Early Review: Hostel

Hostel is the second effort from Eli Roth of Cabin Fever fame. Reviews for Cabin Fever were all over the board, raging from outright hate to lusty love. I was somewhere in the middle; I was entertained—mostly—but I felt it wasted the excellent potential of the premise.

Roth moves from the backwoods to the seedy spots of Europe here. Two pals, Josh and Paxton, have just graduated college and want to have one last fling before they have to get jobs and other sucky stuff like that. Off they go to have some fun..a huge part of the movie is devoted to this fun…and meet Oli, a dude from Iceland (do people really live in Iceland?) who knows where to find all the good drugs and boobies. Our American heroes are all over that, of course, so off they go to find adventure, and little do they know, tortuous pain and misery. I hope they at least got to use frequent flier points!

The movie is sort of…Eurotrip meets True Romace. There were quite a few scenes that reminded me of the gleeful violence in True Romance, actually. Then I saw Quentin Tarantino has a producer credit…aha!

If Cabin Fever was Roth at eight years old, grossing out the girls with dead bugs and flicking his boogers at his friends for amusement, then Hostel is Roth in his rebellious teenage years, wearing black and drawing inverted pentagrams to freak out his parents and teachers.

Is it better than Cabin Fever? Yes. In what ways? Several. First of all, the older characters are more believable. Yes, I know that technically, they are in the same stage of life as the CF kids, but something seems older. Not more mature, necessarily. But older enough to have some view of the world beyond smoking pot around a campfire. Also, Roth does a better job with humor here; a teen’s sense of humor is better developed than an 8-year old’s. The humor is better integrated into the violence here, where in CF it always stuck out awkwardly. There is less sense of groan-worthy silliness (the karate sequence, anyone?) Unfortunately, Roth can’t resist another ‘humorous’ ending, but it’s an improvement. Maybe by his next film, he’ll have moved into his young adult years.

So anyway, the guys are partying it up and hear about a hostel in Slovakia (do people actually live in Slovakia?) where boobies and booty reign supreme. Off they go, to find the hostel (with a spa!) is everything they dreamed of and more. Boobies as far as the eye can see…comfy beds…and here I thought hostels were all about sagging cots and the lingering stench of B.O.

All seems great, until one of the main characters goes missing. And then another one. And then the last guy is left to fend for himself in almost unbelievably hellish ways. All those boobies don’t come free, you know.

At least the trip starts out fun…

That’s all the plot I want to discuss, so the experience won’t be spoiled for you. Of course, if you’ve seen the trailer, it’s already been spoiled. If you haven’t, close your eyes and cover your ears if it comes on next time you’re at the movies.

…but by the end, not so much.

The violence and gore is unflinching here; the camera does not pull away. Unfortunately, that is going to be ruined as soon as the MPAA butchers it, the bastards. Roth has two choices: accept a sub-par version to get an R-rating, or go balls out and release it in full NC-17 glory. Of course, we’ll know which he’ll choose, so you may want to wait for the uncut DVD.

Amid the extreme scenes of violence, one moment was the most squirm-inducing for me: a cut Achilles’ tendon (shades of Pet Semetary). That gets me every time! Blown-off heads. Neat-o. Innards oozing out? Coool. But a cut Achilles’? Aaa!

Would I recommend seeing it? Sure, if red stuff and grueling intensity in flicks is your thing. But the uncut DVD version will undoubtedly be better.

Hostel is doing the ‘based on a true story which makes this even more terrifying’ thing, but I have my doubts.

What did I like? The premise. The location. The homage to my beloved 1980s slasher flicks. The unusual-for-the-genre order of dispatching certain characters. One particularly heart-breaking scene where a character’s attempt to appeal to a monster’s humanity is for naught. The always successful theme of decent people being forced into becoming monsters in order to survive at the hands of monsters. Hostel also does an excellent job at portraying one of our deepest fears: being stuck in an unfamiliar place, completely at the mercy of others, out of reach of those who love us or could help us.

What could I do without? The overabundance of silliness, especially at the end. C.mon, Roth: have the courage to play it straight!

Enjoy it…though you may want to cancel those plane reservations to Europe.

(Hmm…I need to think up some sort of rating system. For now, we’ll say 2.5 out of 4…somethings.)