Well, I thought it was decent, but the gore was a little too much. A woman in the theatre vomited. It was nasty.

SPOILERS -----













The eye ball scene was in fact hard to watch. But so was the drilling scene.





END SPOILERS

-ONEY

I plan to see this, but I hate it when shit like this is overhyped.  "ooh one of the most horrific movies of all time" as one ad said or the paramedics being called?  Yeah okay.  This thing better live up to the hype, but I highly doubt it.

Wow I'm starting to really wonder if I saw the same movie as you guys.  

Well at least at Rottentomatoes the rating went down from 91 to 57.  

I am truly shocked that so many people enjoyed this film.

But then when I bring up Domino as one of my favorite movies in 2005, I get hammered by the teenie boppers on IMDB.  

Quoted from AmericanSyCo I hope to see this at some point this weekend.  I was a very big fan of Roth's debut, "Cabin Fever," so I'm hoping I will enjoy this.  I know what you mean though, about the hype.  I thought "Saw" was one of the most overrated horror flicks in a long time (and its sequel was even worse).  In the meantime, I got me some "Bloodrayne" to watch!

Bloodrayne! ARe you kidding me!! OMFG  How is Uwe Boll making movies still, he needs to be shot!

Didn't know Takashi Miike had a cameo, but it's not surprising.

You know I'm sure that QT and ER may have built it up too much, but at the same time, general audiences now just aren't used to what film buffs are.  Imagine if they re-released some grindhouse and foreign stuff in theaters now...people would be up in arms, not to mention passing out and vomiting.  

It'd be great.

Maybe spoilers. Heed this warning...

First off, I loved Miike's cameo. The moment he walked into the frame I had to keep myself from laughing. I loved it! "Be careful. You could end up spending all your money in there." Hi-bloody-larious! Right at that exact moment was when the movie was the best it could be, with his little cameo. I almost wanted to yell at the screen. No! Stay! Do that thing you do so well and shock the hell out of these stupid mainstream audience members behind me!

I suppose it's basically impossible to review this film without comparing it to Roth's previous work, so let's just get that out of the way: I didn't like it as much as Cabin Fever in some ways, but in other ways I liked it more. To me it didn't seem like there was as much all out blood and gore as Fever, what with all the blood vomiting and skin peeling and the like. However, what's there was quite nice. Some severed fingers (four), some severed limbs (a leg), numerous slashings, shootings, beatings, machete's hitting people, acetylene torches to the eye, chainsaws and drills and scalpels. Oh my! If Cabin Fever was a cake, Hostel is a cupcake. It's still a cake, in theory, but you can't help but feel a little cheated. Still, I was quite entertained by the second half of the movie.

Which is my main problem. Cabin Fever was spread out. The characters and the gore were intermingled, and there was a good flow to the movie. We'd get some comic relief, some gore, some humor, some gore. It had that twisted sense of humor that it managed to keep in balance with the blood and guts ahoy. The only thing I hated was the half dozen false endings. Well, the problem with Hostel is not the ending, though truthfully it wasn't that great. And the Japanese girl throwing herself in front of the train, okay maybe, but it seemed like a bit of deus ex machina to get the main guy out of there while throwing in a bit more blood. Meh. My main problem with Hostel was the pacing. This isn't one movie, it's two short movies and a third peeking its head in the door. The first half of the movie could have been fleshed out and turned into a feature length American Pie-esque comedy, following the two Americans and their obnoxious (but entertaining) Icelandic friend Oli in their attempts to find some girls.

Then they hit the hostel, and there's about twenty minutes of a suspense/thriller that acts as a buffer between the comedy and the horror. Then the horror finally kicks in for the final act of the movie. Again, with a bit of time and work it could have easily been developed into a separate movie. The concept of the Elite Hunters wasn't fleshed out anywhere near what it could have been. How cool a concept? Pay a double digit grand and you can have your pick of people to do with as you wish? That could have been the most sick and twisted movie this side of anything by Miike.

But unfortunately nothing really gets to where it should have gone. Sure, watching a skinny German guy slip on blood and accidentally cut his leg off with a chainsaw is funny as all hell, but I kind of expected more. I can't really explain it. This was a movie that when I left the theater I didn't have that feeling I normally have when I leave. It's not bad, but it's definitely not the follow up to Cabin Fever it's been hyped to be.

**1/2 out of ****

To answer your question guyjackson, yes we/they do.
I mean look at Bush version 2.2?

Quoted from KenneyP To answer your question guyjackson, yes we/they do. I mean look at Bush version 2.2?

Haha well I see your point.  We do have a numbnutz as our leader.

I still remember an article the day after election day on some magazine in Europe that said "How could 59,566,221 people be so dumb?! Four more years of Dubya!"

I almost fell off my chair laughing when I saw that because it's so true.

But Kenny I'm actually quite curious as to what the "sterotypical" American is viewed as in Europe.  Like are we seen as just arrogant, self-centered, spoiled brats?  That's what Eli Roth's girlfriend said (She's Natalya from Hostel, the dark haired girl from the Slovakian hostel).  Or something else?  And feel free to say what you want, I am quite open-minded and I don't get offended at all.  You can PM me if you dont' want to say it in the forum.

And are our sterotypes of certain countries the same over there too?  Like the French are arrogant, English are passive, etc, etc?

Oh and PS the women in Europe are MUCH better than the ones we have here.  But that's just me          

Well mostly fat and dumb, except for girls on Miami Beach, I'm not kidding.
Dumb because of the amount of school you guys have, fat because of all them fastfoodchains. I'm not saying it's true, but that's how they view you.
Also an American on vacation in Europe is mostly fat, wears shorts and has binoculars. It's not true of course but...

