Warning: This Review contains some spoilers. I will try and keep them to a minimum, but the majority of the spoilers are at the beginning of the film.
Hostel Part II takes place only moments after the first film - a survivor's life is still at stake even outside of the dilaptated building that was to be his final place of life, and outside of the city of Slovakia, where apparently anything goes.
The feeling that I got from Hostel Part II is that it's not a location in a building that is the bad place; it's the center of a human or several humans, corrupted by money who find people who have a lot of money who are corrupted by hate. This film focus more so on the would-be killers themselves, on their lives, their families, and their golf-swing. They are not all bottom-feeders without passion and a place in society, but upper crest, high-powered lawyers and top positioned businessmen with top-tear roles in society and the top of the line PDAs to boot.
While in the first film we are left to wonder who these people are. Who would do such a thing? Why are they doing it and who organized it?, etc. We are shown almost everything there is to know about the goings-on in this underground business deal. That’s precisely what it is – a business deal, done in auction form. It’s eerily creepy to think it would be so easy to do, as shown in a hilarious montage with the would-be buyers happily and then aggressively plucking away at the keys on their computers, PDAs, cellular phones and laptops, to enter into the bidding war for a human life. The two main successful buyers are Todd played by Richard Burgi, an in-shape, take life by the horns successful business man who treats himself and his shy and passive best friend Stuart, Roger Bart, to the most shocking of a “guys night out.” It’s implied as if these friends have roved the world in search of the next big thrill and have spoken of each other’s desire to kill. It just so happens that one finally took the initiative and did it. While my short description of these two fine young gentlemen may not be all that flattering, I can assure you that they are made likeable. Well, as likeable as possible.
There are also the would-be victims. Similar to the backpackers we grew to love in the first installment of Hostel, three college age fresh faced Americans are visiting European countries but for a more admirable reason this time, for art! That's about where the complexity and character back-story ends but its okay. We want to get attached to the characters, but not all the much, right? I mean, they are inevitably going to die or at least be mangled. We want to feel compassion for the characters - at first but be able to move on the next scene as well. The three women are all studying abroad for art, Lauren German plays Beth, the starlet of the film – she comes from a rich line but does not throw that in anyone’s face. There’s also the atypical sexified Girls-Gone-Wild based Whitney, played by Bijou Philips and the shy and sweet Lorna – a girl who just wants to be loved, played by Heather Matarazzo.
With the persuasion of an art-model in Axelle, Vera Jordnova, who may have a thing for Beth, the girls take a detour from their original trip to you guessed it – Slovakia. And then the fun begins.
Is this film a sequel? I’d say no, it’s more of further installment in a potentially never-ending series. I enjoyed the film’s slick style in its no holds barred violence against anyone, at any age. It’s inventive carnage, shown in various previously unimaginable ways. It is literally shocking the ways some of these people are tortured. There are some ways I was just perplexed by. This may sound weird, but there is a sort of art to how Eli Roth stages the grisly deaths in these films, most notably the one in which, over a bathtub, blood is seen dripping and sloshing down onto an eager women’s body. It’s disturbing and hard to try and get into the person’s mindset. While not followed by an immediate death scene, the hot springs scene looks great – the smokey water showing the never-ending water. It’s really breathtaking.
I enjoyed the film from start to finish. For a horror film, the acting was actually pretty good, the film was shot well, and the scenes were staged as good as you could hope for. If you liked the first movie, I think you would like this one even more, if you couldn’t stand the first’s gore amount, than this may not be the movie for you.
Bring the kids! “Bubble gum!”
3/4 – B
I hope you enjoyed my review - I'm open to critism and love!
Ryan Anderson
