Filmmaker Rob Savage says the idea of his new horror film "Host" came to him from a prank.

Savage recalls how, while he was locked in at home due to the pandemic like the rest of the world, and everyone was catching up over video calls, the idea came to him to pull off a scary prank with his friends. He recorded a video of him being 'eaten' by a zombie, making it look realistic and as if it was happening in real time.

"It started actually as a prank video I played on my friends. Basically, everyone in the movie, both behind the scenes and in front of the camera, they're friends of mine who I've worked with before. We were doing all the things that everyone was doing (during lockdown). We were doing Zoom hangouts and happy hours and quizzes," Savage says.

"One day, I decided it might be fun to pretend that a zombie had eaten me live on Zoom. So, I cut together a little clip, and I made a contraption which meant that I could go from filming on my phone to playing them some pre-recorded footage," he recalls.

The director says he played them the clip where it looked like a zombie had eaten his face off, and posted that on Twitter.

"That ended blowing up, and becoming this crazy little viral video," he says, and the idea of the film was born.

"Host" is about six friends hiring a medium to hold a seance via Zoom during lockdown. However, things go wrong leading to horrible consequences.

PictureWorks is set to release the film in India on May 7, on Amazon Prime Video. The film will also be available in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu, besides English