Review of Hostel (2011) by Chris W — 12 Apr 2013

Eli Roth follows up the surprise success of his debut film Cabin Fever with Hostel. The torture porn film is presented by Quentin Tarantino. The cast includes Jay Hernandez (Friday Night Lights) and Derek Richardson (Dumb and Dumberer) The rest of the cast for the film is mostly foreign actors who speak broken English.

I actually quite liked this film, I thought it benefited from Roth's exuberant direction and his Cannibal Holocaust-esque script. The film follows a very simple narrative structure, a couple of college kids looking to have a fun time in Amsterdam get seduced by a couple of dangerously sexy woman and end up in an underground torture chamber. The concept is quite chilling and it really uses it's cold, foreign locations to it's advantage. Roth cleverly contrasts the locations. In the beggining half of the film, when the guys are having fun getting drunk and stoned, and they are having sex, all of the colors for the film are bright. The second half of the film, the colors are drained and bleak and even the two sexy girls from the first half look disgusting and ugly when he sees them.

Many people are in the middle with this film. It's a polarizing film, you either love it or you hate it. It's jarring transition from raunchy sex comedy to disturbing torture scenes really split the audiences in half (no pun intended) The torture scenes are well directed and they are visually haunting and are very tough to watch. I also thought the final 20 minutes were brilliantly executed by Roth. Each scene elevates the previous scene and as the film goes on, each scene gets more and more chillingly intense.

Jay Hernandez gives a solid lead performance as Paxton, who is ultimately the hero of the story. Yet, he isn't really the lead character. The first half focuses soley on Josh, but then Roth pulls a Janet Leigh on us. A quick note, I don't know the two actresses names are, but they were hot as hell. I also liked how Roth specifically asked his foreign actors to act in a way that makes the American characters feel uneven throughout the entire film. It really helped to make the audience feel like they were in a chilling atmosphere and it helped you sympathize with the American characters.

Hostel isn't a particulary scary film, but it operates in a way that makes it an effective horror film. It would rather show you somebodies ankle split or somebodies fingers get cut off then pull of a cheap pop out scare like most horror film do now a days. Hostel is one of the films responsible for bringing back the R-Rated horror and for that, I admire it. It's an unapologetic, fun, and disturbing horror film that serves as one of my favorites.

Hostel is a solid sophmore effort from Eli Roth. Roth's above average direction and script help to seperate it from most torture porn films of today.

B+.