Review: Hostel

Hostel (2005)

Coming from the creator of Cabin Fever (Eli Roth), Hostel really does look to push the boundaries of acceptable cinema. This 90 minute head trip through Slovakia’s criminal underworld boasts a tagline of gore and violence, with every intent to shock the mainstream audience and please horror fans. Although it will appear tame in comparison to the extreme sadism depicted in several 80’s horror films (i.e. Cannibal Holocaust), it does boast some of the most brutal and finest horror of the 21st Century.

The premise of Hostel follows three backpackers on a trip across Europe in search of a good time. This search leads them to a quiet part of Slovakia, where they find a seemingly utopian hostel of beautiful women. But all is not as it seems, as people start to go missing, and answers are hard to come by. They finally wind up at the mercy of a murder-for-profit business that has no intent of letting them walk free. The acting of odd ball characters, such as a pumped maniac who’s ready to kill his latest investment, and a group of children that demand bubblegum from passersby really help to add some spice into Hostel.

Paxton is the main protagonist; a fairly average student that has undeservedly found himself is such a harsh situation. I certainly wanted Paxton to survive the Hostel, so I can say Eli Roth did well is developing a decent main character. Other notable stand outs include Oli, an Icelandic backpacker (who in fact has a daughter), who meets Paxton and his friend in Paris and continues with them to Slovakia. Also in the cast is a suspicious Dutch businessman, for whom it is hard to pinpoint his exact intentions. It is difficult to know who to trust in this film, as just about anyone could work for the hostel.

The first forty minutes of Hostel does feel a tad slow. Paxton and his two accomplices seem to just move from one brothel to another, beginning in Amsterdam, and then recruited into the meaty claws of evil in Slovakia. It does serve the characters well however, the fact that they have developed throughout the start of the film, and makes it more heart racing when they encounter trouble, as you actually want them to live. It is however, a much better film once it crosses the halfway point. If the first half of the film is functional yet slow, the second half is a relentless journey through the world of torture and the bloodthirsty.

The actual horror arrives in the innovative way one can be tortured, notably in one scene towards the end, in which a woman’s eye is hanging out of its socket, and something must be done to heal it. Chain sawing through one person’s heels, and then giving him freedom to leave is painful to watch, and that’s one of the tamer scenes. Hostel’s action feels exhilarating and unnerving, as I have said before the main characters seem desperately out of their depth, and a long way from home, truly being the underdogs of the story, and you will most likely want them to live.

Eli Roth has followed up his first creation Cabin Fever, with an equally good (or perhaps better) delivery in Hostel. The third Eli Roth film, Hostel: Part II is just as good as the first instalment, as Roth pushes boundaries of how much gore can be plugged into a modern horror. Hostel is a really exciting, blood drenched horror film, although it can drag a little in its first half, it more than makes up for the in the second forty five minutes. I would recommend Hostel to any fan of horror films, young or old, for its journey through brothels, torture and dam right sadistic violence.

Score: 8.0

Recommendation: Buy if a horror fan.