Hostel - Review

Ahhhhhhh!!

Alright, so everyone knows there are basically two schools of horror in movies - The Omen + Exorcist school of horror which relies heavily on setting up an eerie & spooky aura, delivering effective BOO moments on cue, the supernatural element being the key to achieving the desired scare effect. Movies from the recent past such as The Ring, Skeleton Key, Grudge etc have cleverly adapted the tried and tested frameworks with success. But the problem with these movies is that..anybody who has watched a significant number of horror movies and with a little application of common sense can easily forecast the BOO moment. Its been a while since I've watched a horror movie and was blindsighted by a a clever scary sequence.
The Second school of horror movie-making follows the footsteps of movies such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Evil dead, slasher movies from the 80's which rely heavily on gore, mutilation, and lots and lots of blood. These movies are rarely scary as such but I find them personally disturbing on many occasions, purely because of the extent to which it is implied, how cruel and sadistic people can actually be.

Movies such as Wolf Creek find themselves neither here nor there and succeed merely in provoking a shake of the head and at some points even some laughter when not intended. But that's a subject for another post another day.

Hostel clearly falls in the latter category. Director Eli Roth aims for the jugular (quite literally) and never lets go. This is a BRUTAL, GRUESOME, GRAPHIC AND VERY VERY BLOODY movie. Trust me. Even Passion of the Christ or Saw seems tame compared to this one. While there was some reasonable justification for the brutality and graphic scenes in POTC, here the director merely seems eager to push the envelope to shock and numb the audience. It works..and it doesnt.

The film follows a pair of American college friends, Josh and Paxton, backpacking around Europe for one final fling before succumbing to the real world of jobs and committments. Somewhere along the way the duo met up with Icelandic party freak Oli and the trio roam freely in search of cheap drugs and sex. When they hear of a travellers hostel in Slovakia loaded with beautiful and (ahem) affectionate women the trio promptly set off. And the rumors are true. When they arrive they walk in on their hostel room mates - a pair of stunningly beautiful women - in a state of undress as they prepare to head for the hostel's spa. Yes, a spa in a hostel!! The boys join them there, breasts are exposed (quite a lot of breasts are exposed, really, the entire first act being a fairly non stop succession of perky, silicon-enhanced bosoms) - sex is had and the boys believe they've found heaven. That is, until the next morning, when Oli goes missing. And when Paxton finds himself all alone the morning after that something is clearly wrong. This is where things get dark and brutal and bloody, fast.

The film works partly cos it's able to create a distinct uneasiness, particularly in the torture scenes (and the build-up to those scenes) and manages to sustain such unease for long periods of time.The reason it doesnt work is cos the way the movie was marketed - the Big secret of the movie is clearly given away in all promos and anybody who has watched those promos will know what to expect. Where is the revelation? The element of learning a shocking truth? Besides the copious amounts of nudity and ridiculous violence the movie has very little thrills to offer, which makes it even more disappointing not to forget the presence of quite a few loop holes and convenient coincidences. So what was Quentin Tarantino's contribution to this project? Was it to offer some much needed credibility to the movie? I believe so, cos the story is quite mediocre (it's an unique idea but that's about it), a not-so well known director (Eli roth directed Cabin fever and may have a smal following but he's No QT) and no recognizable actor. I suppose if it had not been for QT's association, this movie may well have ended up direct to DVD.

Instead we have endure this torture on the big screen.

The one success the movie may boast would be it's vivid depiction of Europe as a very, very dark and unsafe place thus shattering all my euro-trip fantasies. Another reason to hate this movie.

-Nav


P.S: I've attached the least disturbing photo of Hostel I could find. So apologies for any unpleasantness.