Bring out the East-European Gimps...

Rating: 6/10 (11 March 2006)

"Hostel" only just got released and it's already a bit overrated. Well...over-hyped might be a better term to use, as Eli Roth's follow-up to the crappy "Cabin Fever" is an overall intense horror flick and it definitely reaches its basic goal; which is to disgust and even shock younger audiences. Eli Roth and producer Quinten Tarantino aren't exactly known for their subtlety and thus "Hostel" is quite a sick and unhinged movie that leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination. Not even during the bloodless first half hour, when numerous beautiful girls go topless and the film looks an awful lot like vulgar teen-comedies such as "American Pie" or "Road Trip"! Two Americans and an Icelander, all driven by their hormones, travel through Europe with only sex and soft drugs on their minds. After a disappointing party in Amsterdam, a fellow stoner advises them to travel further east where the girls are stunningly beautifully and  oh yes  very willing. The hostel in Slovakia starts out as a dream location but, soon after, the horny boys one by one get kidnapped and gruesomely tortured in a ramshackle old factory. The idea and structure behind the torture-network isn't particularly original or innovating, but since it's the only form of depth and plotting in the film's entire script, I won't be the one ruining it for you already (although other reviewers obviously have no problem with that...). Admittedly you have to be a little sick in the head, but I really enjoyed the extended and genuinely sadistic torture sequences and the devices looked creepy. Eli Roth will probably never be a great filmmaker, but his directing skills have seemly improved since "Cabin Fever", as there are some stylish camera angles and a nifty use of locations. The almighty Tarantino's influence is clearly detectable in smaller aspects, like twisted gags and clever references towards other movies (like his own masterpiece "Pulp Fiction"). The ending is really good and the film once more proves that ordinary CHILDREN are the most petrifying creatures on the planet! Worth seeing.