Hostel (2005)

I've really been on a "blood" kick as of late. Give me dismemberment and splatters, make me squirm. After watching Hostel I think my bloodlust might finally be satisfied.

The story is typically thin: two American students and one Icelandic tag-along are backpacking across Europe when they discover a hostel filled mostly with beautiful Slovokian women — aka heaven — but their dream becomes a nightmare when they are picked off one-by-one and tortured to death. At first I was convinced the plot was just filler, but I think the director (Eli Roth, aka the Bear Jew from Inglorious Basterds) did a great job of capturing the isolation of American tourists trapped in a nightmare so very far away from home.

Like Saw before it, Hostel fits into the genre of torture porn, and for a good hour into the movie I was mainly annoyed. You can only watch so many scenes of people getting dismembered before it starts to become sickening. It happened a bit late but when the tables turned and the terror of torture relaxed its grip ever so slightly, I was on the edge of my seat shouting at the television and throwing my fists into the air.

Let's be clear: Hostel would be a very difficult movie to watch if you have a high sensitivity to realistic gore. Eli Roth had a simple mission: to make the viewer as uncomfortable as possible. He succeeded. But I recommend this movie because it transcends its main objective and leaves you clapping in disgust and triumph when the credits roll.