What this movie got RIGHT....

Rating: 9/10 (18 March 2006)

Just saw this for the first time and was massively surprised. The characters, albeit paper thin, were well-performed and the suspense/gore was effective. What actually got me, though, was....
*SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!* ...that the protagonist wasn't some idiotic cut-out that "almost" makes it out and gets killers/re-captured at the end. To add to that equation, the kid actually exacts MUCH NEEDED revenge on his torturers, including the trio that initially conned him and his buddies into the torture chambers (running her over twice caused massive cheers).
It's this element that's sorely missing from some horror/slasher flicks as of late: The concept of karmic response. Even in CABIN FEVER we were given a severely down ending...and in crap like HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES, the evil characters are not only annoying for 2 hours straight, they never get a taste of their own medicine. A theme I tend to agree with.
Don't get me wrong...if your main baddie is someone like Freddy Krueger, I don't mind if the guy lives on and continues the smart-ass quips and creative killing. But if your antagonists are a bunch of retarded rednecks (CORPSES) or vapid torturers (HOSTEL), they deserve some comeuppance at the end.
Even after Paxton slices Edward Salad-Hands' throat, I feared Roth would go the traditional route and have a twist-ending that would sour the guy's (deserved) vengeance (a "twist" ending concept, btw, that ruined a slasher flick that could have been amazing: HIGH TENSION)...such as Paxton coming back the next year to become a torturer because he enjoyed killing his attackers so much. Instead, Roth did th smart thing...he faded out once the scales had been balanced, leaving us all to wonder what WE'D do in such a situation...
*END SPOILER* Thanks, Mr. Roth....for showing us that not all horror has to shove a pessimistic taste down our throats as the lights come back on.