Hostel Paradiso

Rating: 8/10 (19 February 2006)

When Eli Roth's CABIN FEVER came out in 2002, the opinions amongst horror-fans were divided. Quentin Tarantino, however, claimed himself being a fan of Roth's debut, so he agreed on placing "Quentin Tarantino presents" on the promotional poster for HOSTEL. Though he isn't in any other way associated with the making of this film, it did result in the fact that HOSTEL is now receiving a wide-scale theatrical release across Europe. Smart move, Mr. Roth.
HOSTEL's story-line isn't too complicated. Two American backpackers, Paxton and Josh, are travelling across Europe together with Oli, a friend from Iceland. In Amsterdam they're being told that Slowakia is a real paradise for backpackers because it's the country with the most beautiful and well-willing European woman. The horny three-some wastes no time and heads off to Slowakia. At their arrival, they check in at a paradise-like little hotel and hook up with Natalya and Svetlana. And indeed, the women are gorgeous and the sex is splendid. But little do they know that they're about to descent in the underground world of organized crime and torture-tourism as they will be confronted with mankind's darkest and sickest nature.
The subgenre in which HOSTEL pleasantly revolves itself has been around for a long time. It all started in the 60's with the making of the first gore-movies and continued during the 70's and 80's with the release of numerous exploitation-films and shock-horror features. During the 90's such movies vanished from the horror-scene. In the new millennium the sadistic reality-horror genre is back, and the first thing we notice is that it's much more stylishly portrayed. The genre got a considerable boost with movies like SAW and Takasi Miike's ICHI, THE KILLER. The screenplay of HOSTEL is a bit less intelligent than afore-mentioned movies, but director Eli Roth clearly knows what a horror-fan wants to see, and therefore he delivers the goods. In other words: Expect a LOT of female nudity and bloody gore. During the first part of HOSTEL you actually have the impression that you're watching the umpteenth teensex-comedy, so the sudden blow to the head is as hard as it gets when this movie starts showing off with its disgusting torture-scenes. The bloody make-up effects are done by Greg Nicotero and, as to be expected, excellent and believable. Except maybe one make-up effect seemed not too realistic and reminded me a bit of those early 80's Italian zombie-movies (I think you'll know it when you see it). But it was fun anyway.
I have to tell it like it is: Eli Roth has improved as a film-maker. Not only does he seem to have taken some lessons in script-writing, making him aware of things like "3-acts-structure" and "point of no return"; he has even learned how to build some suspense in certain scenes. Okay, the plot may contain some unbelievable coincidences, but if we make up the over-all score, we have a very decent, politically incorrect horror-movie that's recommended for gore-hounds. I might be over-rating it a bit, but it's just that I had so much fun with it and it is a solid improvement over Roth's debut CABIN FEVER.