Blood-soaked revulsion a sadistic fantasy

Rating: 7/10 (17 January 2006)

Another torturous gratuity of some of the most repulsive hacking Jeffrey Dahmer could conceive, "Hostel" plays calculatingly and chillingly well as a gore fest cum revenge flick, with an anarchic signature Tarantino twist to boot. Cautionaries like "not for the squeamish" and "seduction kills" are splattered all over the wall of this malodorous, if irresistible, concept of a film like the mutilated body parts and bloody carnage which inevitably ensue, yet "Hostel", unlike countless other slasher flicks that are impetuous in presenting shock and awe, builds its terror casually and methodically. Allowing plenty of exposure to the clichÃ©d "to-be-mutilated party animal teenagers who unknowingly become seduced by a fatal excursion", and offering up plenty of gorgeous European scenery and babes galore, the film's anticipation of horror is consequentially profound. You anxiously hang around and wonder, "How is this going to play out?". And once the neon ecstasy of the "hostel" becomes the darkest and most blood-curdling dungeons of despair imaginable, if you don't find yourself gagging and shying away from the punishing grotesqueness that eventually blackens the screen, you might want to ask yourself if you're a sadist at heart. And you thank your lucky stars that your life isn't under the knife of one of these trigger- or should I say, "blow-torch, chainsaw, drill"- happy maniacs. At times, it's a bit too excruciating and mind-numbing to absorb, and the pace is a bit drawn-out in places. In the end, there's a sore lack of empathy for any of the so-called characters, the bludgeoned or the bludgeoners, because as usual, the victims play right into their killers' machinations, and the killers are strictly capricious madmen. Just when you think one of them has the heart not to "finish the job" (or the privilege, however you want to put it), it's simply a convulsion of their manic nature, and they turn out to be the ghouls we figured them to be after all. These elements would usually make for tripe horror, and "Hostel" would fall into the category of yet another recycled morass of a gore fest. Yet one has to keep in mind that at the helm of this production is the ever-industrious Quentin Tarantino, and you had better believe that everyone's going to get what's coming to them. This is not so much a chilling and horrifying film as it is a cold and unflinching trip into the darkest places imaginable. For the price of admission, you're going to get gore, gore, and babes galore, and if that isn't enough, the last drop of blood will be shed until the credits roll. "Hostel" is blood-soaked, soberly crafted horror featuring the most gruesome images you won't be soon to forget. Could you expect anything less? *** out of ****