HOSTEL
Director: Eli Roth
Screenplay: Eli Roth
Release Date:

Eli Roth follows up on his absolutely terrible "Cabin Fever" with a film that is so fucked up that I couldn't help but mentioning that same point many times during the ride home. There are many films that could get the "fucked up" tag ("A Clockwork Orange" immediately comes to mind), and Hostel is a movie that will definitely be added to that list.

A quick rundown of the movie goes something like this: two recent post-college Americans go backpacking through Europe with the high hopes of getting intoxicated and having sex, taking shelter in the hostels of whatever country they are staying in. They befriend an Iclandic man along the way, who has no qualms about showing off his buttcheeks, and eventually learn of a place where the women are both beautiful and easy. When they get there, the fucked up shit hits the fucked up fan.

The first half of the film seemed like nothing more than an excuse to look at boobs. Not much went on at all, and I found myself pretty bored (even boobs can become boring if there is no storyline). I thought that Roth was pushing the boundries of a Rated R film, trying to pack as many bare breasts as the film police would allow, which was admirable, but I wanted a story, not an R rated version of someone's vacation.

As soon as the film started picking up with the action and brutality, I was hooked. The film wasn't scary, just so fucking intense that my toes were curling. Seeing a man's skull get bashed in by a small child will do that to you (and that's not even the most out there scene). I watched the rest of the film in a cringing awe, knowing that this was a film thinking so far out of the box that it wasn't even funny.

Looking back, I'm glad that the beginning of the film was so boring. Even though I spent a lot of those scenes looking at my watch, it set me up for something so incredibly unexpected and fucked up, making me enjoy the film as a whole even more.