Hostel: Vacation Goes to Hell

Rating: Null/10 (7 June 2006)

***SPOILER***
This movie is not for the squeamish. It takes a little while to get there but, once it does the film is full of ghastly and gruesome blood and gore. The horror derives from helpless victims of a deranged, sadistic maniac being ruthlessly tortured, dismembered, mutilated and slowly killed for the pleasure of paying clients.
I saw this movie on an afternoon break between classes at the local "dollar theater." ...didn't know what it was about. The only thing I had heard about it was a caller on the radio saying there were plenty of "naked chicks." He was right. There was an abundance of uncovered female curves - especially for $1. And, there was about a bank vault's worth of screaming, cursing and bloody corpses. Critics might say that some of it is gratuitous, although it seems to fit in with the storyline to me. Yes, there is a story - a thin one, but a story nonetheless.
Two American buddies on a trip to Europe (for chicks and drugs I guess) join up, in Amsterdam, with a companion from Iceland. When the three of them travel to central Europe in search of the "naked chick" jackpot, things take a turn for the worse. One by one they start to disappear. Whether, drugged, abducted or somehow lured, they all end up in the slaughterhouse where they can be butchered for a price.
The fact that it is a business is not revealed at first. Eli Roth, who wrote and directed this piece, does a good job of parceling out the details bit by bit. At first sight inside the torture house there is nothing to indicate there is more than one victim at a time, or that anyone other than the abductor is involved. Gradually, we learn that there are more chambers in this dungeon and numerous workers, outside security, and paying customers.
The director and film editor also do a good job of showing the actual torture scenes by using a variety of angles, close-ups and medium shots. With the two American pals, we see views from behind them, viewing their captor - but, also from in front of them, showing the point of view of the captor/attacker. The latter view especially lets us see the terror in the eyes of the victim as they plead for their lives to a totally unforgiving fiend.
The special effects and makeup are quite good in this movie. Everything looks real - the violence, the aftermath, and oh yeah - the Eroubabes, too.