a Killer Business

Rating: 6/10 (2 July 2007)

Hostel is a movie that revolves around two American men backpacking through Europe as a life experience. They meet a young man from Iceland along the way and join up with him as they travel from hostel to hostel. The basic idea of the movie is disturbed businessmen pay big money to torture and kill people. What a concept, right? As Hostel does deliver many unpleasant scenes of blood, guts, and beyond; I do feel this movie had one major flaw. When you first start watching this movie, you will slowly start to ask yourself and others in the room if you are really watching the right movie. Why? That's because the first 30+ minutes of the story seems more like a National Lampoon's movie than any horror. I personally feel they took way too much time to get into the heart of the story. With all that said, it did a very good job at depicting a disturbed world of torture. The idea of that even slightly being possible makes me sick. Many of the scenes are very graphic and are probably not recommended for the light of heart. Overall the concept and torture scenes accomplished the mission of great horror cinema. The over stretched story packed with sex and partying was a bit much. I would recommend SAW over HOSTEL any time, if someone asked my opinion. I feel the original SAW was a better movie in every aspect and HOSTEL had many good qualities, but slacked in a smooth story.
Enjoy!