You may think twice next time you check into a Hostel!!

Rating: 6/10 (7 April 2006)

I had the pleasure of enduring the bloodshed offered from Hostel this last weekend. I entered without really knowing much about the film except Eli Roth was the director and Quentin Tarantino was somehow involved with his name was splashed in big font on the poster and opening credits.
My previous experience of Eli Roth's work, Cabin Fever left me somewhat empty and disappointed; his characters were underdeveloped, shallow and could not gain the sympathy or relationship required with the audience for the movie.
In my view, Hostel was a natural progression leading on from Cabin Fever's thriller/horror style, and in the same manner the characters were still not really developed in any kind of way and again there was not the feel of any sympathy or connection from the audience to the characters. The three main characters Paxton (Jay Hernandez), Josh (Derek Richardson) and Oli (Eythor Gudjonsson) are introduced living the any reckless male teenager's dream of debauchery, ingesting drugs, alcohol and sleeping with as many women as possible women. Paxton and Josh are in the middle of their Backpacking trip through Europe, playing the typical annoying, ignorant American tourists, having already befriended the loud extrovert Icelander Oli somewhere along the way. After finding themselves locked out of their hostel on a particular night out in Amsterdam, a chance meeting with a stranger tells them of the ultimate backpackers hostel in Bratislava, where the eastern European girls are desperate for any men they meet especially American. After arriving at the hostel in Bratislava, the promise of women not exaggerated and all three immediately hook up with three beautiful women. The morning after, things turn strange as they wake to find Oli missing, with the hotel reception informing them he has apparently checked out and gone home to Iceland. Strange things continue to happen as Josh goes missing next, leaving Paxton to search for his friends amongst the rather unhelpful locals and a rather vicious gang of 6-year-olds to uncover a darker side to the Bratislava.
Suffice to say, the film has a fair bit of bloodshed, gore and some quite gruesome scenes, definitely not for the squeamish, the death scenes make you cringe but also has the ability to mesmerise you with curiosity.
You would like this if you enjoyed the horror films such as Saw, Saw2, Final Destination or even the aimless deaths in Cube. The kinds of murders in all these films were reminiscent with the extravagant death scenes as the story unfolds from plenty of erotica and sex scenes early on, then to gory blood and finally to gruesome unrealistically funny.
For a good mindless blood I fully recommend this film, it will never be classic because simply there wasn't anything new to offer, it did however, leave me with a lasting nausea effect for a few days but don't expect any twists, turns, head spins or any real plot to develop. It trundles to the end and finishes with nothing more than a minor resolution to end.