Review of Hostel: Part II (2007) by Amoviecritic — 08 Jun 2007

This was pretty disappointing. Now....I have not seen the first Hostel, but they do a great job of catching you up on the events in the first one at the start of this. Keeping in mind that I haven't seen the first Hostel, I didn't really expect anything going into this, but was disappointed anyway.

The pacing for this movie seems to be all over the map. Director Eli Roth spends what seems like forever before we get to the first death. The movie is pretty interesting at first but after a while, it starts to get tedious and boring.

When we finally get to the first capture and death...eventually people start getting captured, but it's just not worth the wait, and basically, that first death is the only one until nearly the end of the movie.

I feel pretty dirty saying it, but there's a reason people go to these movies; to see graphic deaths and gore. Hostel Part II does not deliver. Any of the 3 Saw movies has more gore and suspense than this movie.

Most of the deaths take place off screen. Which, again, makes me wonder what Eli Roth thought people were going to see this movie for; the scenery? This is my first Eli Roth film, and I'm a little disappointed to see that he just doesn't seem to be able to set a mood.

There's no suspense whatsoever. Women are tortured but for whatever reason, there's no tension. You see a movie like Wolf Creek (where women are similarly victims to a sick person torturing them,) and there's an intensity to the scenes in that movie that Hostel Part II lacks.

Roth also has a habit of winking at his audience way too often. There's so much sly humor thrown in to the movie that at times, it felt like a parody of itself. This is most evident during the scene right before the credits roll.

This movie seems to make no effort to scare us or to take itself seriously. Eli Roth's direction also seems pretty bland, with none of the energetic style of the Saw films. The plot also lost me at times.

It felt like there were scenes missing from the movie. Characters seem to do things with no motive or explanation. An important character is suddenly seen being eaten. This scene is never explained to the audience.

A character whose acting nice suddenly seems to "snap" for no apparent reason, and a kid is killed; why? I don't know. Unfortunately, despite a pretty good start, Hostel II fails to deliver what was promised.

There's lots of deaths taking place off screen, the movie takes forever to get to the point, and there's just not much to enjoy when it finally does get there. The "shocking ending" turns out NOT to be a plot twist, but a very graphic scene involving [spoiler deleted].

..which may have felt more shocking if I hadn't already seen [spoiler deleted]. I've got to admit, I'm not the biggest "splatter film" fan, but when I do go to a splatter film, I expect there to be lots of.

..splatter. There just wasn't. And the plot wasn't interesting, the pacing was slow, the movie doesn't seem to take itself seriously...so why should we take it seriously? Not recommended.