Teil Zwei

Did anyone see the trailer for Hostel 2. The voice over was all in German. It was bizarre and inexplicable and made me think "what in the name of all is wrong with Eli Roth?" Well, if you are curious as to what Hostel 2 the movie is like, it's bizarre, inexplicable and made me think "what in the name of all is wrong with Eli Roth?" I can probably safely assume the only one who might see this movie is Brad so I won't feel bad about spoilers.

Does anyone even remember Hostel? It followed backpacking male friends who travel to eastern Europe and stay at a hostel where they are essentially provided with free hot prostitutes. Unfortunately for them, it is also a hostel that kidnaps its visitors and allows rich people to torture and kill them. There was gruesome scenes of torture and death and one of the three backpackers manages to escape and kill several of his nemeses. It was exploitive and gruesome and I told myself I would not watch the sequel when they announced it was in production.

So, of course, here I am having seen the sequel. The film picks up with the previous film's hero who now is haunted by his experience and paranoid for his life. In good fashion, he is quickly iced and we move back to Europe to a new cadre of young people. This time we get three women who are convinced to go to a spa in Slovakia. The film attempts to delve deeper into things by showing more of the business end. We see the process of selection and bidding which people from all over the world participate in with the hope of getting to kill and torture. Two American men win two of the girls and head out to participate. They are first timers. One is gung-ho and the other reluctant. Stay with me now, I'm sure this will be important. We also learn that one of the girls (clearly the lead role) is uber rich. (hmm, I wonder if that will be significant?) The girls are taken and the torture begins.

If I had to compliment Eli Roth, I would say he has a lot of style. He also knows how to make an exploitation film. Oh and he is one sick individual. He seems to make these films to discover the creepiest way to kill someone. Is it cathartic? I hope he exercises demons by doing this because otherwise he's just one step from being a weird serial killer. This film gives us a woman who likes to bathe in a shower of blood, a man who eats raw flesh like a steak and plenty of other disgusting scenes.

The gung-ho guy of course chickens out before the actually killing and the reluctant guy becomes psychotic in his lust to suddenly kill. He's also an idiot. When the inevitable turn comes and our heroine one ups the guy, a viewer who wasn't paying attention might think she would escape in similar fashion to the first film's hero. But you would be forgetting her massive bank account. These are business men. She BUYS her freedom and essentially becomes a new member.

If I ever suggest I might see Hostel 3 (I'm sure it will be made), someone please restrain me. Tell me I will regret wasting two hours. Tell me it will be cheap with a cheap end.

As a side note, Bijou Philips was in this film and didn't get naked. I actually was shocked. I thought she had it in her contract that she always got naked. Even if it wasn't supposed to be in the film. Maybe it was on the cutting room floor.