Dead Hosts is a horror film, appearing as some form of ethnographic footage, initially presented in the form of a documentary. As with many horror films, the set up is that the audience is almost yelling at the screen, telling the protagonist “don’t do it” and eventually, “get out!” For the audience that is willing to suspend disbelief, they likely do so to the extent of taking the film as a fictional narrative in the aesthetic of a documentary. 

When a film is clearly fictional but has a documentary edge, there is a mysterious glint to it. The anticipation that builds tells the audience that the filmmaker must be well-versed in their craft to know not to film with a consumer camera (or if resources wouldn’t allow, that the set up have a more cinematically disciplined approach to qualify the merit of the filmmaker to entice audiences to stay). In one sense, it comes across as humility, in another, merit signaled by an adherence to the discipline of filmmaking to produce work appropriate to its genre.

The film starts with Ayesha on a plane and taking a car to her friend’s house. On the phone, she mentions that her friend has interesting “characters” in her family. Still, it’s a little unclear why the protagonist is on her way to her friends’ house while she isn’t there. After letting oneself go along the journey to be freaked out by Ayesha’s slow revelation that this strange family, whose idea of “play” is acting like cannibalizing demons, is not her friend’s family after all. The quick reveal that this ‘family’ killed her friend’s family and is out to kill her transforms the film from a documentary to video evidence when she begs for help.

Millizai does have one shot which does not fall into the flow of the documentary narrative. The portion where her friend, who is video calling with Ayesha, is shown through the laptop in realtime, not as a screen recording. Considering how this sequence occurs with news that the names Ayesha lists off are not of her friend’s family, the tension helps distract from the disconnect. It’s a moment where the film cements itself as a traditional narrative, somewhat satiating the reality the audience is aware they have been in (viewing a fictional film, regardless of the aesthetic approach). This shift likely contributes to feeling of unease, as though the filmmaker has decided to take away the supposed rules of the viewing experience.

Yet, the film has strong methods to warp the audience back into the perception of the film as documentary, except on behalf of the filmmaker (as it had in the beginning). It ends with thanking the Lahore Police and giving an “in memory of” slide. Millizai uses various effective ways to pursue the Found Footage genre to deliver a suspenseful experience.