Just a couple of days ago, Eli Roth dropped the second trailer to his new movie Death Wish. Yeah, it’s not what Roth is known for but you gotta give the guy points for trying. So this week for our fbf, let’s take a look at the movie he’s most known for: Hostel.
The story is about two Americans, Josh (Derek Richardson) and Paxton (Jay Hernandez), who go backpacking through Amsterdam and realize they’re only doing what Americans usually do while there, which is smoke weed and sleep with prostitutes. So, as they’re locked out of their hotel the two guys and their newfound friend, Oli, get taken in by some stranger who tells them about a place (Prague) where there are hardly any dudes because of the war and the women there are lonely as hell and love an American accent. So the three guys, who like many guys think with the wrong head ,head out to Prague and decide to say hello to said lonely ladies. As they get settle in, Josh, Paxton and Oli walk in on two women changing and are immediately smitten. They all go out to a club and the next morning Josh and Paxton are told Oli has taken off with some girl. Paxton and Josh feel something is wrong and decide it’s time for them to leave too.
As they make plans to leave the beautiful women talk Josh and Paxton into staying one more night. As the night lingers on, Josh gets drugged and wakes up tied to a chair not knowing how the fuck he got there. He then realizes that it’s a torture room and he’s about to get fucked up!
Now not to spoil anything, the movie then goes on with Paxton looking for Josh and also gets caught up in the building that houses the torture rooms. He also has to make an escape and try elude the bodyguards of the torture building.
Now the one thing you gotta give Eli Roth with this film is that he’s not using monsters or aliens to scare the shit out of you with. What he uses is much scarier: a regular person. At one point when Josh is pleading for his life he tries to bribe his torturer into not killing him but the torturer let’s out the twist by saying he’s paying “them” to do this. Very chilling and very scary. You gotta look at the person who sits next to you on the bus, subway or even the person sitting next you at a restaurant, and ask yourself if given the chance would that person be capable of the awful things committed by the villains of this movie. Roth also uses being in a foreign country as a frightening thing as well, you’re not at home, you don’t have the FBI or your government there to protect you. You’re all by yourself with no one to back you up. Not sure about you, but that’s pretty scary too.
Now there are plenty of directors who have a love for the horror genre and really do try with their material, but Roth who had just come off the flesh eating virus movie Cabin Fever, seemed like he had something to say with this movie and doesn’t feel like it’s some throwaway horror movie released throughout the year. The movie even impressed Quentin Tarantino that he was a producer on this movie. You can tell from Roth’s films that his heart is in his movies and he’s not making them just for a paycheck, well maybe Death Wish but hey, sometimes you gotta make one to make sure you pay the rent. Roth took his love for hardcore horror movies like Takeshi Miike’s Audition and made one of his own and the movie does pay off. The gore is there and there is even a scene where a poor girl has to have her eyeball cut out of her face! This one is definitely not for the squeamish or the prudes because there is also a lot of sex and nudity in the first half of the movie.
It’s been 12 years since the movie hit theaters and at one point Eli Roth said he wanted Hostel to be one of those movies that people ask for a good gory horror movie at the local video store and in my opinion Roth has done just that.
Catch Mando on Twitter at @manbat33 when he’s not co-hosting the @TalentedSlacker podcast!