HOSTEL | HOSTEL: PART II [welcome to heck]

HOSTEL \| HOSTEL: PART II [welcome to heck] H O S T E L a n d H O S T E L : P A R T I I

H O S T E L SYNOPSIS Three college bros hit up Slovakia to exploit economic inequality and pick up women - unaware that sometimes, in Eastern Europe, the local economy exploits you. OPINION Unfairly lumped in with exploitative nonsense like Saw or The Human Centipede - the phrase "torture porn" was literally coined by critic David Edelstein in reference to it - Hostel is so much more than a label like that could ever imply. (Even Edelstein was forced to concede (disdainfully) that it is "actually not a bad little thriller".) Despite a run-of-the-mill "here are some minor a-holes who you can tolerate but not mind when they die" set-up, once the primary setpiece of the film begins, it hits with a sustained nightmare intensity. That's the specific thing I think, when I watch Hostel: "I've had nightmares that felt like this." There is a sustained, animalistic power to the images and the pace of the editing that no other horror film has. (Even the sequel is more interested in going somewhere narratively than transcending the material.) If you haven't seen Hostel, then you've never seen anything like Hostel. CAST + CREW Director: Eli Roth (Knock Knock, The Green Inferno) Cast: Jay Hernandez (A Bad Moms Christmas, Suicide Squad) Derek Richardson (Dumb and Dumberer, Prep and Landing) Takashi Miike (Last Life in the Universe, Animal Crossing: The Movie) CONTENT (spoilered; highlight for warnings) violence against women, homophobia, exploitation of sex workers, restraint and torture, eye violence, dismemberment, decapitation CAREER STATS [on a scale from 1 (least) to 10 (most)] FUN: 3 Please do not enjoy this movie, for my sake. SCARINESS: 9 If a panic reaction counts as scary... I hyperventilated. INTENSITY: 10 An unrelenting last half-hour. There is no respite. RECOMMENDABILITY: 3 Do you want to get punched in the face after a long workday?

H O S T E L

SYNOPSIS
Three college bros hit up Slovakia to exploit economic inequality and pick up women - unaware that sometimes, in Eastern Europe, the local economy exploits you.

OPINION
Unfairly lumped in with exploitative nonsense like Saw or The Human Centipede - the phrase "torture porn" was literally coined by critic David Edelstein in reference to it - Hostel is so much more than a label like that could ever imply. (Even Edelstein was forced to concede (disdainfully) that it is "actually not a bad little thriller".) Despite a run-of-the-mill "here are some minor a-holes who you can tolerate but not mind when they die" set-up, once the primary setpiece of the film begins, it hits with a sustained nightmare intensity. That's the specific thing I think, when I watch Hostel: "I've had nightmares that felt like this." There is a sustained, animalistic power to the images and the pace of the editing that no other horror film has. (Even the sequel is more interested in going somewhere narratively than transcending the material.) If you haven't seen Hostel, then you've never seen anything like Hostel.

CAST + CREW
Director: Eli Roth (Knock Knock, The Green Inferno)
Cast: Jay Hernandez (A Bad Moms Christmas, Suicide Squad)
Derek Richardson (Dumb and Dumberer, Prep and Landing)
Takashi Miike (Last Life in the Universe,
Animal Crossing: The Movie)

CONTENT (spoilered; highlight for warnings)
violence against women, homophobia, exploitation of sex workers, restraint and torture, eye violence, dismemberment, decapitation

CAREER STATS [on a scale from 1 (least) to 10 (most)]
FUN: 3
Please do not enjoy this movie, for my sake.
SCARINESS: 9
If a panic reaction counts as scary... I hyperventilated.
INTENSITY: 10
An unrelenting last half-hour. There is no respite.
RECOMMENDABILITY: 3
Do you want to get punched in the face after a long workday?

