Hostel Movie Review

Hostel Movie Still

Cast & Crew

Director : Eli Roth

Producer : Mike Fleiss, Eli Roth, Chris Briggs,

Screenwriter : Eli Roth

Starring : Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson, Eythor Gudjonsson, Jan Vlasak, Barbara Nedeljakova, Jennifer Lim, Rick Hoffman,

This day and age, money can buy you just about anything. Sex. Power. Real estate. Expensive cars. Yachts. Vacations. But once you've experienced all that money can buy -- and all the world has to offer -- what can do you for excitement? Is it possible to purchase something unforgettable when the very essence of the word is your day-to-day life?

According to Hostel, extremely wealthy and over privileged businessman can buy something they won't soon forget: another human being's life. Americans are expensive, but if you're open to the ethnicity of your purchase, you can get a human for a fairly reasonable price. But we are not talking about selling humans into slavery. These clients are purchasing "products" to torture and kill.

Apparently, Hostel is based on real events. There is (or was) a legal practice in Thailand in which victims volunteer to be murdered by a paying customers so that their families get insurance money. Naturally, Hostel takes some major creative liberties, but this movie has a unique idea, for sure, and that's hard to come by in a horror film.

Hostel follows young Americans Paxton (Jay Hernandez), Josh (Derek Richardson), and Icelander Oli (Eythor Gudjonsson) as they embark upon a backpacking trip through various European countries. They're vacationing to see the sights, smoke pot, party hardy, and screw some hot European chicks. As luck (or not) would have it, they strike girl gold... but soon they soon wish they would have picked a different pair of broads to mess around with.

The girls are really part of an elaborate (or plausibly elaborate) business -- called Elite Hunting -- designed to seduce young tourists into partaking in certain activities which lead to them getting drugged up, unconscious, and relocated to a desolate, abandoned warehouse where they are chained to a chair and tortured to death by clientele. These are some mighty sick businessmen.

Regarding the controversy about the extreme blood, gore, and graphic violence -- yes, it's true. A man taking an electric screwdriver to another man's body isn't even the tip of the iceberg. There is a scene in which a man takes a blow torch to a woman's eye, causing it to bulge out and rest on her cheek, hanging by some membrane thing. Later, the eyeball is sliced off (which we see in full detail) causing a yellow fluid to pour from the laceration. How the film avoided an NC-17 rating is beyond me, especially considering the startling amount of sexual content and nudity found in the first act. Note to parents: this is not a movie to take the family to on a Sunday afternoon after church.

But that's all the movie's got going for it -- shock value. Look -- boobs! Gasp -- brain matter! Oh hell -- that guy just got chopped in half with his own chainsaw! Wow -- I can't believe we're watching this! All this shock stuff is fine and dandy if you're a 17-year-old male hanging out with your guy friends on Saturday night. But for anyone -- and everyone -- else, a horror movie cannot run on shock value alone.

As usual, writer/director Eli Roth (Cabin Fever) is more concerned with shocking audiences than delivering genuine tension and suspense. He has an original and engaging premise, but fails to develop anything more than a blood-and-guts freak show. It's a shame that Hostel isn't scary -- in the least -- because if the gore relieved tension instead of replacing it, without a doubt, Roth would have had one hell of a horror flick.

How much for a triple?

More From Contactmusic.com

More From The Web

Write for us

Comments View All Comments (6)

27th November 2007 00:00

izel     (1)

Hmmm, well that was an intense film best seen on xanax;) I doubt any part of it was true and I think the Thailand tie-in is basicly mythology that directors love to come up with and they desperagely try to tell people pIt is odd how fear is kind of projected out to strange locales like Thailand or Eastern Europe. Oh well such is life....I mean things are spooky, gorey, fun. For better or worse real life evil is often banal, bland and entirely uncinematic. I am amused at how many people believe the sort of "based on a true story" line that directors come up with.Have Fun,Sends Steve

9th June 2007 16:00

toniryan99     (1)

hostel is a good film, kinda gory though !!jus to comment on that last post, i live in UK and hostel was out in the movies here !!

5th February 2007 11:00

emzx     (3)

I think tha hostel was a good film its the type of film all people associate with a gothic genre as it is like only goths woul dwatch it well i know a heck ov a load ov chavs who have seen it 20 times more then me i dont see why just because there is a lot ov blood in it people automatically think it is a gothic film i don't think it is i have seen films a lot worse then dis one

2nd August 2006 01:00

axel rudge     (1)

i think that the movie was well made and i would see it again and again but why wasnt it in the movies.i mean come on that would have been mad to with the sorround sound going and all.anywayz thanx for a good movie!

27th July 2006 07:00

emanuelerch     (1)

First of all sorry for my english that isn't very good.I found the film interesting but I also thing that there is too much blood, maybe unnecessary. I have a question. Do someone know what Paxton (the only that rest alive) said to the man that supposed to kill him? I mean, when they talk in another language.Thanks for your help. Is not urgent, i just have the doubt.

Hostel Rating

" Weak "

Rating: R, 2006

Editors Recommendations

Vampire Weekend's Billboard No.1 Is A Triumph For Independent Music

Indie rockers Vampire Weekend have topped the Billboard 200 chart with their latest record 'Modern Vampires of the City,'...

Vampire Weekend's Billboard No.1 Is A Triumph For Independent Music

Sweet Jesus! Jennifer Aniston Strips Down In 'We're The Millers' [Trailer]

Remember when the trailer for Horrible Bosses rolled out online? Yeah, the internet buckled under the weight...

Sweet Jesus! Jennifer Aniston Strips Down In 'We're The Millers' [Trailer]

Mick Jagger to camp at Glastonbury

Sir Mick Jagger will camp at Glastonbury. The singer is headlining with The Rolling Stones at...

Mick Jagger - Mick Jagger to camp at Glastonbury

Amanda Seyfried felt more attractive with 'huge breasts'

The 'Les Miserables' actress' figure has changed since she was a teenager and she admits being in the limelight...

Amanda Seyfried - Amanda Seyfried felt more attractive with 'huge breasts'

Laura Marling's 'Once I Was An Eagle' Soars With The Critics

Laura Marling looks to have made a stunning return with her new album Once I Was An Eagle...

Laura Marling's 'Once I Was An Eagle' Soars With The Critics

Is Paris Hilton About To Sign Up With Lil Wayne's Cash Money Crew?

Paris Hilton looks to have her career path mapped out for the next few years, as the heiress is...

Is Paris Hilton About To Sign Up With Lil Wayne's Cash Money Crew?

Helen Flanagan Bemuses Londoners With Skimpy Outfit At PETA Event [Pictures]

Helen Flanagan doesn't do things by halves does she? The 22-year-old Coronation Street actress took to Covent Garden...

Helen Flanagan Bemuses Londoners With Skimpy Outfit At PETA Event [Pictures]

The Butler - Trailer

Cecil Gains is a devoted White House butler who grew up on a simple cotton farm where he and other black workers...

The Butler Trailer


More recommendations

Jay Hernandez Newsletter

Subscribe to this news alert service to receive news and reviews on Jay Hernandez

Unsubscribe | Unsubscribe All

Films by Artist: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