It's amazing what you'll find in that old basement

Rating: 5/10 (7 January 2012)

Eli Roth's Cabin Fever was a fun, yet flawed journey through the formula of the horror genre, but still kept an even pacing with a few well-done sequences. Here comes Hostel, a film that would continue the "torture porn" sub-genre of the horror world, like the never-ending Saw franchise. It's clear that Roth's intentions and expectations for this were high, but it becomes tiresome and drab very quickly.
To begin with we are presented with uninspired, yet somewhat interesting characters. They are backpackers named semi-smart Paxton (Hernandez), the intelligent leader Josh (Richardson), and the womanizer Óli (Guðjónsson). The men are touring Europe and hitting every strip club or party house within radius. They are informed there are more adventures in Bratislava. So it's off to Bratislava they go.
There they drink and party it up, fall asleep, and realize their friend Óli is missing. We, the viewer, find out that he was taken to a dungeon-like prison where people are beaten, tortured, and killed in gruesome and unforgivable ways.
My first problem is the pacing. It's incredibly slow and not in the good way. Horror directors have become less aware that pacing is the key to a great kill or attack. Jump scares, solely, can not sustain a movie. Well, a good movie. For the first fifty minutes of Hostel, we have to watch some of the lamest, most redundant scenes of nudity and sex. It is common for horror films to contain both of those, but Hostel presents them gratuitously, without rhyme or reason.
When the torture comes, it's gory and harsh, yet uninspired. This might not be Roth's fault as much as it is the Saw franchise's. We've seen so much stronger scenes of torture is makes Hostel have a moot presence. But that's not to say the Saw films are masterpieces in any way, shape, or form. They are just more violent, gruesome, and unapologetic. Hostel pails in comparison.
Still, it's a very mean-spirited film. It's bleak, grisly, ugly, and dark in its appearance. It's a film of little positives and many negatives. Scary it is not, but cringe-inducing it is. Hostel is the kind of horror film that comes out of the blue and gains notoriety from the depraved gorehounds. That pretty much assures we're in for some unimpressive sequels.
Starring: Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson, Eyþór Guðjónsson, Barbara Nedeljáková, and Rick Hoffman. Directed by: Eli Roth.