This one’s a good old fashioned monster movie.
After some English-speaking (probably an American) doctor orders an underling to dump a ton of dusty old bottles of formaldehyde down the drain, which empties into the Han River, some sort of giant salamander/tadpole creature with a prehensile tail terrorizes people. My guess is that the creature is the result of a chemical mutation.
The creature wreaks havoc on land as well as in the water, and it snatches a young girl. The girl doesn’t get eaten or anything, but she gets deposited into this sewer drain where the creature continues to dump all of the bodies of its victims. I’m not exactly sure if this is supposed to be some sort of larder where the creature is storing its future meals, but most of its deposits are dead upon arrival.
The girl’s good-for-nothing family has to pull their shit together if they ever want to see her again, because the police and/or military won’t do anything to help them out, and the CDC ends up concocting some stupid virus story which lands the family on the most wanted list.
A wannabe-champion archer vs. a giant rampaging creature.
Being a foreign film, I think it’s best to watch it in its natural language with subtitles. I think the filmmaker’s intent comes across stronger this way. The cast does a great job of portraying their characters with a balanced mix of comedy and drama.
In most foreign films, the special effects look inferior, but The Host is an exception. The creature effects, despite being a lot of CGI, look fantastic.
As a horror movie for October, it might not have been the best pick, but I like it regardless. Verdict: See it.
