Hostel Year: 2005 Director: Eli Roth Written by: Eli Roth Threat: Human Traffickers Weapon of Choice: Chain Saw Based upon: none Color/B&W/3D: Color Language: English Country of Origin: USA IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
None

Rish Outfield's reviews
I stayed away from Hostel for a long time. I've mentioned before that I don't like the gritty, hyper-realistic, pessimistic, cheap, Seventies-style Horror, and this one looked like a really (REALLY) unpleasant film.
But tyranist and I were together, feeling like we needed to see it (if only to call ourselves men), and yes, it was violent and grim, but it was also very, very funny, and very human.
So, three horny, adventurous guys (two from America, one from Iceland) are enjoying themselves backpacking through Europe. In Amsterdam, they hear about the paradise of Slovakia, where there are no rules, there are lots of beautiful women who go crazy for foreigners. And yes, the hostel in this remote region turns out to be everything they promised, and our heroes immediately hook up with some DUBIOUSLY hot girls. The end.
Oh wait, it isn't the end. This is not a National Lampoon film, and the remote European town is not exactly how it is described. Before you can say Spanish Inquisition, we are treated to levels of torture so sadistic, they would make the Marquis de Sade soil himself. "Fun" with hooks, drills, chainsaws, scalpels, mallets, rocks, automobiles, cleavers, pistols, and a blowtorch is had by all.
A lot of time is spent on character development. The fact that director Roth makes us hang out with these characters for at least a half hour before the mayhem begins really gets us to sympathize with, if not root for them. And then he puts these poor bastards through hell, killing them off in ways we'd not want the guy who just cut us off on the freeway to die. Well, okay, maybe him.
The film is not without humour, most of it black (like when one of our guys loses his fingers and has them scooped up by a dog, then has to try and coax the dog to give them back uneaten), but what shocked me was how much I laughed. It may have just been a way of relieving the tension . . . but no, I think it might have been genuinely funny.
You want to know what the sickest thing I got out of it was? It made me want to go backpacking through Europe. Before Sunrise, EuroTrip, and certainly not the American Werewolf films never got me really wanting to do that. This couldn't have motivated me to do so more if it had been a travelogue.
Hostel was unique. It certainly wouldn't be for everybody (I told my mother to avoid it, and my twelve year old girl cousin to buy it). I'm glad I saw it with tyranist, but I would've enjoyed it even if I had seen it alone. An excellent, disturbing movie.
Best Scare: You know, for me, just the sound of that place, with room after room of people suffering, was the scariest part of all.
Posted: July 20, 2006

The tyranist's thoughts
It was mere days after we saw this that I made Rish watch Eurotrip with me. I love that movie, and whether for better or for worse, I think that movie is why I enjoyed this one as much as I did.
I've always wanted to go to Europe. Actually, there are a lot of places I've always wanted to go. I've never left this the United States of America. This is true for a variety of reasons, but I have always wanted to go elsewhere. I especially like old places. But I digress.
This would be a nightmare scenario. Isolated in a foreign country with nothing to fall back on but your wits, you are taken by human traffickers and sold not into the slave or sex trade, but to be slaughtered.
The movie was sick and twisted and, admirably, the danger always felt very real. The best horror movies always make me doubt whether our hero will survive, and this one did it very well.
I'd highly recommend it, but probably not just before you go on a backpacking trip through Europe. That would probably just mess you up.
Posted: July 28, 2006

Total Skulls: 15

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?