Good but Doesn't Fulfill the Hype

Rating: Null/10 (6 January 2006)

Eli Roth's film has been hyped as the "scariest movie in a decade". With Tarantino attached (seemingly only for marketing/promotional reasons) and rave expectations since his previous CABIN FEVER, it's not the director's fault that this film has been pumped to the Nth degree. With the success of the SAW films and the J-Horror flicks in the past several years, we eagerly awaited this "fresh" concept, based on true events.
Paxtor (Hernandex) and Josh (Richardson) are two young Americans backpacking through Europe, focusing less on the culture and more on the booze, drugs, and women. Predictably, the characters are foils. Paxton as the brash, egotistical Type A and Josh as the more quiet, reflective, just-broke-up-with-the-girlfriend sidekick. They meet Oli (Gudjonsson) an easy-going party-animal from Iceland. Together, they enjoy the sights, scene, and sex of Amsterdam.
One night, they meet Alex (Silhavecky) who tells them of a city in Slovenia that is "filled" with women, if that's what they want. Alex shows them digital photos of him and gorgeous, naked beauties.
The bait has been shown and the fish are hooked.
Paxton, Josh, and Oli go to the Hostel recommended by Alex, but the trip is initially depressing and they are somewhat hesitant. Seemingly, their luck changes when they arrive at the hostel, a charming building which houses the three with two buxom flirts (Natalya and Svetlana) who invite them to the spa and out dancing.
The next morning, after a night of bliss, is when things start to go awry.
Roth manages to get us to this point in the film, about twenty minutes in, without much effort. The characters are stale and one dimensional, and the American-as-ignorant-tourist is over-played. Later, Paxton's ability to speak German is misused to give this idealogical conflict some meat. Unfortunately, Roth is too methodical during the gruesome torture scenes and continues to try and use the characters to send a message about Americans/capitalism.
While the concept is strong, the story plays out a bit amateurish. The tension is fleeting, and we only wish the torture scenes could be longer (not for the blood but to push the envelope of what these people are doing). It's unfortunate that we know very little from the torturers' sides; they are just masks. There's no twists as to who's good and who's bad. It's fairly obvious as each character is introduced as who will end up being a friend or foe.
As a second film for Roth, it's a good start. As for the hype, forget about it and just enjoy it for what it is, a pretty good horror flick. Hopefully Roth will forget about the Hitchcock-like directing and just focus on the in-your-face scare next time.