We, Belgians, view the English as calm, relaxed a bit gay teadrinkers oblivious of what's going on in the world. I don't agree because I've been to London. All I can say is you don't find beautiful women in the big city, you have to look for them in the villages

The French are friendly people and totally adore their language, we can speak it for a bit so probably we don't get to see their bad side.

The Dutch on the other hand, we view them as dumb stoners. We speak the same language but they have this really weird accent. You could say we've been in war ever since Belgium went independent, but expressed verbally. They see us the same way so it's a really funny situation between our countries (America/Canada-like)  

Haha!  That's classic.  I might have to put that in my signature.

That's funny that you say Miami Beach women are the best.  Every European I talk to always says that.  I think in America, the west coast girls from California are our eye candy, but Miami does have a good amount of beautiful women.    

I'm not going to lie, people in our country are kind of on the large side.  The comedians here always remind us about that.  I mean I'm 6-1 (186cm), 170 lbs. (77kg) and people view me as a health freak.  I'm like, "Um no I just don't eat fast food every freakin day like you do."

The school thing I find kind of wierd though.  I think we go long enough but after like age 13 they just repeat everything we learn over and over again every year, haha.

That Belgian view on the English is hilarious.  I think it's kind of the same here, but I personally like the British alot.  Especially their women.  I'll take Keira Knightley and Sienna Guillory over Britney Spears and Paris Hilton anyday (preferably at the same time   )

The Dutch I really don't know too much about, or how America views them for that matter, but your description sounds funny as hell.  That's how they were portrayed in Hostel it seemed.

Yeah I don't know what's up with that America/Canada thing.  Again, the comedians here love to pick on them, and I don't know why.  But those can be some funny jokes, haha.

Anyway thanks for your feedback, Kenny.  I really appreciate it.  It's always great to see how America is viewed by Europeans.            

I thought this movie was pretty bad and in fact of the worst horror movies I've ever seen. Sure, some of the violence was intense and shocking and the general idea of people paying to torture was scary, but it seems that Eli Roth forgot to concoct a solid plot to integrate those torture scenes and instead went straight for the shock value and in my opinion it didn't work at all.

SPOILERS BELOW
The script just seemed half written to me. They made the movie (according to IMDB) three times faster than your average movie and it shows. First off, the entire first half of the movie was a mess, nudity just for the sake of nudity and it didn't really get me caring for any of the characters, I just thought they were horny idiots. Sure it showed a good time going bad but they could have done that in more effective ways that could also be more tasteful and add more to the plot later on. The only one I slightly cared about was the blonde who was killed off first. The dialogue was also over the top. Sure, guys can be guys but it just seemed over the top, unrealistic and it dragged on for too long in that tone instead of building some decent suspense. Also the development with paxton and the girl he didn't save came across as cheesey rather than emotional and something to think about later. When the torture did start I thought it was going to be intense and scary but it finally spiraled off in one of the dumbest plots I've ever seen. When he finally managed to escape I thought it was stupid that he went back and like I said, his story with the little girl didn't convince me that he'd run into a torture house to rescue someone he didn't even know. The part with the van was also laughable. It moves out the way and low and behold, the three bad guys in a perfect spot to run over. Extremely poorly written in my opinion and was based on a coincidence that wouldn't happen. It was also a far fetched coincidence that there were signs all the way to the train station from the torture house and that he managed to get there without taking a wrong turn. The kids that beat up the people chasing them were also unrealistic. I don't care where they are from but I don't think kids would just take a baseball bat to peoples skulls like they did. And finally, when paxton gets on the train with the main bad guy, I had had enough. Of all the places he could have gone he gets on the same train. It just seemed like a poorly written amateurish script. But I was saved as after paxton got revenge it just ended. No wrap up whatsoever, no big twist, nothing of the sort. It just ended. I know this isn't the kind of story where the good guys win and the hostel gets taken down as I understand too many people were involved, but again the ending seemend like the script was unfinished.

Overal, the movie was based on nothing more than shock value. It was scary to think about that happening to you but there was no point when I really cared for the character and had my heart beating as he was being chased or anything like that. The last act of the script was based on poorly written, far fetched coincidences and the ending was one of the worst endings I've ever seen.
So my rant is over, if anyone would like to respond to what I've said feel free as I am open minded to see why people enjoyed this movie, but the fact remains I didn't
-Matt

You're a good man, Matt.  It's good to see you have a brain inside that head of yours.  

I say you and I head over to Europe, meet some of these "hostel" chicks and just not take that ecstasy pill.  Sound like a plan?

Best Eurotrip ever..

And hopefully by that time, the dark haired chick that played Natalya will break up with Eli Roth when she realizes how bad of a moviemaker he is, because I have dibbs on her.    

Honestly how did he land her????????

wow i didnt know he was with her...
oh well
im glad someone agrees with me though that its a poorly written script as most people are raving about it but i honestly feel that if another screen writer (even some of the better writers on here) had stumbled across that hotel site that inspired the movie first, they would construct a better, more suspenseful and overal, a higher quality script. In fact, I think I could even do that as it seems I know more about constructing belieavable and well rounded characters than mr roth does. Maybe ill make that my next project just for fun.
anyway
see you in europe
-matt

To be honest, I thought this was going to be a 'Saw' clone.

I haven't watched it yet, but my friend told me the whole story and it differs from most movies like Wolf Creek, Saw, and etc.

Sorry if someone has already said this (I didn't read the past posts and I just found this out so I have something to say), but I saw on http://www.upcominghorrormovies.com that they are making a Hostel 2.

Now I heard this movie was terrible...


...I wonder if this movie will be worse.

Sean