A Stylish and Scary Horror Movie Lacking Substance.

Rating: 6/10 (1 June 2006)

Two American college buddies backpack across Europe and wind up at hostel in a Slovakian town, which is advertised as a nirvana for travelers. There, they encounter all sorts of exotic women willing to do their bidding, but there's a darker aspect of this place that they only learn about too late.
Hostel is your typical sadistic horror film offering enough gore and scares for the audience. The premise is pretty creepy and the execution is very effective. Eli Roth is really good at directing horror movies. He doesn't mind going over the top and he's pretty good at building suspense. His story telling skills are a little weak though. The first forty five minutes or so was a good opportunity to build on the premise. However, Roth just inserted dull dialog and idiotic scenes that didn't really have a point. If anything, it just made the audience hate the main characters. After the really slow start, the movie picks up and becomes more exciting. The death scenes are ridiculously over the top yet still very scary to watch.
While these torture scenes are occurring, there is still no sign of a story. It was really just a bunch of torture scenes strung together without a story but with a lot of style. I still liked the movie but it was kind of pointless. The characters are pretty weak as well. They were your typical college students, annoying, loud and rude. Still, it was hard not to feel sorry for them when they were being murdered. Very few people deserve to be murder that way so it was easier to root for their survival. Some people may have difficulty in doing that though.
The acting is okay, nothing special. Jay Hernandez and Derek Richardson play the two Americans and they both give decent performances. The rest of the actors were a bunch of unknowns and no one really stood out. Despite the movie's vacant story, the film still showed some scary real life situations. The whole torture chamber thing is probably a stretch but the fact that people are willing to pay to kill other people is a pretty sick thought. It shows that some people may appear harmless yet have a very twisted side to them. Also, near the end of the film, Paxton (Hernandez) is portrayed as a hero for saving a girl and for getting revenge on a bunch of people. After escaping, he could have just left and forgotten about the people who put him there but he went after them. It shows that someone without a disturbing side can still murder after being near death themselves. Or maybe I'm just looking into the movie too much. In the end, Hostel is worth checking out for horror fans just don't expect a lot of substance. Rating 6/10