Boobs and Blood Does Not Make Great Entertainment Nor Great Horror.

Rating: 5/10 (8 March 2018)

Eli Roth is a frontrunner in horror's underground. The only reason he is not as big or as admired as Wes Craven or John Carpenter is because Roth relies only on blood. The story is a last minute thing and the addition of nudity is immature fun, but his number one thing is blood. Three years before this he did the horror-comedy bloodbath 'Cabin Fever.' I used to like 'Cabin Fever' when I was a teenager, but then I grew up. 'Hostel' is not much of a step up...or down.
The year before 'Hostel' was released, the brilliant horror movie 'Saw' was released. 'Saw' like 'Hostel' is a torture-porn gorefest. Difference is, 'Saw' has good acting and brains. Hostel's goal was not to capitalize on the success of 'Saw,' that's just Roth's style. Capitalizing on its success is just something that happened.
The storyline is heavily cliched: two American friends backpack across Europe with their Icelandic friend. In Amsterdam, the trio get involved in tons of sex and drugs. The acting by everyone is bad and the orgies are not enjoyable. These people delivered their lines awfully or if there was no spark of originality or fun. Usually explicit sex and drugs amp things up. Not here!
Then the movie switches gears. The Icelandic one goes missing, then the movie turns to a thriller. This gear switching gives some hope. We find out there's a crew of people that snatch up tourists and torture them. The torture is what the trilogy is known for. Unfortunately, it does not work here. The question that lingers in everyone's mind is "Why?" What on earth in the point of these people kidnapping the tourists and dissecting them? In 'Saw' it was a game and Jigsaw was basically a monster. But there is really no point in why these people perform these grotesque acts. Providing a clear answer instantly would have made this a better-liked film. And its really too bad because Roth does not dive into the horror right away. Remember in 'Halloween' when Carpenter waited before Michael Myers was clearly seen? Roth does the same thing. But too much negatives around it diminished this good quality.
The final act makes this movie worth watching. Do yourselves a favour and just skip to when Jay Hernandez gets kidnapped. He tries to make an escape and its pretty exciting. Not perfect, but still much better than the rest of it.
In a movie with no point and really bad acting, an enjoyable final act prevents 'Hostel' from being a piece of trash.
2/4