Empire's Hostel Movie Review

Hostel
Eli Roth gives you a reason to reconsider your gap year party plans.

Plot
Tempted by a stranger on a Eurotrain, travellers Paxton (Hernandez), Josh (Richardson) and Oli (Gudjonsson) wander off the backpack map and book in to a hostel boasting a roster of European ladies. What sounds like heaven fires into hell, as sinister forces propel our trio into a world of pain...

Not to cause any reader distress, but if you’ve seen Audition, all it takes is one simple word to retrigger the nausea: ankles. So, in anticipation of anybody going to see Hostel and rereading this review, here’s one for the memories: yolky eye. Crossing your stomach yet?

Eli Roth’s (Cabin Fever) new movie is a “squirmer”, one of a growing crowd of sado-horrors à la Saw where audiences are sausage-machined through a series of unimaginably ghastly scenarios and come out the other side feeling like they’ve been riding the ghost train on a dentist’s chair. This isn’t jumpy-scary pulp. This is extreme test-your-nerve pulp. But it’s still pulp, and deeply proud of it.

The “Tarantino Presents” tag is more than bluster. QT had script input and, once the film gets into gear, the central set-piece feels like Bring Out The Gimp: The European Remix. Still, there’s another, less fortunate comparison: From Dusk Till Dawn. Hostel’s a movie of two halves, and one of them doesn’t measure up.

Having ragged the fear glands with a creepy tile-washing credit sequence, the mood flattens into a bland fratboy travelogue, complete with routine hash-and-hooker scrapes. Do we really care whether sensitive Josh pops his load with the Amsterdam dominatrix? No, but it does buy us some tits for the trailer. Exposition. Endurance. Fine line. Get to the room with the mucky tiles.

Happily, it delivers on its threat. For all his throwback genre licks (Hostel, bizarrely, has its very own Igor), Roth’s strongest game is playing on primal fears, and he’s a merciless button-pusher. Entering Hostel’s snuff-world is a bit like reliving a running-from-something nightmare with an enchanting twist: somebody’s cut your legs off. You might not feel that deeply for the characters, but you definitely feel their pain. There may also be regrets about eating those nachos early on.

Hostel’s gristle is pretty explicit, but then, in this genre, gratuitous is what you pay for. Cut it, and a key part of Roth’s hell goes with it. In fact, you could even argue this is splatter with conscience, the stupid-but-chilling revelation offering a bitter vision of how the world looks at a post-Guantanamo — and how looks back. It’s this souring aftertaste that lasts longest. Actually, that’s a lie. It’s the yolky eye bit.

Verdict
A significant change of direction from Cabin Fever, proving Roth can handle more than one type of horror — this is an old-school exercise in shock and gore, with scary ideas and unblinking splatter. The first act’s filler, otherwise it’s a squirmer. Bring a bucket.

Reviewed by Simon Crook

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Your Reviews

Average user rating for Hostel

Hostel
If you take the smooth, talky style of a Tarantino film, and the gruesome, unsettling gore of Saw, you'd get Hostel, a bloody thrill ride that will leave some repulsed and others highly entertained. ... More


Posted by norgizfox at 20:35, 28 October 2012 \| Report This Post



Hostel Review
Featuring lots of guts and gore, Hostel is a wildly entertaining and terrifying corpse-filled journey, assuming one is entertained by corpses, guts, and gore, that is. ... More


Posted by the film man at 23:47, 15 April 2012 \| Report This Post



Not sure what it wants to be.
Hostel is a decent film, don't get me wrong. It just isn't sure what it wants to be. The first half of the film is an undeniable filler for the main event that we all know will follow, but it plays like a crude homage to Eurotrip-and that was pretty damn bad. The fact that, when the main characters are shown towards the hostel of horrors, the characters says that there are no men "because of the war." The fact of the matter is this; there has been so war in Slovakia in the past 15 ... More


Posted by filmfanatic123 at 14:10, 16 August 2011 \| Report This Post



A Useless Escapade Into Bad Acting, Scriptwriting and Sadism
What was the point of this film. It proved to be nothing more than a gorefest for REAL sickos. Shocking, disturbing and just gross. nothing more. Wastefull ... More


