Sets a new – and disturbing – standard among modern day films

Rating: 8/10 (14 October 2014)

In case you didn't already know... 'Hostel' (the second major film by Eli Roth) kind of spawned the rather dubious genre of 'torture porn.' This is where gratuitous on-screen violence is displayed for our – the audience's – entertainment.
And that's basically the premise of the film. If you're okay with that, you'll enjoy it. As, believe it or not, there's also a story woven somewhere in there. Two American teenagers are backpacking across Europe where they hear of a 'legendary' hostel in Eastern Europe where the girls outnumber the guys and do all sorts of other stuff (to put it mildly). Naturally, they head off there and – even more naturally still – they fall foul to all sorts of unspeakable scenarios.
And, if you can get over of the violence, it's not actually that bad. You'll like the characters – they're dumb enough to be believable as your average backpacking teenagers, but not so stupid enough that you'll be shouting at the screen when they make the wrong decisions. Plus the 'threat' element is pretty original and based on numerous urban legends.
So, just to check, if you're okay with gratuitous sex and violence and generally like horror films then you should probably enjoy this (and part II even, but just don't bother with part III – it went straight to DVD).