Almost a classic. The best film of its kind since the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre".

Rating: 7/10 (7 January 2006)

This isn't a perfect film, but this is far better than Ego, I mean Eli Roth's previous effort, "Cabin Fever", which failed at marrying serious horror with zany comedy. I guess he's been trained to be a good filmmaker by Tarantino himself. Even the speech about the torturer wanting to be a surgeon seemed like something out of "Pulp Fiction". There even seems to be a repeat of the "Pulp Fiction" scene where Bruce Willis spots Ving Rhames crossing a street.
I came in expecting it to be a gimmicky exercise in freaking out the audience and nothing more. I was pleased to find that it engaged my interest beyond the simple showing off gore and violence as if to say "Look what we can get away with on film!". Yes, there are character arcs in this. The film is similar to Wes Craven's "Last House on the Left" in terms of basic events.
Here's the weaknesses:
-The first half feels a bit slow and empty and could have cut out about 5 minutes of under-dramatized setup.
-While KNB gave us top-notch gore, the eyeball makeup effect (you have to see it to know what I'm referring to) was over the top, phony-looking and anatomically nonsensical for the sake of shock value.
-Towards the end, things seem to become conveniently coincidental and all downhill for our hero, taking away from the tension the ending could have had.
Still, I came away rather satisfied once we get into the second half of the film. The audience was loudly cheering in satisfaction upon witnessing bloody comeuppance. I'd say this is a good start for 2006. Let's hope the rest of the year will wash away the bland aftertaste of 2005.
Much better than "Saw" and "High Tension". Go see it before it gets ruined by bad sequels and copycats.