Chilling, Daring, Exhilarating, Compelling... oh and, ahem, ankles... ouch.

Rating: 10/10 (26 March 2006)

Wow, so many adjectives could help describe this film... but that would only be scratching the surface, as Eli sophomore effort is a story littered with multifaceted themes that allows the film to literally jump out of the screen and break away from the conventions of "Horror" movie. Recently I have acquired a taste for horror films, mainly the ones that attempt to try something new... actually its fair to say not so much horror but the inventively titled "horror porn" a la Saw. Hostel is definitely a step in the right direction, for two reasons. This is the kind of contemporary horror that captures audiences attention, especially when they are so thirsty for the Saw-like films. And it allows us to see that Eli Roth is certainly an inventive and a wickedly evil person, albeit in a funny way.
The story of American backpackers Paxton and Josh both played well by Jay Hernandez and Derek Richardson respectively who, whilst travelling across continental Europe, meet Oli, played superbly by newcomer Eythor Gudjonsson - possibly the most likable screen character in recent horror history. Together the three travel to Amsterdam where they are told about a place just outside Bratislava in Slovakia where the town, which has been left sparsely populated by an array of gorgeous women who have been left alone without husbands after they left for "war". The apparent socio-historical ignorance of the horny trio leads them to this town. Immediately we are plunged into a surreal world: postcard picturesque buildings, friendly hostel contrasted by Tortury museum- surely foreshadowing events to come, and grimy underground nightclubs wrapped in drugs and sex with willing women. Its too good to be true, and obviously, it is. One by one our trio is reduced to just Paxton, the overall protagonist who goes searching for his friends, who out-of-character, just pick up and leave. When Paxton eventually finds and stumbles onto the main plot conceit of torturing for fun and pleasure with the aid of human trafficking, we are abruptly plunged into something far more sinister, and this is where the film really picks up, and has you knee jerking for the remainder of the film, praying for no more gory tortures.
This is the main storyline, yet as I said the themes that play throughout can be lost due to the huge controversy surrounding the film, of just plain gratuitous violence for the sake of art. Lets get one thing straight here, yes there is violence, but its not as much as the trailer would have you believe, and yes, it is integral to the story and leaves a poignant and chilling mark with the audience. The most intricate themes that I picked up on were the idea of basic human desire, our primal instinct, on the torturers side being the alpha male, dominating and making a mark by hurting the opponent. And the poor captives, who are reduced to our most weakest human characteristics: pitiful, whimpering, lost, innocent and naive. These themes bring out one argument: we are all as low as each other, as the basic human desire, the primal instinct of survival, is imprinted on everyone, just witness Paxtons retaliation to notice his loss of innocence and eruption of sub human violence. Another theme, and one that was portrayed the best, in my opinion, was the idea of horror-porn, or erotic violence. The belief that our very own base curiosity as humans and subconscious thirst to witness violence, which is enacted by the torturers, who are representations of the audience as we have now become viewers, more importantly, the idea that we are enclosed in the cinema, there is no other thing to look at but at the screen, we feel compelled to look at the most squeamish scenes, because it is curiously interesting, and possibly erotic as our adrenaline rushes, it is a voyeuristic mechanism that Roth employs to full effect, and is what makes the film so good.
The film is a twisted piece of imaginative thinking, elaborated to the worst extremes. Whilst the torture scenes are not long, they are extremely intense and are a test of nerves on the audiences part, especially after Roth and his clever writing pitches us an almost Tarantino-esquire introduction, we are allowed to interact with these characters, we enjoy Paxtons jock, pretty boy charms, Oli's dirty, yet good natured quality and Josh's naivety, yet there is somewhere deep beneath, our gut feeling, that we should not invest too much love in these people, as something very bad is going to happen. This is where the film packs a punch, because as soon as we settle and accept these characters... BAM, gone, we are embroiled in a seriously twisted film... if any comparisons are invited, i would say its Pulp Fiction Redux: The drug addled Directors cut - we are talking "I'm gonna get medieval on yo' ass" stretched to its utmost possibility, and there is a huge sigh of relief when the film is over... we suddenly feel that Slovakia is just too close for our liking, and regardless of any critical bashing as gratuitous nudity and drug references, they seem to forget this is about human desire, the vices that we all desire, yet when you have the opportunity there is a divide, the social divide... how far will your thirst take you? the ultimate rush it would seem is killing and this is why Roth is giving us the respect as an audience, we full well know the dirty side of life, and this is just a segment. Regardless of what people will think, Roth had managed to get people talking about all sorts of ideas,the kind of cerebral film that not only is a sign that audiences are much smarter than any blockbuster film will give them credit for, and that is a sign of a good film.
10/10