Late...Too Late

Rating: 5/10 (25 May 2006)

I've been looking for an excuse so I didn't have to write about this film, but I couldn't find it yet. So if this doesn't say much if because there is not much to say about "Hostel", Eli Roth's last cinematographic project. Frankly, the movie is awful. You know when they say you should get a lot with little? Eli Roth got it, but he got a lot of the wrong elements and little of the good ones.
Part of this horror "renaissance", "Hostel" presents a small amount of characters in a maximum of two important environments. It's a matter of short time before the characters arrive to this so called hostel and they live the most terrifying experiences of their lives.
Unlike Neil Marshall and his "The Descent", characters here are not developed or even detailed; Roth doesn't seem to need that for the development of the picture. Josh and Paxton are two friends who just want some good pot and some good sex with some beautiful girls, nothing else, and they are portrayed by Derek Richardson and Jay Hernandez with more conviction than the bad movie deserves (mostly by Hernandez).
So we also find the enigmatic and weird characters that are not just common people in a film like this one. We find the receptionist in the hotel who doesn't even speak or answer questions. Then what we find is just what has to happen so we can at least see something of content in the picture.
What happens, I could say, is not plenty but it's enough. You get to a point, sometimes when you're watching a movie, where you don't know how you got to watch it until that point; because you know that you're not watching anything. "Hostel" may be appealing for the horror fans because it respects horror and gives horror what it needs. And I understand that.
The part I couldn't understand has to do with the plot, and I don't know if the fans care about that. Let's just say that Eli Roth has an amazing eye for the genre but a regular eye for storytelling. His camera moves expertly and explores without limits, but his scripts doesn't make a move. When the main explanation arrives to our eyes and ears, it's so pointless that it becomes funny.
We accept it as it comes, but the explanation is followed by a last scene that is actually terrific and a minimum reason to watch the piece. However, the power of this scene and the impression it generates, comes too late to compensate the other stuff.
What else can I say? Well, just don't bother.