Eli Roth's "Hostel"

Cafe Society
1

I went to see Eli Roth’s “Hostel” a couple of days ago; thought it would be a nice flick to take my girfriend to. I was actually looking forward to it somewhat, having heard that it was the “scariest American movie in a decade”. Saying I was hugely disappointed would be an epic understatement: the acting is bad (which was expected, but… sheesh!), the plot is just stupid (again… not unexpected but the sheer level of stupidity blew me away) and the suspense is absolutely nonexistent.

There is a difference between a “Horror Movie” and a “Splatter B-movie” and “Hostel” has much more in common with “Cannibal Holocaust” than, say, “What Lies Beneath”. Strangely, a lot of potentially gory scenes were surprisingly clean to begin with but it seems that as the script progressed, the writers realised there was absolutely nothing interesting in the film and threw in an orgy of blood, bones, vomit and puss to cover the last half hour. None of which i found terribly impressive, mind you.

I wasn’t expecting much from Eli Roth but what suprises me the most is why Tarantino would want his name associated with this waste of a film in any way; I suppose he may be a fan of old gore movies but if this was supposed to capture their spirit, it failed miserably, IMHO.

So… anyone else seen it? Liked it, perhaps?

I don’t know what more i can add here without spoiling the movie for someone else but I’d be interested to hear what you fine people thought of this …movie.

2

I liked it, despite myself. I knew exactly what to expect from Eli Roth. All right, there was a bit too much nudity for my liking (because they shot in Eastern Europe, according to Eli Roth), but it is what it is: An old school teen horror with juvenile comedy and LOTS of gore. I’d hate for anyone to go in thinking it’s going to be anything but.
I liked Hernandez and I thought the premise was novel. I found it more gross/exciting than horrifying, but what can you do?
As for Tarantino’s involvement, well, there was a dash of Kill Bill-style revenge at some point, so there’s that. Maybe being with Roth makes him feel young. Who knows?

3

If I’d rented it not having heard anything about it I might’ve liked it a bit more. As it was, it was just way overhyped. My wife and I bought into that “scariest American movie in a decade” line too and went to see it opening night.

Since the majority of the movie was crap, I’ll point out a few things I thought were good (shorter list.)

Here be spoilers…

-The two leads did a good job conveying fear/pain/panic in the torture scenes. They weren’t great actors but damn they knew how to scream.

-Takashi Miike’s cameo was cool. Probably the only creepy part of the movie.

-I liked how the victim got away for once. I’m sick to death of Texas Chainsaw Massacre ripoffs where EVERYONE dies and I was going to walk out of the theatre if he got recaptured after getting away.

4

Wow, not exactly a “date” movie, huh? At any rate, i think the extreme amounts of nudity in the first half of the movie became a bit tiresome, but I enjoyed it once things started to pick up. I think the marketing hype of considering it the “scariest movie ever” is a bit much though, although the cringe-factor of some scenes were quite good. The gore reminded me quite a bit of Haute Tension/Switchblade Romance, where the sound effects matched the on-screen images perfectly. I was relieved to find that like his other movie, there weren’t any gimmicks/predictable plot twists near the end. Eli Roth seems a whole lot more promising at this point than someone like Wes Craven, who evidently likes to plaster his name on awful horror movies.

5

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[li]Eli Roth is hot.[/li][li]Cabin Fever was hi. Larry. Us.[/li][/ul]

6

I have to say:

About the “warning” that Quentin Tarantino has been putting about:

(Which also preceeds the trailers.)

This is not something that a sophisticated moviegoer (or, in this case, obsessive film-dork) would ever think was being applied to “the scariest American movie in a decade.”

Come on. This is a reference to the celebrated promotion of William Castle’s The Tingler. No way is that said without a wink.

You hear that, you go into the theatre expecting enough cheese to block you up for a week. You anticipate enough irony to seriously harm a child. You know that what you’re going to witness contains more corn than Uncle Jed’s midnight mash.

In combination with Tarantino’s attachment, I’ve been expecting a movie lovingly stuffed full of B horror cliches.

One that I’ll eventually watch on DVD, after it finds its way out of the “New Releases” section. :smiley:

7

Is that a joke? Seriously.

I mean, I can’t think of a worse flick to take a girl to.

Watching naked teen age girls coupled with gore is the kind of thing you DON’T want your girlfriend to think you enjoy.

8

Unfortunately, it’s true. During the intial screenings at a film festival, they had to call in two ambulances. I think the more accurate :dubious: is either what the hell kind of reviewers do they have at the film festivals that shlock like this causes them shortness of breath/chest pains, or were the folks faking it so they could say later “Damn! I had to be carted out in an ambulance it was so creepy!” to make a big name for themselves.

