There are directors you love, directors you hate, and directors you wished would just die already. Now I know the relationship with Eli Roth that many share, the hate aspect. Something that always bothered me was that if you don’t like the director, don’t degrade a good movie just because his name is on the box. I’m not sure why people dislike Eli Roth, and I don’t much care but this is a review on the movie on it’s own merits and nothing else. I personally love Eli Roth’s work, I own the original Hostel and Cabin Fever, now that that’s out of the way, on to the review.
The movie: The movie starts off much like a sex comedy with characters that seemed to be ripped straight from a late 80’s sex comedy movie. This movie starts off with a jolt though, with an opening scene of blood being washed from walls and the opening sequence begins. Something that just reassures you, that you indeed bought a horror movie. Though as quickly as it comes, it leaves and jumps straight into the sex, drugs and comedy. Set in Amsterdam in the back packing world we meet Paxton, Josh, and Oli. Paxton and Josh seem to be buddies from college or something similar and picked up Oli on the way. After they come back to the hostel late and after curfew they are welcomed into a fellow back packer’s apartment/hostel. After a quick showing of more pointless nudity that is neither welcomed nor pushed away, we are told of a wonderful place in Slovakia of beautiful women whom are desperate after the shortage of men due to some war that is only mentioned then. We get a quick shot of the train and inside it we go as the sex comedy shows it’s greatest lines of the movie. Coming into the train with a over sized shot of Oli’s ass with a happy face on it we realize that it’s all in great fun but Josh isn’t so convinced. We are swept away into a new hostel that could only be dreamt up in a 14 year old’s mind. But as the fun just seems to begin the terror sweeps us off our feet and the laughter turns cold. The pacing in this movie seemed right with the exception of the publicity, people were saying it was just like Faces of Death or it was just an exploitation movie, people go into this movie expecting it to be the next Cannibal Holocaust, these people would be sadly mistaken. Now given this is not a PG-13 movie and it’s far from Disney’s standards, but it’s no gore fest. The ending will leave you slightly grossed out and extremely blood thirsty. Finding that there are tons of gallons of blood in this film it seems to just barely hit the "Gore Hound Meter" if at all, but still way above the "Church Go’ers of America’s Top ten movie picks". This is a movie that will leave you fearful for your life in that there is no stretch of reality it seems. The editing was seamless and had no jumps in the movie that would ever be recognized, it was a wonderful and spell binding trip through the life (and death) of back packers in Eastern Europe. Don’t plan on me being seen that side of the world anytime soon due to this movie. With plots and actual morals that make sense, it seems this movie has only one flaw, it’s incredible chase scene near the end of the movie in which is just seems like too much in too little time. We’ll be left starving for more of the bloodshed and the seemingly complex design of the torture rings. Over all the movie is solid and is close enough to perfection that I would give it the highest rating possible for the movie alone.
Special Features: The special features are plentiful from four different commentaries that are laugh out loud hilarious and seem to never end with great fun. The first disk holds the near feature length behind the scene that was great fun that took Hostel from Pre-production to Post and was an extremely entertaining fun filled ride. The second disk provides many features that take all the way from Set Design to Sound Design. All in all the special features are something to watch but nothing to make conversation of. I personally have watched it many of times along with the movie and all the commentaries, I loved this movie from start to finish and loved the special features but they still felt lacking in some sense. Not sure why or how but just felt lacking. Regardless you have to love Eli Roth’s enjoyment and love for film making, it seems to be just a dream for him as it is a dream to watch this movie. Have to love the movie, gotta love the special features, gotta love the package.
Hostel gets two thumbs up and a huge 10 out of 10… for the movie. As for the special features I’ll give that a strong 9 our of 10 just for that little bit of lacking that you can’t put your finger on. If you haven’t seen Hostel, pick this movie up right now, if you have and own the original DVD, buy this, if your sitting at home with some buddies around Halloween pick this up. A great thrill ride from beginning to end and enjoyable for any horror fan.
So, this is going to be a negative comment about Hostel Part II. Let me start off by clarifying one thing…I do not hate Eli Roth and I loved Cabin Fever. However, I (as a filmmaker) find both Hostel and Hostel Part II to be predictable and boring. They, neither one of them, scared or shocked me and I found that instead of calling these films true horror movies. They are more like shock films to me than anything else.
I understand and appreciate all of the hard work and time put into making a film, even if I personally find them to be so bad you can't even find pleasure in mocking them. I understand, also, that I do not have a popular opinion of these movies and that my finding Hostel Part II to be insulting at best is far from how most people react to it these days.
Hostel Part II, simply put, bored me to tears. Not even the special effects could keep me involved in the movie…which is saying something since I managed to sit through Peter Jackson's Bad Taste and came out loving that film.
(This is the writer of the review)
Heather,
I totally understand hating Hostel and it borders on the demographics and plays leap frog with genres so I totally understand. You don't have to clarify with that I just seem to be annoyed when someone begins talking about Hostel with "I hate Eli Roth" I understand your view, and just wanna thank you for sharing your view. Thanks for the comment and reading. Best of luck with your film making I'm trying to get a movie up and running too… isn't working so well though lol. Thanks again.