Eli Roth is back in the director's chair with Hostel. After his likeable flick Cabin Fever, I was pretty excited about seeing this one, but I have to say that I did not like this one as much. Two American students befriend an eccentric Icelander while backpacking through Europe and make their way to a hostel that's said to be ripe with women. There they find all the partying and sex they want... and quite a bit more. After people start disappearing, we find that this was not an accident that the kids found their way to this hostel. In their hunt for entertaining depravity, they find themselves the prey in a much more depraved game. I thought the basic premise of this film was pretty good, although a bit flimsy at times, but it just did not have the campy feel that Cabin Fever had. I thought that Roth had found a great blend of horror and humor in his previous film, but this one falls well short of that. I love the fact that he is not scared to have loads of nudity and gore in the same flick. The gore was downright nasty at times... maybe even too much so in certain situations. I think alot of it was done for shock value and not to help the film along. The characters were not all that interesting either, with maybe the exception being the Icelandic kid who did a few odd things at times. All in all it was a decent film, loaded with blood and boobs... but nowhere near as good has Cabin Fever, although it does have a catchy title.
Eli Roth is back in the director's chair with Hostel. After his likeable flick Cabin Fever, I was pretty excited about seeing this one, but I have to say that I did not like this one as much. Two American students befriend an eccentric Icelander while backpacking through Europe and make their way to a hostel that's said to be ripe with women. There they find all the partying and sex they want... and quite a bit more. After people start disappearing, we find that this was not an accident that the kids found their way to this hostel. In their hunt for entertaining depravity, they find themselves the prey in a much more depraved game. I thought the basic premise of this film was pretty good, although a bit flimsy at times, but it just did not have the campy feel that Cabin Fever had. I thought that Roth had found a great blend of horror and humor in his previous film, but this one falls well short of that. I love the fact that he is not scared to have loads of nudity and gore in the same flick. The gore was downright nasty at times... maybe even too much so in certain situations. I think alot of it was done for shock value and not to help the film along. The characters were not all that interesting either, with maybe the exception being the Icelandic kid who did a few odd things at times. All in all it was a decent film, loaded with blood and boobs... but nowhere near as good has Cabin Fever, although it does have a catchy title.
