Delivers the goods!

Rating: 6/10 (8 March 2006)

Its so rare these days that decent horror movies are actually made, for every "The Ring" there are 10 "Saw's" and its a real shame because I have always been a shameless horror movie fan. But finally there is a horror movie in theaters that actually delivers the goods and its name is Hostel.
I wasn't a big fan of Eli Roth's first film "Cabin Fever", in fact I downright hated it so my anticipation for his next film wasn't that high, that was until reviews began to come in and everyone talked about how brutal and gory the movie is. This really peaked my curiosity because I am somewhat of a gore freak so I figured that I had to check it out.
Now the first 20 minutes are for the most part.... Terrible. I admit for most of the first act I was pretty sure that I was gonna hate this movie. The first act is sort of like what would happen if they made American Pie 4, but looking back on it after the movie is over the first 20 minutes look better because they are sort of your breather because the rest of the movie is freaking brutal!
The middle section of this movie is simply brilliant, all of the scenes in the dungeon are truly frightening in a "this could happen to you" sense and somehow through the movie Roth actually makes you like these characters and we want to see them escape.
My biggest problem with the movie is the ending where our one remaining lead decides to get him some good old fashion revenge. The last 10 minutes are simply laughable. I think the movie would have been a lot better if the movie had ended with Paxton escaping from the Hostel and returning to America a broken man but they decide to take the juvenile route.
A lot has been made of the gore in this film and to me it wasn't really that bad although there was a lot of groaning and screaming in the audience I saw it with so it seems to work for people not used to this kind of thing but for any horror movie fan there is nothing in this movie that you haven't seen before.
In closing, I think that with a tighter script and a better beginning and end this movie could have been a modern horror classic but as it stands now it is an enjoyable time at the movies (Well maybe enjoyable isn't the right word.)And I recommend this film to all you horror movie freaks like me out there!