Review of Hostel (2006) by Kamachomcsagget — 12 Aug 2010

This movie... doesn't exist. It is probably the least creative movie I've ever seen. It's really mentally grathing and slow, and it may not be the worst movie I've ever seen, but it's pretty close. I know it's not about shock and more about gross out scares, but you can't really be grossed out too much if you're not immersed in the movie (maybe the infamouse "eyegasm", but nothing else), and this movie does nothing interesting to help itself.

What little story there is the most cliched I've ever heard. I'd like to dig more deeply into it, but there is nothing there to dig into. All you have to know is that people get tortured while the audience wonders what's so great about it.

This may not be a part of a genre I like, but a truely good movie could suck you in regardless of the genre. Not to get off track or anything, but a good example is, Pulp Fiction. It is listed under "crime", "drama", "suspence", and "comedy" all at once, but you don't think "hey, I'm watching a crime/drama/suspence/comedy", you just think "hey, I'm watching a movie".

Hostel is so cliched that it seems like a genre template and nothing else. I read the user reviews of people who liked it in case I missed something, but the argument of "saterizing the audiences lust for pain" could be said for any movie in the genre.

Bottom line: you can't have a gross-out movie without the "movie" part. I was grossed out when I stepped in dog poop, but that doesn't make it the apitamy of cinema.