire and there’s a quick release. Lifted into the air by the rampaging spirit, Lofthouse’s neck is broken and then she drops into a swimming pool. Two of the more complicated, and freaky, on-screen deaths were performed by Edward Linard and Jinny Lofthouse, the only stunt performers who also have speaking roles in the movie. We spent almost a whole day slowly building up that prosthetic and getting all the bits we needed for that sequence.” For the stunt, she slammed her head down into a little pillow that sat on top of her keyboard a couple of times, and then we’d pause and she’d apply the next part of the prosthetic - a broken nose or a slash on her face.

“Caroline was sent all these prosthetic pieces by our special effects guy, Dan Martin, and had a Zoom tutorial about how to apply them. In another scene, nervous Caroline (Caroline Ward) has her head repeatedly bashed against her computer’s keyboard, her bloody face periodically breaking through a Zoom background that shows her in happier times. For example, the actors’ partners would be the ones to rig them into their stunt suits.” “We found creative ways to make sure everyone was safe. “There was never any direct contact,” Savage says. That approach meant that the production was able to abide by England’s quarantine restrictions, although those guidelines loosened enough during shooting that the stunt performers were eventually able to visit the actors’ houses, under the supervision of an on-set medic who took temperature checks and ensured that everyone remained socially distanced. “A lot of the stunts were doubled, with hidden cuts between the actors’ houses and the stunt performers’ houses.”

“We had access to a house that was filled with stunt performers and stunt coordinators that were all isolating together,” he remembers. But the shoot itself happened in reverse, with Savage remotely directing all of the big scary stunts upfront. In classic horror movie tradition, Host starts quietly and then builds to a frenzy of paranormal violence.

The cast of the Zoom-era horror hit, 'Host,' directed by Rob Savage (Photo: Shudder / Courtesy Everett Collection)

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