October 10th, 2012: Hostel

 

Hostel is one of those movies that you either love it or hate it.  I think the reason I like this movie is because it was one of the first "torture porn" horror films to come out before the Saw sequels ruined everything.  I am a fan of Saw 1-3 but after that I felt like they were ruining the horror genre.  There's a difference between feeling frightened and completely grossed out.

I saw Hostel opening night with a friend and when we got out of the movie I remember the exact discussion.  The easiest way to describe this film is comparing it to the ride Splash Mountain at Magic Kingdom in Disney World.  It starts out as almost like a college road trip comedy.  There's a lot of great laughs and you almost forget that you're watching a horror movie.

So when you're on the ride Splash Mountain, you start out having a good time riding in a log.  There's all these happy creatures smiling, singing, dancing, and then all of a sudden... things aren't what they seem.  After a few drops in the dark, you approach the climactic 53-foot drop into a briar patch.  That is Hostel in a nutshell.

I feel like writer/director Eli Roth often gets overlooked.  Sure, he only has a few movies but each one perfects the teen/college horror formula found in the late '70s and early '80s, as well as the splatter trend in the 2000's.  It has drinking, drugs, sex, and an original plot to supply the enormous amounts of gore.

Even though the film takes place near Bratislava, Slovakia, none of the footage was shot there.  Instead they shot on location in Prague, Czech Republic for the majority of the scenes.  The crew also used a studio, but it was only used for the torture rooms.

ROTTEN TOMATOES RATING: 59%

When the film was released, Roth received several complaints from officials of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.  They felt they way movie portrayed their countries was disgusting and feared that no one would want to visit, questioning their safety.  The tourists board of Slovakia ended up inviting Roth to visit their country and covering all expenses just to show him that it isn't terrible like he made it out to be.

Eli Roth responded to these countries by explaining that he did not intend to offend anyone; the message he was trying to deliver was to show Americans how ignorant they can be of what goes on around the world.  He also mentioned that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre spawned several sequels, yet people still visit Texas.   

-Colby.