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Hostel 1 & 2 Box Set[2005]


RRP: £24.99
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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk

Hostel

Well made for the genre (the excessive-skin-displayed-before-gruesome-bloody-torture-begins genre, that is) Hostel follows two randy Americans (Jay Hernandez, Friday Night Lights, and Derek Richardson, Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd) and an even randier Icelander (Eythor Gudjonsson) as they trek to Slovakia, where they're told beautiful girls will have sex with anyone with an American accent. Unfortunately, the girls will also sell young Americans to a company that offers victims to anyone who will pay to torture and murder.

To his credit, writer/director Eli Roth (Cabin Fever) takes his time setting things up, laying a realistic foundation that makes the inevitable spilling of much blood all the more gruesome. The sardonic joke, of course, is that Americans are worth the most in this brothel of blood because everyone else in the world wants to take revenge upon them. This dark humour and political subtext help set Hostel above its more brainless sadistic compatriots, like House of Wax or The Devil's Rejects. In general, though, there's something lacking; horror used to suggest some threat to the spirit--today's horror can conceive of nothing more troubling than torturing the flesh. For afficionados, Hostel features a nice cameo by Takashi Miike, director of bloody Japanese flicks like Audition and Ichi the Killer. --Bret Fetzer



So this is what we've come to?
Review date: 2008-11-29 Rating: 2 out of 10

When I was a teenager I managed to get my hands on four films that were at the time on the BBFC's list of so called "video nasties". I won't list what those films were but I can tell you that 3 of them have since been broadcast on mainstream terrestrial TV and the 4th has also been shown on cable, all entirely uncut.

I wish I hadn't bothered though.

Each one of those films involved the rape, humiliation and torture of women entirely for the sake of it and apart from being appallingly badly made, they all left me feeling that the BBFC might have had a point.

I blame Mary Whitehouse for this and would never suggest films be banned but instead ensure that people are fully educated as to their content, allowing adult people to be treated like adults and make their own minds up. Had I known what the subject matter of these films was rather than being seduced by the idea of getting my hands on something illicit then I'd not have watched them.

With Hostel and it's sequel however, I had another problem arise: some adults can't be trusted with their opinions.

So I was in the pub one day discussing with a friend the movie 'Saw' which I had seen the previous evening and was singing its praises. I loved the fact that it was a twisty turny thriller with so many skilfully designed set pieces that I felt even Alfred Hitchcock would have been pleased with the results. Sure we discussed some of the more brutal aspects of the violence too, you can't fail to miss it in a film like that. But that was not what the film is all about and it was most certainly NOT what made it good, it just happens to be a device ('scuse the pun) within the film only.

But a chap standing some way off from my friend and myself at that bar had overheard this conversation and chirpily piped up with "If you liked Saw, you'll LOVE Hostel and Hostel 2." I never did see that fella again so here is my chance to put him right.

Hostel is torture porn, pure and simple. There is no plot other than to drive the audience to the torture scenes which are designed entirely to titillate those people who enjoy that sort of thing. This is proven by the initial sex scenes, added in order to set the viewer up for the more lurid excitement they can expect later on in the movie.

To compare these films to 'Saw' would be like comparing Mary Poppins to Fatal Attraction purely because they both involve an outsider woman entering a cosy family home.

I'm not naive either. I'm aware that this sort of thing may possibly be going on in the world somewhere and I won't bury my head in the sand and pretend it doesn't. But if it needs highlighting then does it have to be for the sake of it?

It may well be that you can point out the frighteningly subtle socio-political statement embedded within these movies to me that I have failed to spot which both explains and justifies the deeds taking place AND the keen interest of some movie watchers to see what happens next. Whereby I will change my opinion of these films.

But until someone does I will continue to be sickened that people can view these films as entertainment.

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Reviews


1 star for Hostel 2
Review date: 2008-11-10 Rating: 2 out of 10

Hostel 1 = this movie received a lot of press before its release. I watched it in the cinema, and now I realise that all the shameless plugging of this mindless drivel such as this movie, is a marketing (business) ploy.

For example Quentin Tarrantino and his studio (Miramax) are calling the director Eli Roth (Cabin Fever & Hostel) the new Hollywood wunderkind.
This is true, of course.

He can certainly make extremely bad movies, and he is good at it!!!!! Some wunderkid

HOSTEL is a movie of two halves. During the first half we follow a group of American backpackers around Amsterdam's Red light district.
And then, during the second part of the movie, the boys happen upon a sick racket that offers victims for torture and murder to those with enough money !!!!

