How ‘Host’ director Rob Savage went from viral tweet to 3-movie deal

When film-maker Rob Savage decided to prank his friends over Zoom, he wasn’t expecting it to end with a massive movie deal.

At the time, back in April, the UK was in the midst of its strictest coronavirus lockdown measures. Video calls were essentially the only way of keeping in touch with friends. During one of these group Zoom sessions, Savage announced that he’d been hearing noises — possibly footsteps — coming from his attic. As his friends looked on via their laptop screens, he grabbed a knife from his kitchen drawer and went to investigate. Holding the laptop at arm’s length while on a ladder, he panned it slowly around the darkness — only for a monster to suddenly come lurching out of the shadows and send Savage tumbling back down to the landing, while his friends looked on in horror.

The monster in question turned out to be a clip from the 2007 movie Rec, and the whole incident a craftily-engineered prank — but the subsequent effects on Savage’s career have been very real.

He spent the next three months working on a feature-length version of the Zoom prank — a horror movie called Host — with frequent collaborator Jed Shepherd and writer Gemma Hurley, which they then sold to the streaming platform Shudder. The movie premiered in July and received a 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Then, six weeks after Host‘s premiere and less than five months after Savage’s prank first went viral, his life changed forever. His movie had caught the attention of Blumhouse, the production company behind the likes of Paranormal Activity, Happy Death Day, and The Purge.

In September, he signed a three-picture deal with them for an undisclosed amount.

It’s pretty much a dream scenario for any film-maker, but Savage told Mashable the whole thing was just a happy accident.

“I had no idea that it would go beyond just this stupid prank that I was using to keep myself entertained during lockdown,” he said.

“I mean, in all honesty it wasn’t even my idea to make the feature in the first place. I started getting calls from TV companies and film companies asking about whether there was a feature-length version or a TV series or if there was something longer that I could do with the format, and you know, any film-maker will tell you when you get a call like that you go, ‘Yep, of course there is!’ and you just lie through your teeth and then you do the work afterwards. 

“And it really came about like that.”

From a viral tweet to a 3-picture deal

Although Host‘s origins may have been fairly casual, the reaction was anything but.

“Surreal” is the word Savage used to describe it. He said that during a time when everyone was bound to their houses with no face-to-face contact, it felt very disconnected to see all the tweets and responses to Host rolling in.

“Without that human component it was a very weird experience,” he said. “I mean, it’s been incredible, but the first time that it really hit me was our first screening at the BFI [British Film Institute]. The BFI put on a special screening that sold out, and going and seeing it with an audience of people was the first time that it really landed on me just how the film was connecting with people.”

Of course, it wasn’t just audiences that were paying attention. The film industry also took note. And while Savage had already sold a number of short films to studios in the past, and directed several episodes of Sky’s historical fantasy Britannia, Host‘s success elevated his own to a new level.

“You’re still untested as a director unless you’ve got a successful feature-length film under your belt,” he said. “Having Host blow up in this way and be a kind of proven success in the feature space and reach a more mainstream audience than the shorts does feel like it’s kind of sent people’s trust in my team up to a new level, and the conversations we’re having are different to when we were just talking about short films.”

The response he had from the film industry was “mad,” Savaged said, going on to admit that while the whole thing was very exciting, he also found the decision regarding what to work on next a stressful one. Luckily, his experience on Host had taught him a valuable lesson there: the importance of trusting your gut.

“Host was made without a script, it was shot off treatment, there was a lot of improvisation,” Savage explained. “I had to put a lot of trust in the actors, they had to light and shoot and do their own hair and makeup and do everything that you normally would have hundreds of people to do on a film set. I had to place so much trust in my collaborators, and so much of the process was me just saying, ‘OK, well, that feels right. I feel like we’ve got that scene, I feel like this is the right way to go.’ We were shooting chronologically, there was a component of this movie that was almost like we were making it up on the spot.

“And I feel like the only thing that I can do now is to follow my gut instinct.”

Savage following his gut led to signing a three-movie deal with the owner of Blumhouse, Jason Blum, who he said he’d wanted to work with for a long time.

His means of coping with any residual stress he may feel?

“Just dive into the next movie.”

Life after Host

Savage’s next film — the first of his three-picture deal with Blumhouse — is one he feels just as excited about as he did when he started work on Host. The movie is in fact a “sister piece” to the Zoom horror film, an exploration of the world opening back up again after lockdown. 

“If Host is a film about lockdown and the claustrophobia of lockdown, this movie is really about going back outside and how scary people are now and how it feels like the danger is still out there, even though we’re not acknowledging it,” Savage said. “So it’s playing on all those fears but it’s got a much larger canvas, and it’s much more ambitious.”

Savage didn’t want to say too much, but he did say that the new film will take some cues from the Ti West films The Inkeepers and The House of the Devil.

“You’re only as good as your collaborators”

A lot of details are still up in the air, but Savage is already on the hunt for good set pieces; in early September, he put out a request on Twitter, asking for anyone with access to any cool cinematic locations to get in touch with him. Just like he did with Host, he’s using a collaborative approach to film-making to kick-start his next project.

This approach is something Savage swears by, in fact. At the end of our conversation, when I asked him what advice he’d give to film-makers who are just starting out, it was the first place his mind went to.

“I’d say you’re only as good as your collaborators,” Savage said. “So find people who you trust and who you love working with, and who you’re on the same wavelength as, and even if it’s only a small group of you just hold those people tight. And don’t jump ship because something sounds better on paper; trust your gut and work with people who challenge you and who make you excited to get up at five in the morning to go and schlep onto a film set because it’s pretty draining work. 

“And if you lose that kind of excitement and that passion then you’re just chasing success on paper. And really the process should be just as rewarding. I think it actually makes the work better. I feel like I had such a positive experience making Host, and the fact that it’s blown up, I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”

Host is available to stream now on Shudder.