Hard-hitting flick

Rating: 10/10 (14 February 2008)

Hostel might be the most upsetting film I've ever seen. The director was amazed when the film received an R-rating instead of NC-17 and I agree. The film starts innocently enough, with two American backpackers living it up in Amsterdam with their Icelandic traveling buddy. But when their quest for sex and debauchery takes them to a mysterious hostel in a quiet Eastern European town, the guys find themselves in a world more disturbing than anything they could have imagined. The scenes of torture in this film are absolutely brutal and even fans of conventional horror may find themselves flinching and squirming at times. But just when you begin to think you're watching nothing more than a $4.5 million snuff film, the film changes direction and shifts into high gear. Hostel eschews the modern thriller convention of "the more plot twists, the better" and simply goes right for the jugular and the gut. The film certainly hits both targets, and it doesn't let go until the very end. Famed Japanese horror director Takashi Miike makes a cameo appearance (which is not surprising as all his movies are full of graphically horrible scenes as does this movie). Quentin Tarantino is credited as an executive producer but I think a lot of up and coming new directors use his name as a spring-board to get their movies noticed. These days it seems that "Quentin Tarantino presents" EVERYTHING. Anyway if you are a graphic horror movie fan and haven't seen this, you owe it to yourself to check it out. I just hope this doesn't turn out to be a "fluke" on the part of Eli Roth. If he can make more movies as well as this one, he'll be a superstar eventually. This great movie doesn't end with just the credits either. It is capped off by the line, "I get a lot of money for you...and that make you MY bitch!"