Review of Hostel (2006) by Filipeneto — 12 May 2018

I saw this movie a few years ago but it's one of those movies that you can hardly forget. I love horror movies, but I'm more afraid of what is cleverly suggested than with what I see explicitly. So this movie is not the kind of movie I prefer. The action revolves around a group of three North American travelers who are making the traditional backpacking trip to Europe that immense teenagers or pre-university students do. The recipe is the usual: drink, testosterone, little brain and huge desire for sex and light drugs. They go to Slovakia, where they are looking for a hostel, advertised as the ideal place to find all this, but they end up wrapping themselves in a criminal and dangerous web where they are the flies. From here, the film is basically a torture session capable of making the Spanish inquisitors want to take notes in a notepad.

We can then understand that the most serious problem of this film is the absence of a credible and well-constructed story behind the horror scenes. The script is built on gore, graphic violence is an end in itself. Another problem, a direct consequence of this, is the poor construction of the characters, who are just stupid teenagers who deserve to die in the film because the public does not care about them. Never mind the names of the actors. There are no sounding names, they would not risk their career in such a movie. They are meat to the slaughter. Eli Roth, the director / screenwriter, must have a distorted conception of what horror movies are but, in any case, the film has a specific audience and Roth was entirely capable of meeting their expectations. Special and visual effects are a fundamental part of the most soulless scenes and were done with great attention to detail.

This is a movie inappropriate for popcorn, as I say, for joke. It is sadistic and shocking, arresting public attention for explicit violence. It is not a movie that is suitable for most people. They would think it is too visual, too disgusting to bear. But fans of gore and pure and tough violence will love it.