A nice effort by Roth

Rating: 6/10 (8 January 2007)

2002 was a big year for director Eli Roth, as the huge success of his modest debut film, the low-budget horror "Cabin Fever", quickly gave him the attention of a young audience eager of horror films aimed to their generation. While not exactly an original or exceptional film, Roth's "Cabin Fever" became a huge hit among the audience because it offered an edgier, raw approach that proved to be very attractive to die hard horror fans, but at the same time was friendly enough to gather the mainstream audiences not entirely familiar with the genre. It was this success that attracted producer Quentin Tarantino to help Roth to make the follow-up to his initial success. The 2005 release of "Hostel" was the result of that joint venture and the movie that showed that Roth is finally growing up as a horror director.
"Hostel" is the story of Paxton (Jay Hernandez) and Josh (Derek Richardson), two backpackers traveling across Europe during their last summer before going to college, in a wild trip of drugs and sex. In their quest, their are joined by Oli (Eythor Gudjonsson), an Icelander traveler who is also looking for good experiences. During one night on Amsterdam, the three travelers meet Alex (Lubomir Bukovy), a young man who tells them about a hostel located in Slovakia where they will find not only the best looking women of all Europe, but also the ones that are easier to get into bed. Excited about this information, Paxton, Josh and Oli travel to Slovakia to discover the paradise Alex was talking about. But they will also discover a dark side of the business that Alex conveniently forgot to tell them.
Written by Roth himself, "Hostel" is at its core, a very basic tale of punishment as the young protagonists go from lustful consumers to products of consumption by their own choice; however, it's commendable the effort Roth has put to the development of the characters to give some flesh and make the simple story a bit more engaging. The lack of sympathetic or well-built characters was one of the most criticized aspects of "Cabin Fever", but in "Hostel", Roth creates a trio of characters that while at first are like Xerox copies from his "Cabin Fever" boys, later they evolve into real persons with realistic motivations and surprisingly heart, proving that the director/writer has learned something from his past mistakes.
It's important to point out that its hype as an extremely violent movie is deceiving, as it really doesn't offer anything new or groundbreaking to old and experienced horror fans familiar with lesser known gems of the exploitation genre. That said, "Hostel" is a visually impressive movie (thanks to its bigger budget) that showcases a stylish yet very realistic way of violence rarely seen in the current mainstream horror. As a director, Eli Roth follows a straight forward approach to his story that in many ways is the obvious evolution of his work in "Cabin Fever", as even when this new film is definitely more brutal and remorseless than his previous work; it also offers a slightly friendly face that makes it attractive to bigger audiences outside the traditional horror fan base.
The cast of the film does a commendable job, but never goes beyond the expected. Jay Hernandez is probably the best of the main cast, giving a believable turn as the naive American who gets in the middle of something bigger than himself. While he is good in his role, his character loses all credibility by the last third of the movie due to the sadly unrealistic way Roth ends the film. Derek Richardson is pretty good too, as the less enthusiastic and introverted Josh. Eythor Gudjonsson as Oli exudes his natural charm in a role that is probably an exaggeration of his real life persona. Jan Vlasák gives a terrific performance in what's probably the best acting of the film. The rest of the cast is pretty much OK, without any real surprises.
As written above, it is Roth who is the main responsible for the fatal flaw of the film: it's conclusion. "Hostel" is divided basically in three acts, and sadly it's in the final part where Roth decides to conclude his story in a way so fantastic that betrays the realist approach he had used in the film so far. Without spoiling the finale, I'll just say that the unfortunate decision makes the film look like a complete different movie and totally unbalances what otherwise could had been a new classic. "Hostel" has been criticized by the naive and ignorant view it has on Slovakia and other European countries in their portrayal as poor countries where life is cheap. While Roth has defended himself by saying his film is done that way on purpose, personally I think that the ambiguity the film has on this aspect (it's very realistic at times, while over-the-top fantastical at others) doesn't really help Roth to make his point clear.
Wheter it is a socially aware film or not, the fact is that with "Hostel" director Eli Roth gained another financial success and proved that he was more than a lucky one hit wonder. While not a movie without flaws (and it has some serious problems), "Hostel" is a big improvement over "Cabin Fever", and hopefully Roth will make a masterpiece if someone else writes instead of him. 7/10