Dirty, direct and defiant

Rating: 8/10 (6 February 2006)

"Hostel" impressed me. It takes its sleaze and violence as far as you can go with an R-rating. It feels like a Euro film and even has a Euro-porn/Rocco Siffredi-like atmosphere. The women are hot and slutty, the menace is "Mute Witness" pushed to its outer boundaries, and the gore is realistic and nasty. Takeshi Miike has, literally, a walk-on, and there are nods to Sato's "Naked Blood", Lado's "Night Train Murders" and the "Texas Chainsaw" remake. At times, the music is unnecessarily dramatic. Next time, Eli, trust your images a bit more, they're strong enough to resonate. The plot is simple. Two Americans and an Icelander travel to Eastern Europe to meet women who will put out. Instead, they become the playthings of businessmen who pay good money to experience murder. "Hostel" works because it breaks contemporary movie rules and takes 70's exploitation for its "moral" compass. It is dirty, direct and defiant. Roth opts to shoot everything plainly and clearly. His style is not invasive. He builds a strong, murky atmosphere of dread and keeps on punching until the very last frame. There hasn't been an American movie like this for a very long time.