I enjoyed Superhost more than is reasonable. I was sitting there thinking cynical thoughts when I realized I wasn’t entirely sure where this was going. And the villain was deranged in a hilarious yet unpredictable way. And that the two main leads were more nuanced as characters than I would have predicted.

The flick is about travel/vacation YouTubers who rent a Not-AirBnB place out in the woods. The owner of the house turns up and won’t stop turning up. They slowly realize there are some screws loose in both the house and in the owner’s head. The question is, do they have enough footage to get clicks and can they upload the video with such a terrible connection?

You’ve probably seen this basic premise before: City folk rent a place in the country, the place is either hunted or owner by crazy people or Satanists or crazy Satanists who are haunted. There’s very little original in the basic premise.

But the performance from all three leaders were excellent. The two YouTubers were equal parts annoying and relatable and their rocky relationship was interesting. She’s far more about getting the clicks than he is, he’s far more into the relationship than her. The crazy owner… she’s got that smile cranked up so tight, I think her face is gonna split. She’s a lot of fun in a throw-popcorn-at-the-screen kind of way.

And I wasn’t entirely sure where the plot was going. Sure, it’s easy to predict she’s going to snap and start murdering. But there was a possibility that there was some other game going on. And I wasn’t sure who would win if she DID snap. And I was pleasantly surprised by some good scares and a creepy sense of uncertainty.

I’m not sure my opinion is exactly in the mainstream. The flick worked for me. I was genuinely a little scared and worried for these two crazy kids. In between finding them annoying. But when a movie works, it works.

Score: 86