Hostel (2005)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Paxton	Jay Hernandez
Josh	Derek Richardson	½
Oli	Eythor Gudjonsson
Dutch Businessman	Jan Vlasák
Natalya	Barbara Nedeljakova
Svetlana	Jana Kaderabkova
Kana	Jennifer Lim
American Cliant	Rick Hoffman

Review

Having been dubbed "the future of horror" by Quentin Tarantino, Eli Roth embarked on his follow up to his hugely successful Cabin Fever knowing that to shock would be a good idea if he were to enhance his reputation. I might be depicting the young filmmaker as too analytic, but there's no denying that Hostel is at least a wee bit manipulative. But with that said: behind the early, dreary over-focusing on sex (in the usual, ridiculous American manner - do all Americans have a relation to sex as unnatural as these teen-movies suggest?) and behind the over-mystifying build-up (that includes a couple of unconvincing bait beauties), Hostel finally strips down to an extremely interesting investigation of a business that embodies and looks into some very unhealthy tendencies in our world view and human nature. The film uses violence and graphic effects for all they're worth, and encompasses a remarkable technical achievement; there are scenes in here that look more real than you'd want them to. Roth takes hold of your spine and shakes it a bit, but what's best about that is that he doesn't do it just for show, or just because he can - there actually are things to think about buried in the horror. Some sequences are strong - not only on a graphical level, but also implicitly - such as Kana's final scene, or a conversation between Paxton and a German surgeon. Hostel isn't the refined filmatic experience, but it boasts abundances of quality, inspiration and talent.