Painful.

Rating: 5/10 (10 October 2009)

Three horny male backpackers travel to Slovakia and check into a Hostel that is awash with sexy European ladies. What starts out as a dream comes true will quickly turn into a nightmare.
Brought to us by two of cinemas greatest self promoters in Eli Roth and Quentin Tarantino, Hostel is wince inducing, if ultimately a shallow gore wet dream for the early male teenager. There is no doubting the impact of the "horror" on show, with Roth, in spite of his hyperbole as the master of shock, actually knowing how to push all the right genre buttons. But after suffering what basically is a horny youth travelogue for what seems like forever, the blood fest comes as a relief instead of a reward for nervous expectation. Within the story there's some meat as to how sick the world can be, for example one of the titular torturers here has already shown himself to be the father of "cutie" young daughter. And some moral posers and decisions concerning our main protagonist offer some intelligence in the script. But it still feels empty, too self aware of wanting to shock with schlock.
Hostel was successful enough to spawn an even bloodier sequel, much like that film, Hostel is remembered for its gore than for any thing else of substance. 5/10