Hostel (2005) ***

Rating: 7/10 (8 January 2006)

Eli Roth's brilliantly horrifying story of what fate awaits three young men looking to sow their wild oats while vacationing in Europe. They're introduced to a strange Slovakian land where sexy foreign women are always willing to bed down with any male (especially if they're Americans) and fulfill every one of their fantasies. After a period of partying and cheap thrills, these friends discover they're nothing more than unlucky possessions in grisly games of torture and death.
I think the gradual unraveling of how these sadistic events come to be ia very intriguing and distrubingly real. I've subsequently learned that there were at least two endings filmed, and without going into detail I'll just say that the version which was re-shot to play in theaters upon the movie's original release was the much stronger and satisfying of the two.