humanities dark side

Rating: 5/10 (23 February 2006)

Two friends, Paxton and Josh are backpacking across the European country. In Paris they join with Icelandic traveler Oli, now the trio are resting in Amsterdam. These three have one focus; drugs and sex, with T & A filling every scene possible. You could call them misogynistic, but they are just acting out what basically every backpacker does. While at the Hostel in Amsterdam, they receive a tip on a hostel in the town Bratislava in Slovakia. Beautiful women and drugs await them in this place of paradise. Hitting with the local women at the hostel, the three can't believe their luck. The following day Oli disappears, no indication of his whereabouts. Soon Josh disappears, with Paxton revealing a dark spot in this town. Held in a dilapidated factory, people can pay to fill their wildest, more to the point disturbing fantasy, to torture and kill people; preying on the tourist that flow through.
Unashamedly, we are thrown into this dark, disturbingly sick world by Eli Roth. The torture unleashed upon the victims are slow and painful, through such emotional, primal screams that fill the halls of the factory. Violence and disturbing images have always been apart of horror, with directors pushing the limits as time has moved forward. Though it has been moving slowly into the main stream market. While the violence is raised, the film loses that psychological edge, where subliminal violence greatly enhanced that psychological mind set. Eli Roth's previous film, Cabin Fever, worked on the psychological tension, using subtlety and unknown elements that never reveal themselves, which worked much better than just being served everything up front; it takes the mystery away.
Hostel lacks a lot of suspension and builds no real tension. The town Bratislava has so many small streets, and tightly close together builds, yet it doesn't feel suffocating, nor any ominous mood. The tension only rises during the torture scenes, perfectly joined by the dark and grungy rooms, with endless tool of pain.
While the suspension does lack, there is an element that Eli Roth does tap into with Hostel. There is a reason why these people spend so much money on the pain of their unwilling victims, the primal entity that resides in all people. That adrenalin that shows through the tortures eyes, showing the pure ecstasy. What made this element hard hitting is the one conversation that procured it, from a man about to take part of this 'fetish'. While this does say Hostel is based on actual event, though it isn't, it does provide much food for thought, constantly thinking that this may actually happen.
Eli Roth has craftily created this disturbing place. While his script does fall in a lot of the dialog, the situation is made disturbingly. The acting doesn't give us much empathy. Jay Hernandez gives an average performance, though shows great arrogance in Paxton in the early scenes. Derek Richardson shows the best of all the actors, though by no means great. Eythor Gudjonsson is wonderfully irritating as Oli, giving much relief when he's picked off early.
Hostel does has its disturbing moments, and takes a disturbing look at humanities darker side; snuffing people off for an adrenalin rush like no other, Hostel relies to heavily on the confronting violence and lacks a lot of suspension, cutting itself short for a great horror film.