Bong plays the monster’s origin very literally…right up until he starts masterfully modulating tones.

| Jan 22, 2025

A film about protecting family and the environment as much as it is about a giant fish creature, The Host is a genre-traversing thrill ride with simple but potent messaging.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 21, 2025

The Host may seem familiar in the first half-hour […] but it grows beyond a single genre or traditional blockbuster entertainment by including a political editorial alongside a brisk creature feature.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 8, 2024

A monster movie for those who like a little meat on the genre's bones.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 26, 2021

The Host filled a crucial hole in our horror life: a big, hulking, unstoppable force that we accidentally created and can't control.

| Mar 22, 2021

This is a ton of fun and puts most Hollywood monster movies to shame

| Oct 24, 2020

"Bong Joon Ho's smash-hit monster movie The Host [proves that] he is deft at putting genre in the service of biting social commentary."

| Jan 14, 2020

Fast-paced, outrageously witty and wild, you can't go wrong this weekend if you pick the monster with the most and catch The Host.

| Nov 13, 2019

With multiple artfully constructed layers of social commentary, 'The Host' offers an incisive look into South Korea's soul.

| Aug 14, 2019

The best monster of the 21st century. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 17, 2019

A smartly made, highly entertaining ride, laced with a strange poignancy that makes it an all-around wonderful movie experience.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 5, 2019

This gripping Korean thriller remains one of the most unique releases of last decade.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 21, 2018

Imagine, if you will, the great white shark from Jaws clambering out of the water and attacking people on land, and you'll have some sense of what makes Bong Joon-ho's film The Host so terrifying.

| Aug 23, 2017

| Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 17, 2011

A livid bureaucratic satire, berserk creature feature and surprisingly somber drama, "The Host" is a convulsive, wild ride - simultaneously eliciting squirms and giggles by mashing up finger-pointing anger with "The Thing's" wiseass wickedness.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 24, 2010

A pleasant reminder of the pleasures in the low-budget quickly made monster B-film of the 1950s.

| Original Score: B+ | Aug 10, 2010

A subversive blast

| Aug 27, 2009

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 18, 2008

This monster movie from the Republic of Korea is one of the best films of its kind.

| Jul 14, 2008

Minor flaws in a film destined to be embraced by genre fans worldwide.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 24, 2008