Posted by blaud at 15:07, 23 April 2008 \| Report This Post



A Useless Escapade Into Bad Acting, Scriptwriting and Sadism
What was the point of this film. It proved to be nothing more than a gorefest for REAL sickos. Shocking, disturbing and just gross. nothing more. Wastefull ... More


Posted by blaud at 15:07, 23 April 2008 \| Report This Post




I don't like Eli Roth ... More


Posted by willchadwick at 20:25, 03 February 2008 \| Report This Post




I don't like Eli Roth ... More


Posted by willchadwick at 20:25, 03 February 2008 \| Report This Post



Hostel
Eli Roth firstly gave us Cabin Fever that was a gory tale about a flesh eating virus. However Hostel is completely diffrent and is the sickest film to come from a mainstream studio. However its not the goriest. Saw3 tooks its place when that came out. Its starts very well and it ends not so well. But dont be fooled it is a good film all the way through. Its scary, well acted and very gory. Though Hostel is not as good as it should have been you can not doubt its sick but stylish approcah. ... More


Posted by solid snake at 20:29, 15 June 2007 \| Report This Post




I thought this movie would be so sick that i would vomit all over the cinema but no, everytime someone got tortured in anyway then it would cut out the scene so you could only see an empty room and you could only hear screaming. I mean saw was a thousand times better than this! The only reason im not giving this 1 star is because of the nice beggining ... More


Posted by minotaur3004 at 02:06, 10 June 2007 \| Report This Post



RE: Hostel
It's the worst film i've ever seen and i've seen some turkeys over the years. Absymal, celebrating the worst of human behaviour and gloryfying violence to a ridiculous extreme. If you like this film then go and see a psychatrist because i'm seriously worried about your mental health. Only the warped could find something enjoyable in this nasty pointless film. Don't watch it as you can't get the images out of your brain for ages and it leaves you feeling dirty&nb... More

Posted by theoriginalcynic at 17:20, 22 May 2007 \| Report This Post



RE: Hostel
Saw this on sky yesterday and well to tell the truth i was plleasantly surprised.I was expecting to turn it off after ten or fifteen minutes as drivel but no i watched the whole movie and i enjoyed it.I dont usually watch so called gore movies but the gore in this was enough without going overboard.The pay off was done well in my opinion too as the Paxton character made his escape etc. I wont be in line at the cinema for part 2 but i will watch it on sky or hell i might even buy both on dvd i... More


Posted by batrico at 01:59, 22 May 2007 \| Report This Post



Hostel
I just wasn't impressed with this movie at all. Basically it was just annoying. None of the cast really jelled. Indeed, most of the performances were totally unconvincing. I found Roth's previous effort "Cabin Fever" equally unimpressive. The violence in Hostel was laughable. I think Eli Roth is a good bluffer just like his buddy Quentin Tarantino. And that is the problem with Hostel: It's all talk and no action. ... More


Posted by Masterio at 10:26, 19 April 2007 \| Report This Post



RE: Hostel
Absolutely atrocious. There's so many attempts to be "shocking", it's simply boring. Cooooool, they say "fuck" a lot. Coooool, there's some tits. And some more, and some more, . . . Coooool, some unconvincing violence! There's so many "whoops, there go my clothes!" moments mingled with the torture I thought I was watching Robin Askwith in Confessions Of A Sadist Backpacker. I'm bored of 12A so-called horror films too, but just adding nudity, swearing and... More

Posted by Tarbie at 05:50, 28 February 2007 \| Report This Post



RE: Hostel
I agree. if it had just been 2 hours of non-stop torture the inpact would have gone quickly, but Paxton goes from a jock to a well written character and by the end you really want him to escape. I'm not sure what people expect from horrors these days but as PG and 12 certificate horrors and tame lame remakes such as dge]The Fogg hits then obviously people don't like their horrors scary any mroe. L: words I really liked the slow build up in the first half of Hostel, it was intri... More

Posted by goatboythegreat at 13:05, 24 February 2007 \| Report This Post



RE: Hostel
I really liked the slow build up in the first half of Hostel, it was intriguing and made the second half pay off all the better. ... More