H O S T E L : P A R T I I SYNOPSIS Hostel, but with women. OPINION Reader, I had to close my eyes. Hostel: Part II unfortunately knows exactly what it's doing, and what it's doing is: hey, you know how tough it was to watch those bros get tortured and dismembered in Hostel? Imagine like, whoa, how much harder it would be to watch that happen to ladies. That's it; that's the plot, and goddammit, they're right. Part II focuses more on the audacity of what it's doing, and the vulnerability of women in the world we live in. It also focuses - incorrectly, I'm afraid - on the larger narrative at play, opening with the torture-tourist organization tracking down the survivor of the first film at his home, and getting into the weeds of how it actually operates with one of the greasiest and most disgusting, yet thoroughly, disturbingly, disarmingly normal male villains ever seen on film. This is a film that understands why someone would want to kill women, while at the same time being honest about who those people are, and how badly we want to see that person brought low, with the boot on their neck. I'm hesitant to label Hostel: Part II as "feminist" (that's not a label I will allow myself to apply (he said, bringing it up anyway)) but I can say with some degree of confidence that despite its prolonged meditation on female suffering, it's (probably) not misogynist. CAST + CREW Director: Eli Roth (Death Wish, The House with a Clock in its Walls) Cast: Lauren German (It Is Fine! Everything Is Fine., What We Do Is Secret) Bijou Phillips (Choke, It's Alive, What We Do Is Secret) Heather Matarazzo (Welcome to the Dollhouse, The Princess Diaries, Strike! aka. All I Wanna Do) Ruggero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust, Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man) CONTENT (spoilered; highlight for warnings) violence against women, Violence Against Women, VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, drugging committed against women in a party environment, misogyny, bloodletting, sexual assault, decapitation, restraint and torture, castration CAREER STATS [on a scale from 1 (least) to 10 (most)] FUN: 2 You are not PERMITTED to enjoy this. STOP IT. SCARINESS: 6 I never stopped breathing, but I did stop watching! INTENSITY: 10 While less nightmarish, it's far more brutally real. RECOMMENDABILITY: 2 "Hey Deanna! Do you like watching ladies get slaughtered?" SEE ALSO: Cannibal Holocaust, The Green Inferno, Aftermath (1994) [WARNING: Aftermath (dir: Nacho Cerdà) is the most graphic and intense film I have ever failed to watch. I have never managed to see it all the way through. While I do draw a line from its content to Hostel, I cannot in good conscience """recommend""" it to someone who is not already thoroughly desensitized and absolutely ruined by extreme horror. You have been warned.]

H O S T E L : P A R T I I

SYNOPSIS
Hostel, but with women.

OPINION
Reader, I had to close my eyes. Hostel: Part II unfortunately knows exactly what it's doing, and what it's doing is: hey, you know how tough it was to watch those bros get tortured and dismembered in Hostel? Imagine like, whoa, how much harder it would be to watch that happen to ladies. That's it; that's the plot, and goddammit, they're right. Part II focuses more on the audacity of what it's doing, and the vulnerability of women in the world we live in. It also focuses - incorrectly, I'm afraid - on the larger narrative at play, opening with the torture-tourist organization tracking down the survivor of the first film at his home, and getting into the weeds of how it actually operates with one of the greasiest and most disgusting, yet thoroughly, disturbingly, disarmingly normal male villains ever seen on film. This is a film that understands why someone would want to kill women, while at the same time being honest about who those people are, and how badly we want to see that person brought low, with the boot on their neck. I'm hesitant to label Hostel: Part II as "feminist" (that's not a label I will allow myself to apply (he said, bringing it up anyway)) but I can say with some degree of confidence that despite its prolonged meditation on female suffering, it's (probably) not misogynist.

CAST + CREW
Director: Eli Roth (Death Wish,
The House with a Clock in its Walls)
Cast: Lauren German (It Is Fine! Everything Is Fine.,
What We Do Is Secret)
Bijou Phillips (Choke, It's Alive, What We Do Is Secret)
Heather Matarazzo (Welcome to the Dollhouse,
The Princess Diaries, Strike! aka. All I Wanna Do)
Ruggero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust,
Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man)

CONTENT (spoilered; highlight for warnings)
violence against women, Violence Against Women, VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, drugging committed against women in a party environment, misogyny, bloodletting, sexual assault, decapitation, restraint and torture, castration

CAREER STATS [on a scale from 1 (least) to 10 (most)]
FUN: 2
You are not PERMITTED to enjoy this. STOP IT.
SCARINESS: 6
I never stopped breathing, but I did stop watching!
INTENSITY: 10
While less nightmarish, it's far more brutally real.
RECOMMENDABILITY: 2
"Hey Deanna! Do you like watching ladies get slaughtered?"

SEE ALSO:
Cannibal Holocaust, The Green Inferno, Aftermath (1994)
[WARNING: Aftermath (dir: Nacho Cerdà) is the most graphic and intense film I have ever failed to watch. I have never managed to see it all the way through. While I do draw a line from its content to Hostel, I cannot in good conscience """recommend""" it to someone who is not already thoroughly desensitized and absolutely ruined by extreme horror. You have been warned.]

the alchemist cookbook	audition	the babadook	basket case	the changeling
child's play	creep / creep 2	a cure for wellness	a dark song	les diaboliques
the evil dead / evil dead 2	the exorcist III	friday the 13th part VI: jason lives	the frighteners	ghostwatch
hostel / hostel: pt 2	house (1977)	house (1986)	house of the devil	kwaidan
noroi: the curse	pontypool	ravenous	society	stir of echoes
the taking of deborah logan	the texas chainsaw massacre	the thing	we are still here	the witch
		the wicker man