Hostel, Great Suspense, Nothing More

Rating: 9/10 (8 January 2006)

Hostel, proves Eli Roth can do suspense, which is great. Cabin Fever proved he could do gore, which is great. Hostel was a solid disturbing and suspenseful movie, yet it was not "balls out" extreme by any standard. Personally, I thought Cabin Fever got away with more in theaters.
Hostel was only disappointing because the gore was implied gore. Maybe once an unrated DVD comes out, will we truly see what Hostel was made of. Don't get me wrong here, the implied thoughts were sick, but thats all the true gore was, implied and not shown.
I am not bashing this movie. This was an awesome movie, which will hopefully raise the bar for suspense. This was the first good suspense film in the 21st century. I guess message boards are really the reason I was disappointed. Message Boards everywhere compared this film to the disturbing pictures like Salo, Cannibal Holocaust and Men Behind The Sun, when in fact it really didn't compare to modern movies like The Devils Rejects or House Of Wax. Both of these films were nothing in terms of movie quality, but they sure as hell got away with a lot more than Hostel did in theaters.
So I am saying, go see this great movie, only go seeing it as a solid suspense movie, not a gore-fest like the previews made it out to be.