9

Unless she has the same taste in gory movies. Which might creep me out.

10

Or, were they just studio plants. . .

11

I actually think that the original ending was exactly like that; they changed it, obviously.

Why not? Gratuitous nudity was a given… she’s a woman (albeit a fairly young one), not a child! What had started picking up when you started enjoying the nudity, by the way? :stuck_out_tongue:

Again, what’s the deal? I am a 26-year-old man; you honestly think my girlfriend didn’t have an inkling of a suggestion of a feeling that I might enjoy gore and naked women?

Although, to be fair, she was fairly shaken after the movie. I probably shouldn’t have added to that with my talk about how killing young asian women is much more fun with a bicycle chain… women–even my girlfriend–don’t seem to have much of a sense of humour for these things.

No… friggin’… way. It’s just a movie, dude.

At any rate, I think you fine people may be misunderstanding me ever so slightly (yup, the old Alde defense). I’m not saying the movie can’t be enjoyed and I am actually something of a gore-fan. I was not, in any way, grossed out by the movie nor was I offended by the awful, awful selection of plastic on display (I’ve seen my share of eastern European breasts, all of whom were considerably more pleasing, aesthetically, than those in Hostel). It’s just that I was expecting a horror movie.

Horror, in the sense of “a painful and intense fear, dread, or dismay”, is not what Hostel was written to induce. Being scared and being grossed-out is not the same thing; it’s like comparing Eartha Kitt to Tubgirl (if you don’t know either of these women, please don’t Google them. Just …don’t). This is actually a symptom of the modern horror movie; the gross-out factor has long ago eclipsed any suggestions of creative horror writing. Marketing a gore-flick as a horror movie is roughly as pertinent as marketing Rocco Siffredi’s True Anal Stories XXI as gentle eroticism, basically.

What I did like about this movie:

-The guy with the doctor’s mask and chainsaw. He actually looked like someone out of a horror movie and his mere presence was a little disturbing.

-The fact that the guy who died first died first. Although it was blatantly obvious who the first victim would be from the get-go, seeing him go was a huge relief.

Sorry, i thought I could muster up something of a list but that’s all I can think of at the moment.

12

i honestly NEVER expect to be scared by a “horror” movie… i laughed my way through “exorcisim of emily rose” and most of the other movies my wife and her friends seem to freak out during. Maybe i should introduce them to the guinea pig series?

13

Somewhere Opal is waiting for the phone to ring.

14

Crap, you’re right! I’m not entirely sure how this works… should I extend a “hi” beforehand?

pope_hentai, I was not aware of the guinea pig series but now that I am, I just think I might go a-searching for some of these movies. Looks ideal for a cozy movie night in with my gf. I wonder what kind of snacks would be appropriate, though.

The first two movies I watched with my gf were Cannibal, the Musical (which I am seriously considering setting up here as a bone fide musical; translations are underway) and Eraserhead. After the Cronenberg collection and Cannibal Holocaust, I’m running out of ways to freak her out. Poor little thing… :smiley:

There really aren’t all that many Cannibalism-related movies on my favourites list… I’m not as Albert Fishy as I may seem.

15

I just saw it tonight, and it was I donno, good enough. nothing revolutionary, but sufficiently entertaining that I didn’t leave pissed or wishing I’d rented it. there were enough scenes where I was howling with discomfort to make it worth my time.

though, I thought it’d be gorier than it was. for some reason I really pictured some nasty shit going on. and there was nasty shit, but I thought it was gonna be like, skinning people and ripping lips off with pliers. I also thought it’d be pretty suspenseful, but it wasn’t really at all.

and holy shit, Cisco, I had no idea that was Takashi Miike. that’s fucking sweet.

16

Things that are asserted to be “true” in the course of a film’s promotion are not necessarily true.

I was wrong about The Tingler, though – it was another great Vincent Price movie, The House on Haunted Hill. Promotional material for the movie famously advised theatre owners “Park an ambulance in front of your theater,” and “Have a uniformed nurse in the lobby to distribute ‘tranquilizer’ pills.” And they did.

It’s a wheeze. “You can find the ambulance receipt out there or something.” Right. Of course, we can’t find anyone complaining about them exploiting their misfortune, or anything. :smiley:

17

I dunno … it’s kind of refreshing when a list is Opal-less.

18

I saw this last night, and thought it fell well short of what it could have been. I thought the most disturbing scenes in the movie were those that gave us a glimpse into the minds of the warehouse’s “customers,” and the movie could have been a lot scarier if it had focused more on them than on the victims.

On another note, does anyone know of a website that gives translations of the non-English parts of the movie? I am particularly interested to know what Jay Hernandez says (in German) to his captor while he’s in the chair.