HOSTEL
US, 2005, 93 minutes, Colour.
Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson, Ethor Gudjonsson, Jan Vlasak.
Directed by Eli Roth.
Hostel arrives with severe condemnations as being one of the ugliest, sadistic horror films of recent years. It has also been attacked by the government of Slovakia, where it is set, as giving an awful impression of that country and its people. They are not wrong about that.
But, those of us who see most of the horror films have seen much worse. Rob Zombie’s House of a Thousand Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects were far more explicit and brutal. At least this one has something of a plausible underlying explanation of the horror – the writer-director asserts that he came across a Thai website inviting people to pay money to go and experience killing victims provided by a criminal gang.
More of a difficulty with films like Hostel (and comedies like Eurotrip which it resembles in the first part) is what religious commentators used to refer to as ‘a low moral tone’. This is not the violence and horror. This is rather the presumption that life is meant to be hedonistically self-indulgent, no matter what. The three central characters here are college students and a lecherous type from Iceland descending on Amsterdam, backpacking for ‘a good time’. Within the first twenty minutes, they are seriously stoned, have been desperate to visit a brothel, caused a loud mouthed American brawl and listened to advice about a hostel with girls readily available in Slovakia. These men act like leering adolescents, as if this was how life is to be lived. As heroes of the film, they elicit no empathy. We feel that maybe they should be sliced up sooner rather than later. It is depressing that so many film-makers assume that this is what their audience is like and that this is what they want.
In that context, the torture scenes and the killing are ugly but not as lingered upon as in many others. The violent revenge at the end makes some immediate desperate emotional sense, but…
1.The reputation of the film? Sadistic? Excessive? Horror genre? Backing by Quentin Tarantino? Box office success?
2.The appeal of this kind of film? To horror film buffs? Why? The genre, conventions? The use of conventions? Extremes?
3.The Dutch and Slovak settings? The clubs, hotels, bed and breakfast? The old Slovak town? The warehouse and the dungeons? Musical score?
4.The title, backpackers from the United States, hostels in Europe, bed and breakfast? Their sinister hostel?
5.The picture of Americans backpacking, young, sex obsessed, drinking? An impression of Americans abroad? Josh and Paxton? In Amsterdam, looking for girls? With their friend from Iceland, Oli? Life in Amsterdam? Drugs, women? The promise of the hostel in Slovakia?
6.The train journey, the sinister man on the train, Dutch background, the advance towards Josh? Their moving away – later encountering him, in the dungeons, his participation in the rituals? Paxton seeing him on the train on the return – and the violent revenge?
7.Slovakia, the Slovak government objecting to the portrait of the country? The old town and a historic setting? The hostel? Meeting the women, the easy dates? The disappearance of Oli? His being drugged, taken away, tortured and killed?
8.Life in Slovakia, the hedonism of the Americans? Josh, the girls, his being taken, tortured and killed?
9.Paxton, the same experience? His waking up? His discovering the warehouse with the audience? The tortured men? The sadism and brutality? The different rooms? The threats to himself? The discovery of the company, Elite Hunting? The girls in their employment? Seduction and drugging of foreigners? The homicidal fantasies of the men? Paxton, his reaction, using his wits, violence, his discovering the truth, his escape?
10.On the train, the escape, the Dutchman – and his killing him?
11.Critics criticising the film as wallowing in sadism? The reality of this kind of club – human beings and the sadism and thrill of killing others? Audience response to this kind of story?
