Review of Hostel (2006) by Holly K M S — 26 Feb 2016

As far as horror films go, this doesn't disappoint. The concept boasts enough verisimilitude to make you fear Eastern Europe for months... Conforming to so many pieces brought out around this sort of time, it's packed with guts, gore and an ever increasing body count.

I'm not sure how much of the gore actually served a function. Following a similar pattern to Saw, it's frequently overdone. So much so that within the first hour or so you can become generally desensitised which shows it's losing it's shock value.

I'm a bit old fashioned in the sense that I think adding infrequent moments of gore serve to shock and lacing the entire film with it in full force does little more than indicate the producer an unusual fantasist.

Violence should be used to shock, not as a narrative tool. Generally, a good film. I would watch again (and have done several times).