Not as grim as rumoured

Rating: 7/10 (23 October 2007)

Before 'Hostel' was released, it was announced as the most bloody and violent film ever showed. This, of course, increased the expectations a lot, but I must say that it is nowhere nearly as violent as it is cranked up to bed.
Sure 'Hostel' has it scenes, but it has a general problem: If you want to make the most "bloody and disturbing film ever made", then you need to SHOW the graphic horror, and not just make hints to it. A few scenes made me chill  the scene where Paxton is cutting Kana's dangling eye with a scissor almost made me puke), but this was almost it. It is way too easy to let the Dutch businessman grip a power drill, and then remove the focus to other torture instruments while hearing Josh screaming in pain in the background, and then afterwards show him with holes in the body  the pain doesn't get to you. It is way too easy to make a nasty sound of the businessman cutting Josh's Achilles tendons without showing the cut itself, but just make a "cutting sound". And in the end, it is all too easy just to cut his throat letting the camera go black with the sound of a cut without seeing it. Besides, watching a decapitated head (referring to Oli's death) without showing the "surgery" isn't more disturbing than watching any other horror movie with torn limbs. To be honest, I expected a lot more graphic violence, and I was a bit disappointed with the gore I got, now that 'Hostel' was supposed to be the "most disturbing and violent film ever".
The cast works very well, and especially Eythor Gudjonsson as Oli is simply hilarious. He makes a PERFECT performance! Jay Hernandez and Derek Richardson are good as well, and especially Derek Richardson's torture scene is one of the emotionally strongest in the entire movie - No wonder he was nominated to an MTV Movie Award for "Best Frightened Performance".
But take a note: a film doesn't need to have blood, guts and violence to be good, but when it's announced as one of the most frightening films ever made, it sets certain expectations. 'Hostel' is definitely not a bad movie, oh no. The premise is scary as hell, and the film works really fine as both a funny an unpleasant thriller; I still enjoy watching it. But don't expect any more gore or torture than the average for these kind of films.