Unoriginal, just like Cabin Fever

Rating: 5/10 (3 March 2006)

I'm reading a lot of comments that state how kick-ass this film is.
Has anyone noted that there is almost, not one single original piece to this film, at all? Every, and I mean EVERY depiction of violence, has been done before, many times over. Most of the sequences (after the initial oh, so long characterization of the vic's) were lifted from other films, as obscure as Delicatessan, mainstream(ish) as Marathon Man (Ummm hello!!), to as 'lowest common denominator' as Toxic Avenger.
This is no more 'on the edge' or 'pushing the envelope' than Bloodsucking Freaks... it just looks better, same amount of nudity (though there's more augmented breasts here), same amount of poor acting, same amount of redeeming social value; zero.
You want people to freak out, like REALLY freak out, this film is an example of how the potential was there, but wasn't done properly, if this film really wanted to screw peoples minds properly, than Josh's (Derek Richardson - the best actor in the piece - killed off first - duh!) torture/death scene, should've gone for 20 minutes. THAT would've been scary.
Films like this focus too much on the violence to freak people out... you wanna freak people out? Focus on the psychosis of the people DOING THE TORTURING, show us HOW MUCH FUN THEY'RE HAVING. Seeing an eye being blow torched out of a victim that I don't even KNOW let alone CARE about does nothing for me, however, seeing the antagonist's excitement over it... that would scare me, would scare anyone.
All due respect to Roth, I have never made a horror film, I have seen a lot of them tho, and I can tell you, I have seen Hostel before, in many different variations, often made by far superior film makers, more often made by people who can't direct a hose pipe, let alone a film, people kinda like Eli Roth.
I'm sorry, but geez, even compared to Saw (another film made from rehashed ideas from countless other films) this was bad, bad, bad.
At least it was better than Cabin Fever.