Reviewed by Alicia Glass

Director: Robert Woods

Writer: Tyler Jacob Jones

Review Rating: 7.5 out of 10

An unexpected guest throws what is supposed to be a surprise engagement dinner party into spiraling chaos with potentially much larger consequences!

So Liz (Nadia Collins) and Jackson (Evan Williams) are this adorably neurotic couple who’ve planned to host a dinner party for a few of their intimate friends, where they will announce the script-perfect news they’ve both been practicing – Liz and Jackson are finally getting engaged!

A great many of us feel the pain and frustration of Liz’s repeated attempts at appropriate decorations, servings and such, and have pulled the same damn actions when trying to prepare for a big-big event whilst saddled with a tiny budget, a recalcitrant significant other, and truculent “helper” friends. And that’s not even including the unexpected but inevitable “extra” guest, the one whom no one actually likes but is unable to entirely get rid of!

This one takes the form of Daisy (Naomi Brockwell), your favorite good-time gal who has a tendency to get sloppy-drunk at whatever function she’s been “invited” to and start having a case of truthful mouth-diarrhea to the most inappropriate people she can find. Yet somehow friend Kyle (Daniel Buckle) insists on bringing the dubious Daisy with him to Liz and Jackson’s dinner party, much to the dismay of the other actual invitees: Brett (St John Cowcher), Jon (Tristan McInnes), and Mara (Mary Soudi).

Like almost any girlfriends-type movie ever made, as soon as the uninvited guest shows up, it’s carte blanche to use her as the verbal punching bag for everyones grudges, regardless of whether or not they have diddly to do with her. However Daisy has managed to garner herself a reputation, so a good deal of the initial complaints about her seem to be justified. But in unleashing their grudges against a united target, the other guests demonstrate their own shortcomings – still semi-closeted homosexuality, physically violent tendencies, and the ever-present threat of outright lies. But why bother lying and covering things up to this small group of nobodies at a lame engagement party? Why, indeed.

An excellent film entry in the minimalist-setting major-storytelling Horror world, An Ideal Host will make you laugh, suspect everyone, and swear off spaghetti for awhile!