Distinctly average

Rating: 5/10 (28 August 2006)

The heightened violence and gore publicised in this film made me expect something of the horror and general downright scariness of films like Saw. Although there were good elements to it, and an exciting build up of tension until the explanation of everything was revealed, something was missing. I've found it hard to put my finger on what that was, but I think it was the psychological tension you find in all good horror flicks. It just didn't mess with my head enough to be the sort of film that stuck with me for days. To make the comparison again to Saw, what scared me with that film was the way in which the tortures were devised sometimes without an excess of gore but in a way that played on the most scary situation you could imagine being faced with. Hostel just went for gore.