Hostel

An exceptionally well-made horror movie disguised as an exploitation film, Eli Roth's Hostel finally makes good on all the promises he made with his forgettable debut, Cabin Fever. When that film came out, I read interviews with Roth all over the Internet in which he claimed to rebirth 80's horror, to bring the tits and gore back out of the editing room and on to the movie screens where it belonged.

And though Cabin Fever did, in fact, have some tits and some gore (particularly in the memorable "shaving" scene), it wasn't much as a horror movie. In fact, the entire enterprise played as little more than a crib sheet of earlier, better entries into the genre, particularly the cheap-o early work of Sam Raimi.

Hostel, on the other hand, provides kind of a best-of-all-worlds buffet for the horror fan. It's funny, it's genuinely unsettling in spots, it features a bevy of attractive and semi-nude ingenues, it's just a bit ironic without being campy. Despite the hype, it's also really not all that disgusting. Roth wisely keeps most of the truly revolting bits off-screen, suggesting a lot more violence through sound effects and blood spray than he actually shows.



Like all the 80's horror that inspired him, Roth's story opens with a couple of horny guys. Tired of bouncing around the tourist traps of Amsterdam, American pals Paxton (Jay Hernandez) and Josh (Derek Richardson), and their Icelandic Friend Oli (Eythor Gudjonsson, alternatingly amusing and irritating) head for the promised land of Slovakia. There, they are told by a creepy guy named Alex with a large cold sore (Lubomir Bukovy), beautiful and busty women wait around for the chance to randomly fulfill the erotic fantasies of young Americans.

Naturally, all in Slovakia is not what it seems. Though the film's not really about any shocking twists, I'll refrain from spelling out exactly what fate awaits our heroes in Eastern Europe. Let me just say, it involves some torture, including but not limited to the use of power drills, chainsaws, hooks, scalpels, wire cutters, guns and one blowtorch.

This is not, however, some random pointless exercize in cruelty, a la Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects. That film served as an homage to the splatter films of the 70's, low-budget Z-grade entertainments that attracted audience through shock value. Hostel is much more traditional, even old-fashioned, horror movie fun. Sure, there's some blood, some torture, but like the classics of the genre - in particular, movies like Texas Chainsaw Massacre - it's really about exploring the human survival mechanism. Regular folks, just like you or me, are thrown into crazy, out-of-control and violent situations, and then we watch them struggle for their lives. It's cathartic, in a way.

In addition to this clear inspiration (along with, like Cabin Fever, the B-grade early work of guys like Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson), the movie also alludes to the recent run of gruesome Asian horror films. A cameo by Japanese cult director Takashi Miike works as a tip of the hat to his Audition, which clearly inspires some of the torture sequences, and also links Hostel up with a new and evolving direction for world horror cinema. It's nice to see someone making these sorts of films, finally, in America. Up until now, you've basically needed an all-region DVD player just to get a taste for what's going on in horror movies.

The cleverness of Roth's material this time out is how he manages to combine so many different types of fear in one tight, 90-minute package. These characters are far, far from home, totally dependant on locals for information and unreliable cell phones to keep in touch, unable to speak the language, drunk, disoriented and lost. Then, suddenly, they are set upon, attacked, kidnapped and tortured for apparently no reason. Really, the scenario's scary before the implements of torture even make their first appearance.

It's subtle, the shift from vacation-style adventure into nightmare. At one point, already sick from alcohol consumption, Paxton finds himself locked in a club after hours. For a moment, we expect that it's a trap, that he will now be led to the torture chamber to have his fingernails pulled out or some such horror. But, no...he's just locked in a club overnight. Hey, these things happen. Another scene at a "museum" dedicated to torture serves the same purpose, as does the strange encounter with the German guy on the train.

For a certain kind of person, traveling is about entering new, strange, unknown situations, to plunge into an unexpected corner of life. I suppose it's to be expected that, some of the time, this will not be an altogether pleasing corner of life. Hostel is the kind of movie that will make you think twice about going anywhere but Maui.