A good entertaining little thriller

Rating: 8/10 (31 July 2014)

Eli Roth hasn't quite hit a home run with many of his original movies. His directing has been subject to a lot of criticism, but I won't let that get in the way of my review. Personally, I love Eli Roth's acting, he bring a relatively fresh persona to the screen. But this being the first movie I watched created by Roth, I heard a lot of hype, and downplay, so I didn't know what to expect.
I can't and will not criticize the acting in the movie, because a lot of it seemed suitable for the target audience. It wasn't bad in any way, and it had it's moments. So I won't dive to deep into the acting.
However the plot was intriguing, and seemed to be pretty creative. The premise was enticing me to watch the movie, though I didn't know a whole lot about it, however, I was pleasantly surprised.
Since the movie is a thriller/horror, there is a lot of violent and graphic torture scenes. Since I have desensitized myself to some of the violence, or I just have a higher tolerance to gore, I found to be amusing. I could see what he was trying to do with the torture scene, and didn't think they fell short in any way. I imagine it to be similar to many Japanese gore flicks, like Guinea Pig, to a somewhat lesser extent. And maybe more like Audition in the veracity of the graphic torture scenes.
So I understand what he was trying to do, and it was not necessarily a high budget movie by any means. So with that in mind, you do not get many of the dull high budget Hollywood horror style gore. It remains under the radar of these cheap Hollywood gore flicks, and rightfully so. In that sense it seemed genuine to classic torture flicks, unlike a Saw 4 type thriller.
I cannot say the same for the following Hostel flicks, it seemed like later movies tried to capitalize on the legacy of the original. That being said, Eli Roth didn't direct the following, which may be why he stepped back but that is besides the point.
If you don't have the stomach for these gore flicks, then it should be easily for you to decide, just don't watch it. If you like gore art, then it would definitely be worth taking a look into. If you like the movies Audition, or really many Japanese thrillers, it is similar and seems more sincere.