Hostel – be careful where you stay…

Ok so anyone who knows me knows that I do not like horror movies that border on the realm of reality. But anyone who knows me also knows that even though I don't like these movies, I still watch them because I am sick and need psychiatric help.

So the movie in question this week is Hostel.

Let's "cut" right to the chase, shall we?

Cause & Effect

Three college guys touring Europe feel the only trip worth having is one that involves lots of sex and naked women. They seem to hit the mother load when they are told of a particular Hostel where the girls will do anything with an American. How can they refuse?

Just as they had hoped, the women are plentiful and loose. The only problem is that one by one, the boys end up missing, and when the last guy standing, Paxton, tries to find them, he instead finds his worst nightmare come to life.

Result

Upon waking after a night of intended debauchery, Paxton finds he has been abandoned by his roomies and the other patrons of the Hostel. With a little detective work however, he finds that they are not actually "missing" but rather victims of vicious torture. Torture he himself is next in line to endure....

Conculsion

We can never really know what we are capable of until we find ourselves in the face of danger, a realization Paxton has to learn the hard way. But in the underbelly of Bratislava, Slovakia, a Hostel is not what it seems, and Paxton is faced with the all too real dilemma of being victim, or becoming the victimizer.

Recommendation

This movie surprised me. Surprised me in that as typically I do not like movies that exploit potential realities of our world - I am a bit of a sissy in that regard - I really liked this one. So much so that I can't wait to rent Hostel 2.

Eli Roth does remarkably well in his direction of this movie. I was expecting more of a bloodbath as that found in his direction of Cabin Fever, but was pleasantly surprised to find he was more focused on the illusion of mass quantities of blood, versus actual spillage. don't misunderstand, there is ample blood and gore - just not quite as much as I would have thought.

If you a movie with gratuitous sex and nudity, this movie is for you. If you want a movie with suspense and chill factors - yup, this movie is for you. If you want to see gore, yup again, it's in there. And if you like a movie where the good guy doesn't always have to finish last, then watch this movie. It will keep you en"gross"ed in more ways than one.

The horrors this movie portray can be found on any continent, in any basement, of almost any neighbor we wave at as we drive to work each day.

It kinda makes you think twice about waving......

Side Note

Don't let the "based on true events" trick you into thinking this really happened to those 3 boys. The "true events" is a blanket statement that encompasses all the horrors reported in foreign countries and not any specific incident.