Hostel (2005) review – Shallow, nasty, and surprisingly effective

Welcome to Knockout Horror. I hope you guys are ready for a lot of blood, guts, and violence. Today, I decided to revisit a movie I haven’t actually watched since it first released all the way back in 2005 – Eli Roth’s Hostel.

A New Wave of Brutality

Torture-porn, or Gorno, was a horror sub-genre that gained an immense amount of popularity back in the mid-2000s. Movies that fell under this umbrella featured scenes that were utterly indulgent in the many different ways one can portray violence and bodily torment.

“If Saw laid the foundation for gorno, Hostel built the house, installed the fittings, filled it with furniture, and invited it’s demented friends over for a party.”

Much like France’s New French Extremity craze that co-evolved during the same period. These movies were tough to watch, frequently brutal, and typically blurred the lines between entertainment and masochism. It wasn’t uncommon to see long drawn out sequences of torture with minimal plot. Special effects artists were king and the entire aim of the film was to create as much controversy as possible.

Gorno’s success can largely be attributed to the release of a couple of films. One was 2004’s Saw and the other is the title we are looking at in this review – Hostel. This was Eli Roth’s sophomore effort after the mild success of 2002’s body-horror Cabin Fever. While that film was disgusting and skin crawling in its own right, Roth wanted to leave viewers feeling positively repulsed with this movie.

The flesh eating virus was gone; the threat here was entirely more terrifying and entirely more human. It consisted of sadistic mega-rich business men tormenting and murdering the poor for their own sick pleasure. In the process, it placed the viewer as a fly on the wall to this perverse mega-violence.

If Saw laid the foundation for gorno, Hostel built the house, installed the fittings, filled it with furniture, and invited it’s demented friends over for a party.

A hedonistic holiday gone wrong

Hostel’s story is pretty simple. A pair of American friends, Paxton (Jay Hernandez) and Josh (Derek Richardson), head to Europe for a backpacking trip. While there, they team up with an Icelandic man named Oli (Eythor Gudjonsson).

Together, the three head to Amsterdam for a weekend of extra-curricular activity. After meeting a man who tells them about a hedonistic Slovakian city, the group make it their next stop, little realising the horror that awaits them there.

It’s a simple setup but there’s a good reason for that. This is a movie that doesn’t need to tell a story to get to the juicy stuff. And by juicy stuff, we mean everything that could possibly be considered edgy or controversial back at that time. This is a movie packed with drugs, sex, copious amounts of nudity, and a ton of violence. Hostel is as hedonistic as the events the movie portrays.

With this in mind, it’s a tale of two halves. The first 40 minutes, or so, focus more on the carnal elements of the story. Our protagonists are horny as hell and, apparently, so was Eli Roth. Rarely do you see such frequent nudity in horror. Every other scene features numerous naked women, sexual encounters, or one of the main characters dropping their pants.

Modern horror, particularly where America is concerned, is rather timid when it comes to almost any kind of nudity. Well, outside of random dick shots and naked elderly people used for shock value that is. It’s quite jarring to see the difference in a movie that is only 20 years old. It acts almost as a diversion to make sure you are properly off base for what is about to come.

Earning its reputation for blood and guts

When the violence starts, it is viciously brutal. Surprisingly, Roth demonstrates a measure of restraint by keeping some (but only some) of the more graphic moments off screen. The results are always given centre stage, though, and this is where Hostel really earns its keep. Some of the scenes here are still wince inducing to this day.

“Toes are snipped off, eyes are pulled out, extra cavities are drilled in torsos, and ball gags are puked on repeatedly. It’s legitimately pretty nasty at multiple points.”

I won’t spoil anything for those who haven’t watched but it is easy to see why this movie developed a reputation as a bit of a video nasty. It’s hard to justify much of what takes place outside of it just being ruthlessly indulgent in suffering. Toes are snipped off, eyes are pulled out, extra cavities are drilled in torsos, and ball gags are puked on repeatedly. It’s legitimately pretty nasty at multiple points.

Graphic injuries are displayed with a specific type of masochistic glee that would become the hallmark of Gorno. Special effects are brutally realistic and no expense was spared when it comes to detail. If the copious amounts of nudity were a representation of hedonism and carnal indulgence. The violence is a grizzly display of the after effects of pursuing such reckless behaviour.

This was all by design, of course. Roth wanted to recreate the most graphic and hideous thing that he could find on the darkest realms of the internet. In this case, an advertisement for a holiday in Thailand where customers could pay money to shoot a person dead. To be perfectly honest, he succeeded. Hostel still holds up when it comes to violence and brutality.

Shallow, nasty, and surprisingly effective

I wasn’t a huge fan of this movie when it released. It was massively hyped and I honestly found it to be a bit lacking. On a re-watch, it surprised me because it actually holds up a bit better than I thought. The first half serves as little more than a vehicle for what’s about to happen later but that’s not a huge problem.

The humour, frat-boy antics, and devotion to removing the clothes from female cast members will probably keep a lot of viewers happy. After all, there is a certain type of horror fan that Hostel is aimed at and a reason it tries to tick all of these boxes. The second half is ridiculously shallow in terms of story but delivers on sheer nastiness.

Needless to say, if you are here for violence and gore, you will find plenty to enjoy. The last twenty minutes are actually pretty well executed. There’s a tense escape sequence that takes place over the course of 20 minutes or so and it works really well. The director’s cut features a more interesting ending and there are a few moments that are definitely entertaining.

The good, the bad, and the gory

Performances are absolutely fine and the movie is so ridiculously over-the-top that it is pretty easy to enjoy. There’s something weird about this era of horror. These movies feel like budget releases but they hold up well. They were daring enough to not try and have a message and, instead, be completely content with just carnage and violence. It’s kind of refreshing for some weird reason.

Obviously, there are issues. Some people are going to find the nudity and sexual content too much. It’s shoehorned in at every turn and if it doesn’t make you laugh it will probably make you groan. There’s no story to speak of outside of one that hints at the mega-wealthy’s abuse of the poor. Some might find themselves yearning for something a bit deeper.

“There’s something weird about this era of horror… They were daring enough to not try and have a message and, instead, be completely content with just carnage and violence.”

Hostel doesn’t exactly paint a great picture of some parts of Europe. Sure, Roth was trying to point out how oblivious Americans can be to other cultures but it doesn’t always come across like that. It should also be pointed out that this movie features violence that is spiteful, needless, excessive, and gruesome, therefore hard to justify. It’s called torture-porn for a reason and some will despise that.

Our Scoring Philosophy: A Fair Fight

Horror is a genre that thrives thanks to indie film makers and low budget creators. At Knockout Horror, we firmly believe that every movie that we review deserves a fair fight. That's why we grade on a curve. Our star ratings are all about context, judging a film on what it achieves with the resources it has.

A 4-star rating for a scrappy indie horror made for $10,000 is a testament to its ingenuity and raw power. A 4-star rating for a $100 million blockbuster means it delivered on its epic promises. We don't compare them side-by-side; we celebrate success in every weight class, from the back-alley brawler to the heavyweight champion. Please keep this in mind when considering star ratings.

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