Hostel- Mild Spoiler

Rating: 8/10 (21 September 2005)

I saw this at Midnight Madness as the closing film of the Toronto International Film Festival. This is one of the most brutal and violent films I've seen in a long time. Kind of a revenge horror flick/cautionary tale, almost an attempt to create an urban legend about American College Students backpacking around Europe. I think the best way to describe it is to say which directors/films it seems to be inspired by. The most prominent influences seem to be the works of Takashi Miike films such as Audition or Ichi the Killer. Other influences seem to be Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Pulp Fiction (Zed's dead), Eurotrip (or at the very least the cliché American college student backpacking around Europe experience, Sex and Drugs). It presents an extremely disturbing and bleak outlook on human nature, which one would hope is an exaggeration, but sadly the 'operation' depicted in this film to me at least is plausible in some aspects of it's depiction, it seems very much inspired by the brutal and senseless torture inflicted in Nazi Concentration Camps. I loved the irreverent humour of Cabin Fever, there are still some traces of this in Hostel. I was riveted watching the whole film, at times titillated other times revolted. I totally marked out and was cheering at the end of the film when retribution was delivered. Definitely not for the faint of heart. Rick Hoffman is great as the smug American businessman, the character is a little bit 'stock' but he does a very good job at quickly creating a character that you just want to punch in the mouth. If you liked last years Festival closer, 'Saw' or any Takashi Miike films you will enjoy this. See this film with a crowd, preferably late at night.