A Lions Gate Films Release
Story - $10.75
Acting - $10.75
Directing - $10.75
Production Design - $10.75
Special Effects - $10.75
Score/Music - $10.75
*"REEL" VALUE - $10.75 = HOSTEL does for European vacations what “Jaws” did for a day at the beach.
SYNOPSIS: Paxton (HERNANDEZ) and Josh (RICHARDSON) are two adventurous American college buddies backpacking through Europe. The heart of their travel plans is to make quintessentially hazy travel memories with their new friend Oli (GUDJONSSON), an uninhibited Icelander they’ve met along the way.
A late night encounter with a fellow traveler who describes this nirvana for American backpackers leads the trio on a quest to find this particular hostel in an out-of-the-way Slovakian town stocked with Eastern European women as desperate as they are gorgeous. Shortly after arriving Paxton and Josh pair off with exotic beauties Natalya (NEDELJAKOVA ) and Svetlana (KADERABKOVÁ).
Distracted by their good time, the Americans quickly find themselves trapped in a dreadful situation that transcends the sickest recess of human nature itself.
REVIEW: Macbeth, Hamlet, Julies Caesar, or any of the Shakespeare tragedies, are, to this day, extremely ghastly and horrifying! Hitchcock, De Palmer, Lynch, and Hooper masters of psychologically manipulating the audience and took suspense and terror to new extremes in the cinema. In that tradition, Eli Roth’s HOSTEL is truly as sophisticated in its narrative as its visuals are bone-chilling terrifying, and it all comes together to bring the nightmare home.
Inspired by a website he was shown where people were supposedly selling themselves to be killed somewhere is South East Asia, Eli Roth’s HOSTEL has this feel of a contemporary Grimm’s Fairytale take pushes the envelope of shock. There are three key elements to the film. First, the first two acts in the film allows use to identify with these characters and become comfortable with them so the third act is more intense. Second, the excellent actors are not the faces you see everyday in the trades so we’re not hung up on celebrity faces and can get involved more with the story. Lastly, these are not stereotypes, and therefore we’re not sitting there thinking about “the rules of a horror film” and who is going to die, and in what order.
At the core of HOSTEL is a plot that is an overtly cautionary tale about not going into the woods. Freud would say that the woods represent our deepest sexual desires, and their quest to find this HOSTEL is all about sex. Are Paxton and Jake the ugly Americans? No! Roth’s characters are two teenage boys driven by hormones and sexual urges. It is through their experience of this nightmare that we catch a glimpse of their true nature. We identify with these young people who are on a vacation looking for a good time. Roth, who’s father is a psychologist, is not just a horror fan but is passionate about the cinema and crafts a film that offers the viewer more than a horror film, if you just take it at face value. In retrospect, the story is as skillfully setup, form beginning to the film’s intense climax, with as much skill and artistry as any of the disturbing graphic special effects sequences. It goes beyond horror, and like any of the works by the artists I mentioned in my opening paragraph, HOSTEL is a vacation to the dark side of humanity and becomes a ghastly descent into shear and utter madness!
I could go on and talk about each of the excellent performances, especially the cameo by Takashi Miike that I loved. I could spend as much time extolling the praises of the production designs and locations. Plus there are the amazing special effects, by the hardest working effects company in the industry, KNB EXF Group, and a wonderful score. Enough! What you need to do is go see this film at a packed screening and enjoy HOSTEL. This is not just the most terrifying American movie in a decade; it’s the most terrifying movie period! Scream in the New Year, HOSTEL earns the FEARSmag.com Scream of Approval!
CREW: Director & Screenplay - Eli Roth; Producers - Mike Fleiss, Eli Roth, & Chris Briggs; Director of Photography- Milan Chadima; Original Music - Nathan Barr; Special Make-up Effects Designed and Created by - Greg Nicotero & Howard Berger, KNB EFX Group, Inc.; Production and Costume Design - Franco-Giacomo Carbone; Visual Effects Supervisor - Miro Gal.
CAST: JAY HERNANDEZ… Paxton; DEREK RICHARDSON… Josh; EYTHOR GUDJONSSON… Oli; JAN VLASÁK… The Dutch Businessman; BARBARA NEDELJAKOVA… Natalya; JANA KADERABKOVÁ… Svetlana; JENNIFER LIM… Kana; Rick Hoffman… The American Client; VLADIMIR SILHAVECKY… Yuri; TAKASHI MIIKE… Miike Takashi; JOSEF BRADNA… Josef Bradna.
* Based on the regular $10.75 ticket prices of a Manhattan theater.
Reviewer: Joseph B. Mauceri
Score:
Related web link: www.hostelfilm.com