There is little tension in the first part of the movie.
Much of what follows consists of the squirm-inducing horrors that have been stolen from the great horror movie- SAW.
The ending of HOSTEL is pretty good, but much needed.
Also, as a viewer you will probably need a high tolerance for the word "Dude", which is used distressingly frequently. This is a celluloid abortion.

Superb
Review date: 2008-06-05 Rating: 10 out of 10

Serioulsy folks, Hostel 1 and 2 are both fantastic. If you like horror and gore and gruesome stuff, this is for you. It is such a brilliant story and everything about both films; the effects, the acting and script etc....are all excellent. Hostel 2 continues straight away from the 1st film and not a lot of sequels do this, which i was pleased about. I don't wnat to tell you anymore as I dont want to spoil the plot. You must see these films, they are great and in my top 10 of best films of all time. I hope they make a third.

And The One Star Is For Hostel 2
Review date: 2008-02-15 Rating: 2 out of 10

Director Eli Roth who made the dreadful Cabin Fever hits the jackpot with these two pieces of garbage masquerading as Horror.

In Hostel three male backpackers travelling around Europe are seduced to Slovakia on the promise of hot women only to find themselves victims of a torture factory where wealthy men and women can murder them in any way they wish for a price.

In Hostel 2 same story just substitute girls for boys with slicker production values and more backstory for the torturers, two of which are graced with a sports style montage before going into "kill mode"(I kid you not).

Decent production values are left marooned by cardboard characters,woeful performances(admittedly you care more about the girls than the boys),laughable villains(admittedly there are some I wouldn't want to meet on a dark night but isn't that the point?) and in both films we see a gang of feral children who are portrayed as something akin to a cross between the Bash Street Kids and homicidal dwarfs on speed and I never saw the Bash Street kicking round a severed head and the plot twists you could drive a bus through(on Hostel's extras there is an alternative ending that if it had been used would have sent the film into the realms of comedy).

Very gruesome in places although again Roth pulls his punches by having some of the key moments off camera,the basic failing of these Two films and emblematic of Roth's career to date is they are just Not SCARY!!!.
Until he can achieve a balance between depravity,scares and sympathetic protagonists(yes you really do have to care whether they survive or not),Roth will remain exactly where he is ...a purveyor of glossy trash for the undemanding.

Giving these films 5 stars(as a previous"film reviewer"did)is akin to saying that Vinnie Jones was the most technically gifted midfielder of his generation.Both assertions are nonsense and if you really think that these two films are at the cutting edge of horror,before you post your disagreement think about this list
Whip and the Body(Bava at his best)
Suspiria(delirious and frightening)
Halloween(the ultimate slasher film)
Hills Have Eyes(the original superbly unsettling and the remake's not bad either)
and if you don't think that the opening sequence in Wes Craven's Scream isn't hands down more frightening than anything in these two films then post away because you are an idiot.



Buckets Of Blood. Tons Of Torture. An Epic Boxset.
Review date: 2007-10-29 Rating: 10 out of 10

As a film reviewer, I've never really understood why so many people hate the 'Hostel' franchise. I can understand that people may find it disturbing and that it is very twisted in many ways but I can't get my head around why they are 'bad' films?

They are great films in my opnion, you know you are watching a good film when you feel shudders run down your spine, you know your watching a good film when you look around every corner to see if someone's there, you know you are watching a good film when you feel so involved in the film's element and you can't escape from it, that is what these films do fantastically.
Eli Roth has totally redeemed himself with these two diamonds after his first motion picture, 'Cabin Fever' which was without a doubt, the poorest and most terrible excuse of a 'Teen Horror' I think I have ever seen.

These two films are an essential to anyone's DVD collection and this boxset is a fantastic price. These are two ideal films to watch over this Halloween period.

Before you start thinking that I believe hours of mindless violence makes a film good(which it doesn't on any terms), if you haven't seen either of the 'Hostel' films, watch them and see for yourself.
They are an acquired in all respect but they are thoroughly enjoyable and take a step away from violence in reality for a while.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Jay Hernandez

Creators:
Jay Hernandez (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
EAN: 5035822656215
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 2
Format: Anamorphic, Box set, PAL,
Release date: 2007-10-22
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 180 minutes
Language: English (Original Language)

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