Posted by words at 13:03, 24 February 2007 \| Report This Post



RE: Hostel
Man why does everyone have it in for Roth? Most horror films divide opinion but nobody attacks the director, but because Roth likes to talk a lot about movies and is passionate (just like his buddy Tarantino who everyone seems to worship) he is slated. Until you make a film yourself as good as Hostel shut up!!! ... More

Posted by goatboythegreat at 12:46, 24 February 2007 \| Report This Post



RE: Hostel
What the hell is up with this film, Eli Roth just seems to like to hype and then waste our time , dont get me wrong it was fun and twisted as promised but i was watchin the dvd of this with a friend and we just kept asking each other were we watching the wrong film for the first half hour, its just weird and drawn out, and then when to the actual horror the movies nearly over. Thats what I thought anyways. (bit with the eye is still pretty sick though). ... More


Posted by ednamode at 16:44, 22 February 2007 \| Report This Post




Hostel works because the concept is so damn strong ... More


Posted by moviemaniac2 at 17:24, 13 January 2007 \| Report This Post



Too Much Filler
Forty-five minutes of tit-filled waffle followed by the most preposterous set of events yet committed to film. Key moment? The three who just happen to be standing behind the truck. ... More


Posted by Murray at 20:31, 12 December 2006 \| Report This Post



RE: Hostel
scary, scary, BLOODY SCARY. the singing ringing tree was scarier (no hang on, actually that was scarier), i mean, postman pat was scarier, with his dead eyes and his, rather sweet, yet chilling black and white cat. and what about ted glen, he was the handyman from hell, he could mend anything, it's voodoo i tell ya. postman pat the spawn of satan, though most of us now him by another name, fireman sam. ... More


Posted by Evil.Groovy.Ash at 03:06, 16 November 2006 \| Report This Post



RE: Finger licking good
I was expecting so much from this, but again it proved that Eli Roth is all mouth and no trousers. The gore was quite tame by today's standards and the violence was just gratuitous but not shocking in the slightest. Even the eye scene left me bored. There was no tension at all, and by the end of it you just didn't care what happened or why. Roth should stick to promoting films, not making them. ... More


Posted by tbird at 15:07, 13 November 2006 \| Report This Post



some people don't get it
Seeing as it's Halloween, I thought I'd review this. I watched it again last night and I still love it. Yes the first half is gratuitous boob footage but that's part of the genre. This film sets out to be gross and gratuitous and offensive in every way and succeeds gloriously. I've had to turn this off for people watching it in my house. Either you understand this type of movie or you don't. It's supposed to offend.The second half of the movie is seriously disgusting although for me the enduring... More


Posted by emmylou at 14:38, 31 October 2006 \| Report This Post



RE: Finger licking good
just watched it now and its a complete pile of cack. the blonde girl eith the tits could have just stood there and the caera been on her for te hour and it is GUARANTEED that the film would be better. it was all just very very very pointless, the whole idea made no sense. roth is a stupid hack. yes, even uwe boll is better. the idea of the victim becoming like his torturer to exact revenge is plausable, but the way in which roth went about it was pretty crap. the only good... More

Posted by kumar at 19:51, 28 October 2006 \| Report This Post



Utter shite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If I could do half a star i would. The only reason the piece of crapwas given some much hype is Tarantino's name attached. Eli Roth's scripts are utter shite and he should stick to making movies about fruit! Some terrible acting and everything was wrapped up in the last 10 minutes making sure nobody was foregotten, please! A bad, bad wanbe director! Did I say it was shit! ... More


Posted by coppers at 23:51, 28 September 2006 \| Report This Post




It was quite a good film, the gore didnt really affect me, except for one scene....the achilles scene = omg!!!! Makes me cringe everytime, anyway good film better than I expected!!! ... More


Posted by Hutchins11 at 17:55, 06 September 2006 \| Report This Post



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HostelEli Roth gives you a reason to reconsider your gap year party plans.

Hostel
Eli Roth gives you a reason to reconsider your gap year party plans.