My Two Cents on "Hostel"

Chris has already reviewed "Hostel;" I just got a chance to see it today, but so much is being made of this movie and this whole supposed new wave of horror films coiming out that I thought I would chime in.

I keep reading all of these articles lateley, a couple have appeared in our fine, local, piece of crap paper, "The Tennessean" about the new horror. With the likes of the "Saw" franchise, "High Tension," "The Devil's Rejects" (Which, while a fine film, I will never consider it a horror film), and now "Hostel," horror movies are has one journalist, oozing with his own definition of creativity, put it "going for the gut." Yes, there's a new media hyped horror craze going on out there depicting torture and mayhem to new extremes. It's funny because I always thought horror movies were about torture and mayhem. Maybe I saw a different version of "Silence of the Lambs" than everyone else did.

Eli Roth, the director of "Hostel," previously directed the small hit from a couple years ago, "Cabin Fever." "Cabin Fever" didn't really work for me. There were some good moments, but it was all over the place. Roth is obviously a huge fan of both 80's teen sex comedies and gory horror films ala "Evil Dead", and he tried to blend both genres together. There's a fine line between comedy and horror that few directors have ever managed to get right, Roth joins that crowd with "Cabin Fever." But the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Boaz Yakin, and go figure, Harry Knowles, were huge fans and befriended the man. If you go on Knowles web site and read his review of this film you will see he takes sole credit for Roth making this film. I'd like to think Yakin and Tarantino had more of an effect on the guy because in his second feature, if nothing else, he shows that he can have focus.

Roth does a great job in "Hostel," based loosely on some urban legends that are floating around on the internet, of zoning in on the terror in a horrible situation like this. With the exception of a few early scenes, he thankfully avoids stabs at cheap comic moments, and scares the hell out of us the rest of the way. He also keeps the monster in the closet most of the way through, which is always scarier. I'm not saying there is no gore in this film; there's plenty. But to be honest, most episodes of "CSI" have more disturbing effects than this film. We see what's about to happen in these dirty torture chambers of Slovakia, and then at the right moment Roth cuts away, and we get to hear that "Crunch" of someone's toes coming off or ankles being slit.

Saving most of the terror for the second half of the film proves a good thing as well, since we actually get to know our unfortunate characters before all of this shit starts happening to them. This is where Roth's love of the teen sex comedies comes out giving us some great late night Showtime soft core moments. It would almost be better if the previews had only shown this part of the film because then we would have really been shocked when all hell starts breaking loose.

The second half is where Roth lets it all hang out, and while he still shows his fanboy ways at times, he also shows that he is not that bad of a filmmaker. "Hostel," if anything is a hell of a stepping stone for a director, who in the future, will be giving us some terrific, mind-blowing cinema.

The film is not perfect. The chase sequences toward the end aren't well executed, and actor Jay Hernandez's last stab at revenge feels a little tacked on. But after twenty some odd god awful horror films in 2005, "Hostel" is a nice breath of fresh air. This film won't be for everybody, but if you like to be creeped out at the movies, "Hostel" will definately make you want to take a shower when all is said and done.