"Not The Shocking Horror We Wanted, Or Need"

Rating: 5/10 (14 August 2007)

3 friends backpacking through Europe look for sex and booze. They hear about some kind of Hostel that offers beautiful naked women and no attachments. They go off in search for this place, but instead find a torture house. Soon they are finding themselves in a heap of trouble.
Eli Roth is being hailed as the new face of horror. As of right now, with the current features under his belt; I must ask myself, why does this guy have this title? Granted I liked Cabin Fever, with it's homages left right and centre to the genre, but was it good enough to have its director considered 'Horror Master'? After watching Hostel, I still sit here dumbfounded.
Upon this films release (and after it as well) the only thing I kept hearing was how sick and twisted it was. How there was no real story and that a film like this should not be in print. Being the horror fanatic that I am, I was hoping to see something that I, and the fans of the genre, can enjoy while everyone else trashed it. Now after seeing Hostel, I sit here on the fence as to whether or not I liked it. It's not the vile, porn-torture, disgust of a film that I thought it was, but it wasn't a horrible piece of trash either.
Roth knows the genre well, which is evident in how he presents the film and the style throughout. This is it's high and low points. The film looks beautiful in the second half, but Roth overexposes the viewer to what makes horror movies horror movies. For example, an action film usually has gun fire and car chases; horror films usually have blood, sex and violence. In Hostel, we get overexposed with an obscene amount of nudity, then the second half is an obscene amount of sadistic violence. The film plays like two different movies. The first half is soft core porn and is shot like a teen slasher film, while the second is 'considered' a snuff film, shot with a grittier look.
My problems with the film are scattered throughout it's running time. For everything good in the film, there is something bad. Horror films are suppose to make you feel a certain number of things. One is to be scared, yet this film is not scary. Instead Roth relies on graphic violence to scare his audience. People claim that the film is a gory trip through hell and back. Did I miss the train? Hostel, to sum up in one sentence: Does Not Live Up To The Hype. I don't know if it's the sick films I've seen prior (Cannibal Holocaust, Dead-Alive, Evil Dead), but Hostel is not what it seems. The film tries to go for shock, but fails to deliver any in its poor attempt.
I appreciate the acknowledgement of other horror films Roth shows us. Any horror fan can point out certain places and things Roth homages. One that I liked was seeing Takishi Miike walk out of the warehouse. Here is a person Roth admires greatly and by the time you're reading this has probably already directed 3 more films. While I am not a total fan of Takishi yet, I can respect his films. You can see a touch of his style here. Nobody should be fooled by the title Tarantino Presents. Other then promoting a friends film, he has no touch here. It's a shame, cause this film could have used a touch up.
It is suspenseful in some scenes, but the way Roth constructs them is horrible. We are suppose to believe that the main character will go back to save a life, simply because of one line of dialogue earlier? To explain, our so called hero says that he once saw someone die and he could have done something to save her. Later on in the film he hears the screaming of a woman and goes to try and save her. Despite this never happening in real life(unless the person is someone you know/love) the fact that the only suspense in the film comes from this poor explanation, it taints the rest of the film.
So in the end, I can't recommend this to any real horror fan, or even people looking for a good film. Instead watch it if you're a fan of the stuff. If your favourite movies include Saw Wolf Creek, then Hostel may be the film for you. I found myself wanting to enjoy it, but simply couldn't. I'll have to wait and see what Roth can deliver to us later, then maybe he can earn his horror title.