Movie Reviews Net

Hostel, the second feature film from Director/ Writer Eli Roth, is a gore-heavy, sex-filled ultra violent opus that follows two American college students and their new European friend on a backpacking trip across Europe.

The film begins in Amsterdam, where the guys party, dance, and engage in more than a few activities that are illegal in America and most parts of of the world. Eventually the three friends decide to go to Slovakia in search of making out with some attractive girls. They find what they were looking for at a particular Hostel, but they also find something they weren’t looking for … Death.

I absolutely love Cabin Fever, the other film that Eli Roth directed, so I was really looking forward to Hostel. I had read plenty about the movie, and I had a vague idea of what to expect when I walked into the theater, but for the most part I had no idea what it was going to be, I just assumed it was going to be good. I mean, with both Roth and Quentin Tarantino working together, it has to be great, right? Well, not completely …

One of the main complaints that people have about this movie is the amount of sex and violence in it. Well, to be rather frank, neither of those two things happen to bother me in the slightest. I am a large horror buff, and I’ve seen plenty of gore and sex on celluloid. What bothers me is not the nudity or gore, it’s the lack of real direction and pacing that bugs me.

The first half of Hostel consists of three very annoying frat boys getting high and having sex. The characters in Cabin Fever were pretty annoying too, but the movie was more about characterization, and the pacing was not extremely slow in that film. In Hostel, you really just don’t care about what is going on during the first forty five minutes or so. It isn’t until things start to get violent that the movie really takes off.

And I must say, there is some mighty gruesome gore here. If you are very squeamish, I recommend staying away from this film. I’m a fan of this kind of thing, but I know this just goes past what a lot of people can tolerate. The violent half of the film is the really good part, so if you are not fond of violence, you are unlikely to appreciate this film at all.

As soon as the violence starts, the acting gets better, the cinematography gets sharper, and the overall essence of the film becomes far more serious and ominous. Fans of horror will certainly love the second half of the movie, but I have my doubts about whether or not the average viewer would appreciate it.

All in all, Hostel is a good film. But the first half of it is very tedious, and it most definitely takes away from what could have been an amazing film. If you’re looking for some sex and violence, this is your film, but if you’re looking for much else, I recommend you pick up a copy of the director’s first film.

Let me know what you think of this movie by adding your comment below.