1.5 STARS: "New Age" horror (if you can call it that)...a tale of torture, pain and suffering may be more accurate.

Rating: 2/10 (27 January 2007)

must admit that these "New Age" horror movies like "Hostel", "Cabin Fever" and the "Saw" movies really make me laugh. If Stanley Kubrick were alive, he would laugh too. These movies are not difficult to create, nor do they exhibit any real talent on the part of the director and certainly not the actors. Nevertheless, I found "Hostel" somewhat entertaining in more of a dark comedy kind of way than a horror flick. Let's face the fact that there is nothing scary or horrifying about this movie. It's gruesome and makes you want to recount your fingers and toes to make sure they are all there, but it's not a horror movie in the classic or traditional sense of the genre. The fear, scary if you will, and atmospheric elements are completely lacking.
What "Hostel" stands for is the new age of horror movies (if you can even call it that) that focuses more on torture, pain, suffering and gore more than anything else and is largely unimaginative invoking no sense of fear in the audience but a sense of dread more than anything else. "Hostel" is indicative of the fact that the horror genre is undergoing a kind of metamorphasis probably because of a lack of creativity and imagination on the part of the creators of such flicks. For the life of me, I don't see how anyone can call the "Saw" films, "Cabin Fever" or "Hostel" scary in the true sense of the word.
"Hostel" is primarily about a group of sex-crazed young men who decide to go to Amsterdam to pick up girls, (mostly prostitutes) and have a good time. Well, they end up at a place where inflicting suffering and pain is sold to those who would pay to indulge themselves. The problem is that our sex-crazed young men are some of the most prized torture-objects of these sadistic individuals' insatiable desire. What proceeds is simply "a tale of torture, pain and suffering" which is basically what "Hostel" is all about. If this appeals to you, "Hostel" is right up your alley...if you are looking for a scary movie or traditional horror movie, you need to stay clear of "Hostel". As I said, I found "Hostel" entertaining from a dark comedy standpoint and that's all. However, I think it's significant to the viewer that not only is the acting extremely poor in this movie, it is also worth noting that there really aren't any characters in this movie (of any significance) worth sympathizing with except for maybe the oriental girl, but she's not a main character.
I do not want to give "Hostel" any moral credit as that would insult the creators of this fine flick, but one could look at "Hostel" from a variety of different ways. Perhaps we should look at the irony in "Hostel" in that when you are on the hunt for something, you could also be the hunted as well, especially in lands that we know little about and where we are also not protected by the laws, liberties and rights that we have in the United States. A great example of a movie where this is true is "The Midnight Express" starring Brad Davis. While the parallels may be weak between the two, I think the reader can see where I'm coming from in this regard. All in all, I mildly enjoyed "Hostel" but not for the reasons that most people liked it. Truth be told, this movie does not deserve two (2) stars as a horror movie, but for its entertainment value, I'll give it 1.5 stars. After having seen Eli Roth's "Hostel" and "Cabin Fever", I think it's safe to say that Mr. Roth would not know a horror movie from a cheerio.