The Host

OCOpen Caption screening
Additional program content
SFSensory Friendly. Details HERE

There are no showtimes currently scheduled for this film.

The Host

The talk of the 2006 Cannes International Film Festival was this film from critically acclaimed visionary director Bong Joon-ho (Parasite, Snowpiercer). Utilizing state-of-the-art special effects, courtesy of a creative partnership between Weta Workshop (King Kong, The Lord of the Rings) and The Orphanage (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Sin City), The Host is both a creature-feature thrill ride and a poignant human drama.

Gang-du (Song Kang-ho) works at a food-stand on the banks of the Han River. Dozing on the job, he is awakened by his daughter, Hyun-seo (Ko A-sung), who is angry with him for missing a teacher-parent meeting at school. As Gang-du walks out to the riverbank with a delivery, he notices that a large crowd of people have gathered, taking pictures and talking about something hanging from the Han River Bridge. The otherwise idyllic landscape turns suddenly to bedlam, when a terrifying creature climbs up onto the riverbank and begins to crush and eat people. Gang-du and his daughter run for their lives, but suddenly the being grabs Hyun-seo and disappears back into the river. The government announces that the monstrous thing apparently is the Host of an unidentified virus. Having feared the worst, Gang-du receives a phone call from his daughter who is frightened, but very much alive. Gang-du soon makes plans to infiltrate the forbidden zone near the Han River to rescue his daughter from the clutches of the horrifying Host…

"A loopy, feverishly imaginative genre hybrid about the demons that haunt us from without and within"
Manohla Dargis, New York Times
"Redefine(s) horror for the new millennium. This you have to see."
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"A perfect mixture of the silly and the grave"
Anthony Lane, New Yorker

This film is part of the Magnolia Pictures @ 20 series.



Coming Soon

Ennio

Opens 3/29

Nostalghia

Opens 3/29

Wicked Little Letters

Opens 4/5—On sale now!

The Jacob Burns Film Center is proud to receive generous support from:

Email Sign Up

Get updates on screenings at the JBFC Theater, upcoming events, and more!