The Host

A little overlong and rather uneven in tone, the film still works well as an archetypal fairy-tale, writes Stephen Dalton.

Perfect host: Bae Doo-na guides us through Seoul's murky underworld.

A mutant killer amphibian the size of a bus emerges from the sewers beneath Seoul, attacking and kidnapping human victims, in this gripping Korean eco-thriller. Featuring superb creature effects by an international team of experts whose past credits include Babe, Superman Returns and Harry Potter, the director Bong Joon-ho's lively horror fable is a classy piece of work, transcending its pulpy B-movie premise. Beautifully shot in saturated colours, it combines bloodthirsty monster antics with slapstick comedy, family drama and political allegory. Besides nodding to Alien, Jurassic Park and other classic creature features, Bong Joon-ho and the screenwriter Chul-hyun Baek borrow from real-life events, notably the 2003 Sars outbreak in Asia. More specifically, The Host was inspired by a controversial case in which US military personnel illegally dumped toxic waste into Seoul's Han River in 2000, then refused to co-operate with South Korean prosecutors for five years. But while US and Korean military figures are depicted as shadowy villains here, the filmmakers never overstate their political message. The Host works equally well as an archetypal fairy-tale. It is a little overlong, and rather uneven in tone, but overall it hits the target. A sequel, unsurprisingly, is already in the works.