Better than expected, truly frightening

Rating: 6/10 (11 May 2006)

Grade: B-
Not as gory as you might expect, but more psychologically disturbing than anything in recent memory. The first thirty or so minutes play more like a porno than a horror movie (though I suppose the two could often be confused for lack of quality) as three college kids pursue sex and drugs in, where else, but Amsterdam. The very idea behind Hostel is terrifying enough to keep the viewers attention. Once the torture begins, director Eli Roth doesn't stop. To say he creates tension is inaccurate. This isn't Hitchcock. Still, Roth focuses more on the anticipation of pain than in the pain itself. Often he shies away from showing us the torture: we don't see the drill going into the flesh, we don't see the ankles being slashed, but we know what's happening and that is even more terrifying. Hostel is still a horror movie with bad dialogue and useless characters, which is why giving it a "B-" is a little generous. It gets the grade because I left the theater thinking about the images and the situation: people being Kidnapped on vacation to be torture subjects for those who can pay for it. That's enough to keep me from backpacking Europe anytime soon.