What a gruesome horror movie should be

Rating: 8/10 (18 November 2009)

As a fan of horror (good and bad) and gore-fests I was looking forward to seeing Hostel when i first heard about it, but then two things were putting me off. Firstly, Eli Roth as director, having seen Cabin Fever which could have been really good but turned out a massive disappointment I was worried the same would happen here. Secondly, a lot of reviews had described the film as 90 minutes of pointless gore and torture and that was not what I wanted to see.
Thankfully neither of these things came to fruition. With Hostel, Eli Roth has stepped up as a director both in the way the film was shot and how the story was told. Whilst there are some gaping holes in the plot, the story flows throughout and doesn't descend into violence and gore for the sake of it. The torture scenes are very cleverly shot, showing you just enough to start turning your stomach, but leaving some to your imagination if you dare try and think about it.
This film delivered what it set out to and exceeded my expectations, it is what a gruesome horror movie should be. That said it is sill a teen horror movie and won't ever escalate into the more grown up genre of films such as The Omen or Alien, but then I don't think that was its intention.