Hostel(released Sept/05)stars,among others,Jay Hernandez as Paxton,Derek Richardson as Josh,Eyţór Guđjónsson as Óli, and Barbara Nedeljáková as Natalya.I was recently handed this one and didn`t know anything about the film,except Taranino was involved,which piqued my interest.It turned out it was yet another of such plot lines with people getting into places they don't belong and barely escaping with their lives,if at all.But as the film got deeper and deeper into the story,the gore got worse and worse and it became totally gratuitous to the extreme.How many sawed off body parts,drills to the body and blood squirting and spattering everywhere,does one need to see before it is too much.Not alot,but for director/producer/writer Roth,"just one more for the road",seemed to be his motto.
The story finds three young men,two American and one Icelandic,back packing across Europe.They get a tip from a young man about this hostel in Czechoslovakia,that's not on any maps.The three travel there and manage to hook up with some local action.The next morning Oli,their Icelandic friend,goes missing.We have a cut scene where we see Oli's disembodied head on a table.
That night at a disco Josh feels sick and goes back to the hostel.Later Paxton gets sick and gets lost finding the disco washroom and is locked in a closet instead. The next morning Paxton gets out and finds Josh has gone missing also.Josh,we have seen,was being held prisoner by a man who they had all previously met on the train going to the hostel.He tortured and killed Josh.
Paxton is at loose ends and decides to have a local girl take him to a museum before he finally leaves later.She takes him out to an old factory and he becomes,like his two friends,an unwilling participant in the "wheel of torture" game.He loses three fingers but manages to fight and gain his freedom.He inadvertently runs into a fellow American who mistakes him for a client.It seems this whole factory is set up as a large torture chamber for those willing to pay good money for the experience.As Paxton is outside he hears the screams of an Oriental girl he knows and he returns.He extricates her and they both flee to the train station.When she sees her horribly disfigured face she deliberately jumps in front of the in bound train.Paxton gets on and is heading away from this nightmare when he hears the voice of the man that killed Josh.When the train makes a brief stop he gets off and follows the man into the washroom.There he gets his revenge by slicing a part of his hand off and cutting his throat.He gets back on the train and leaves.
This isn't Nightmare on Elm Street,whose violence had an air of tongue in cheek to it.This is not Kill Bill,where we had a lady on a mission whose unreal acrobatics took the violence to a totally different place.No,what we have here is gore just for gore's sake,as the plot plays it all too seriously.We get to see every slice,vein and blood spattering.And believe me,there is blood everywhere in this gigantic torture chamber.In every room there is something twisted and sick going on.It is definitely not for the faint of heart,let me tell you.Long before the end I was totally sickened by what I was seeing.
Technically speaking the film is in its w/s a/r of 2:35:1 and was generally clear and crisp,although the film was grainy in some spots.Extras include featurettes,the trailer,commentary and a look at a specific scene with three different angles.
All in all a terribly gory and in my opinion,sick movie.The film plays its plot straight as the three enter a twisted scenario where clients get to pay to torture victims in any way they want.A must to avoid.
