X
- 2006
- Unrated
- Lionsgate Films
- 1 h 34 m
- 2006
- Unrated
- Lionsgate Films
- 1 h 34 m
- 2006
- Unrated
- Lionsgate Films
- 1 h 34 m
- 2006
- Unrated
- Lionsgate Films
- 1 h 34 m
Hostel
55
4.1
Where to Watch
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
55
43% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
52% Mixed
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
5% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
55
43% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
52% Mixed
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
5% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
The entertainingly unhinged Hostel reeks of kneeling reverence to the grisliest of psychotronica while simultaneously striving to out-gore and out-shock its predecessors.
It's obligatory for a horror film to feature exploitative sex as an appetizer, but Roth, even as he fulfills the sleaze imperative, does something shrewder: He mocks his heroes, presenting them as cold-eyed horndog jerks who fail to see that they've wandered into an entire country of exploitation.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 566 User Ratings
4.1
36% Positive
205 Ratings
205 Ratings
12% Mixed
69 Ratings
69 Ratings
52% Negative
292 Ratings
292 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 566 User Ratings
4.1
36% Positive
205 Ratings
205 Ratings
12% Mixed
69 Ratings
69 Ratings
52% Negative
292 Ratings
292 Ratings
Hostel: 10 out of 10: Half Eurotrip style sex comedy (with a seventies level of nudity) and half the doctor scene from **** Freaks, yeah I might as well stop my review right there it's a 10.
Director Eli Roth (Cabin Fever) has scored a bull's eye simply by going back to what makes exploitation films great. Thus he produces a film that could have been lensed in the freewheeling year of 1975 rather than PG-13 stuffy year of 2005.
The film starts with two American college students and an Icelandic hanger on enjoying some debauchery in Amsterdam. They hear about a nirvana for sex and drugs in Slovakia and they pursue it as if they were traversing the Himalayas to find Shangri-La.
What they find is,,,, well I won't spoil it for you but they should have stuck with the marijuana brownies and overpriced Dutch hookers.
The movie actually makes torture scenes enjoyable again. (I generally have hated the whole torture motif in modern film for example Rest Stop.) Roth unlike his contemporaries shows the gore without those annoying zooming camera tricks. The leads are unlikable in a fun rather than irritating way (not easy to do) and the film has both a wonderful energy and plentiful surprises.
Oh and there is copious amounts of extremely well done gratuitous nudity and sadistic gore. One of the best films of 2005.
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Hostel may become something of a classic among Fangoria magazine's readership, acolytes of George Romero and audiences who thought "Saw II" was for babies.
Seems to have been tailored to its designated R "for brutal scenes of torture and violence, strong sexual content, language and drug use."
Hostel certainly delivers in the gore department, and Roth, who knows and loves his favorite genre at least as well as the gang over at the Alamo Drafthouse, peppers the proceedings with various witty in-jokes.
Not horrifying enough.
The question is, can a Slovakian lawsuit against the filmmaker be far behind?
A strong narrative highlights this at time exploitive body parts feature. The first act of the film is nothing more than a frat boy, soft core porn fest, with lots of T & A. The second act is the definitive example of torture porn, with blood and guts and body parts flying all over the place. In the third act the film morphs into a fairly effective Jason Bourne style game of cat and mouse, which really proves quite entertaining.
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It’s early 00’s torture porn. Not particularly good at anything; just violence for the sake of violence.
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Gore, gore, and more gore, no depth, no complexity, just a feast for sick people with no imagination.
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Production Company
Next Entertainment,
Raw Nerve,
International Production Company,
Hostel LLC
Release Date Jan 6, 2006
Duration 1 h 34 m
Rating Unrated
Genres
Tagline Welcome to your worst nightmare.
Awards
Fangoria Chainsaw Awards
• 6 Nominations
Scream Awards
• 2 Wins & 4 Nominations
Austin Fantastic Fest
• 3 Wins & 3 Nominations
