Hardly a horror classic, but recommended for its twisted concept

Rating: 7/10 (13 March 2007)

This film's advertising insisted on the fact that it was "the sickest, bloodiest movie you'll ever see", as opposed to all the tame, PG-13-rated horror films (most of them being remakes of Japanese shockers) that were being released at the time. According to writer/director Eli Roth, it was time the horror genre got its guts back (both metaphorically and literally). As for that second statement, there's no reason to argue: Hostel is not a film teenagers or the weak of stomach should see. When it comes to the "sickest, bloodiest" part, however, it's a whole different story.
At first, casual viewers might think they're watching the wrong movie: the film opens with three backpackers coming to Amsterdam. Why they have chosen Amsterdam is quite obvious: what better place if you're looking for sex and drugs? As one of the three, the Icelandic, self-proclaimed "King of the Swing" Oli (Eythor Gudjonsson), would say, "It's f*cking awesome!". Apparently, though, there's this village outside of Bratislava, in Slovakia, where the girls are even hotter, and particularly willing to sleep with Americans, something that makes Oli's mates, Paxton (Jay Hernandez) and Josh (Derek Richardson), very eager to try this new place. What seemed to be another version of Eurotrip, however, will soon become a nightmare, as our three unsuspecting protagonists run into something so terrifying few people would be able to imagine it. And this is where the massacre begins. Well, not quite actually.
In fact, despite what he promised, Roth doesn't exactly show us everything: we rarely see the acts themselves (which include severed limbs and eyeball torture), as the director thinks the effects of those acts will be scary enough. And as a matter of fact, they are, although it has got more to do with the context Roth has come up with for all that violence. On an entirely conceptual level, Hostel is absolutely brilliant, with a third-act twist so nasty it will make the audience re-evaluate the whole film (a small clue for genre fans: it kind of reminds of The Wicker Man, which is referenced in a sex scene). Shame the director doesn't develop this great idea in a particularly original way, using it merely as an excuse to show us flesh (first half of the movie) and blood (second half), and neither of them in the excessive amount the trailers and posters seemed to promise. Roth certainly knows where to place the camera when filming the most gruesome sequences, but he lacks the genius of filmmakers like Tarantino (who is one of Hostel's executive producers) or Takashi Miike (who appears briefly).
Ultimately, Hostel deserves to be seen because of its original concept, although the rest is fairly conventional, and not as extreme and disgusting as they want to make you think.