Humans are Capable of the Truly Unspeakable

Rating: 8/10 (18 June 2007)

Hostel is the second film by Eli Roth, writer and director of Cabin Fever, which I did not like, personally. I found that Hostel, however, was an improvement, although I think Roth is still warming up. Hostel shows that Roth can make a movie with smart intentions towards its structure, but unfortunately it falls short of what it could so easily be, a nearly unbearably intense horror film. Instead of being scary like the slowly paced, mysteriously gleeful exposition seems to prepare us for, it becomes a gorefest and a chase film. That is all enjoyable, but Roth has yet to truly scare me.
What I especially love about Hostel is that Roth demonstrates his complete lack of fear or hesitation in giving an audience complete satisfaction of their anger and frustration, and yet at the same time, he is very patient with his story. Roth lets his characters be human and whole in the most interesting avenues to employ realistic approaches to them, one of them being to masquerade them as token fratboy slasher film stick figures, and at the same time, they are impatiently, furiously, monstrously vindictive.
The film's scenes of gore are range in effect, and they are all good. There are very brief yet extremely disturbing images, and there are extensive scenes that are actually quite fun because of the suspense weaved by the clever situation that faces graphic violence at point blank range.
Hostel simply doesn't have the impact it needs to be what it's supposed to be. It doesn't pack a punch. It packs more of a John Cleese eye poke.