A brilliant film, among the best horror films I have seen.

Rating: 10/10 (15 January 2006)

Hostel is one of the most genuinely horrifying films I have seen. It begins by introducing us to a couple of likable, open, and friendly young men, backpacking through Europe with all the confidence and unawareness of well to do students from the center of the earth, exploring the quaint folks who aren't like them. But they are basically decent, occasionally reflective guys out for an experience they can't get or wouldn't indulge in at home. They want to have a good time before committing to the proverbial gray flannel suits of careers, grad school, etc., and so they begin in Amsterdam's center of sex. drugs and rock'n'roll. Sex is really the major object of their quest, and the first part of the film documents it all with a sort of boy's eye view that keeps it interesting, even alluring, without quite going to porn. Then we have a nicely paced transformation, using the odd creepy or awkward incident and the excitement of beauty and mild debauchery. Gradually beauty turns to ugliness and piquant exotic pleasures become dangerous, until we enter a relentless hell that is pretty scary. There are several neat developments that aren't cheating, but are nonetheless entirely unexpected. The whole thing is subtly done with real acting, character development, and dialogue, so that when bad things happen to people, you care about it. The backpackers are relatively little known and very talented players, as are the women they meet, who behave like student tourists and mysterious libertines rather than horror movie bimbos. It's interesting that there have been some protests about the gore, because it is actually fairly limited, very well contextualized, and has none of the campy excess that we have come to expect from horror films. In fact it is really quite unpleasant and not at all titillating or amusing. Moreover, there is no reliance on supernatural effects, or monstrous people rising for one last slashing after we thought they were dead. The enemy in this one is definitely us, or at least some of us, and that's what makes it terrifying.