Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
I’m impressed by how fast Eli got this thing cut and up in front of test audiences after finishing it. He seems happy with it when we’ve spoken (most recently at the PROMEDIO ROJO screening, where he and director Nicolas Lopez decided that they were going to start dating each other), and these reviews sound like audiences are equally pleased. I know after seeing THE DEVIL’S REJECTS this weekend that I’m officially in the mood for nasty and unrelenting, and I hope HOSTEL deliver the goods. Here’s what our first spy had to say:
And a quick warning before you read either of these reviews, at the request of Eli himself... there are all sorts of spoilers below. You may want to skip these reviews altogether and just be surprised when you see the film. Or, if you're not sure if you can handle the material, go ahead and read the reviews. Just realize... you may be ruining the surprises for yourself. Okay... you've been warned... so read on...
Last night I had the pleasure of seeing Eli Roth's latest flick, "Hostel," at a preview screening at The Bridge Theatre at the Howard Hughes here in Santa Monica, California. I guess it was the first time it had been shown, as both the director, the actors, and producers (including Mr. Quentin Tarantino himself), showed up. Of course, I'd seen Roth's Cabin Fever, and while that film didn't leave a very strong impression on me -the best parts were the homages to other, better films- I thought that he had a great eye for interesting visuals, and a classically puerile imagination. So when I heard about the screening of his new film, I knew I had to see it, if only to get a couple thrills, some good gore, and some gratuitous nudity. And in these categories, the film either met or surpassed my expectations. Unfortunately, this film has many of the same weaknesses of "Fever," as many of the underdeveloped, supporting characters, while well-played, are given more screentime than they probably deserve. The real star of the film is Jay Hernandez, but you wouldn't know that until a quarter of the way through the film. Of course, this does serve to build some suspense, as you're not sure who is going to die, or who you want to have killed. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The script doesn't really invest itself in the characters until the end, and I'm not very interested in talking about them.
The film opens in a scene very similar to the opening rot shot of "Fever". But as I watched suds of bloody water washing away bits of bone, meat, and some teeth from the floor of a gore stained room, I immediately knew this was going to be a dirtier, nastier film that it's predecessor. Unfortunately, directly after that scene we were treated to several interminable sequences introducing us to the main characters, whose names I don't remember, except for "Josh," because some numbnuts kept referring to this character's name during the Q and A at the end. Anyway(s), "Josh," the sensitive one with the faintly emo haircut and his buddy played by Jay Hernandez, the player, have been backpacking across Europe for the summer, hoping to get a little action before they have to return to college for their senior year. Along the way they've picked up an itinerate Eastern European drifter, who goes by the nickname "the king of swing." Why he's called the king of swing we'll never know... Unfortunately, it's never established until later in the film why we should care about these characters, or even be interested in them. Similar to "Fever," these character's are pretty much irredeemable from beginning to end, much like regular people but without the emotional complexity. They've come to Europe to score, and they have no qualms with being opportunistic perverts at every turn. They hang out in Amsterdam a while, seemingly aware of the fact that by advancing the plot any further they might run the risk of ending up in the aforementioned torture room shown in the opening scene. Unfortunately, fate and the script have other things in mind for them and one evening they find themselves locked out of the hostel they've been rooming at. At this point, the film finally starts to gather some forward momentum, where it will eventually jump tracks and head into crazy station.
First, let's talk about sex. This movie has a lot of it. The flyer I had warned me of "NC-17" levels of nudity and graphic sexuality, but I was still amazed by the amount that has been captured here. In fact, if this review were only concerned with summarizing the sex in this film, I'd have to devote several volumes in order to capture it for your reading pleasure, so instead I'll simply make note of some of the more remarkable scenes. After they're locked out of the hostel, they're invited into an apartment by a young man with a strange mole on his upper lip. On a bed in the back of the room are two people having sex, apparantly so stoned they don't notice the the cameraman, the crew, and all the actors watching them. Maybe they're into that, but it's never really explained. Of course, this is an exploitation film, and from the first scene obviously a hard R, so I have no complaints. So this guy with the fascinating mole tells them that he knows a city in Slovakia where girls are so sex-starved they'll screw anyone with an American accent. Left with no choice but to seek out this city, the crew of three (remember, the emo boy "Josh," Jay Hernandez, and the itinerate) hop on the next train and head toward their impatiently awaited gory dispatches.
Once they enter the city (reminiscent of London stand-in Prague in "From Hell"), they check in at a local hostel, which seems to be frequented by only the most attractive, nudity-prone Eastern European women. Some girls they run into (walking in on as they get dressed, in fact) invite them to a spa, where they toplessly flirt with them, the three men in no way immune to the sight of their bare breasts and liberal sexuality. After a night of carousing with the feminitas, emo boy and Jay Hernandez (the itinerate has mysteriously been whisked away by the hostel's secretary, presumably for some casual fornication) get their joints worked on to the tune of the seduction song from the "Wicker Man," which was just about the most appropriate tune I could think of for what happens next. Yes, that's right, everything goes down hill from here. Quickly, the three men are trapped, thrown into a world of torture, their bodies nothing more than canvases for the masters of mutilation (or anyone who wants a quick thrill). It's like Wicker Man and Audition, mixed together and shifted into the overdrive. Of course, it's not as unpredictable as either or those films, but it's nastier than both put together (although admittedly, there is no drinking of vomit in this film).
What follows is a theatre of the macabre, torture scene after torture scene. Unless you've seen some Audition or Oldboy, or even Dead Alive or Bad Taste, nothing will prepare you for what follows. Power drills to the chest, scalpel cuts to the Achilles tendon, severed fingers, decapitated heads, eye-gouging, chainsaws to the leg. Great work by KNB, by the way. But don't worry, it's not too much. It's just right. It's perfectly pitched, dark and nasty comedy. At one point, a main character loses two of his fingers, and scuttles after them, trying to hold on to them while trying not to get caught by a security guard. There is also the requisite scene where one of the guys turns the table on his torture-chamber operator, which was probably the highlight of the film for me. What more could you ask for than to watch a sadistic German have his mind played with by the man he's preparing to mutilate? Absolutely hilarious. Also great is a cameo appearance by Rick Hoffman, the only good thing about Cellular. He plays an American, and one sick bastard, willing to pay the highest price for the privilege of burning the eye out of the face of a young woman. He plays it violent and funny and pretty much psychotic, and was very memorable.
Anyway(s), I wouldn't want to spoil the film anymore than I already have. Suffice to say that with a little polishing to the pace at the beginning of the film, Hostel is shaping up to be the sick-out flick to see this year. I didn't really care for the characters, but I don't think I was supposed to. But the gore, the violence, and the nudity really scored points with me. As well as the many nods to films like the Wicker Man and Audition, as well as I'm sure a bunch of other genre flicks I've yet to get my hands on. I've been a fan of Eli Roth for a while (if not of Cabin Fever) and knew he had a real talent. This film is evidence of his ability to elicit both shocks and laughs from the audience, during some of the nastiest of scenes, reminding me quite a bit of some of Peter Jackon's earlier films. Four out of Five stars.
Lucas
Wow. Lots of praise, as well as the most uses of the word “emo” in one review ever. This next guy actually already reviewed it, but it sounds like he’s been thinking about it more and has some stuff he wants to add:
Harry,
When I sent my last mini write up on Hostel I figured it would probably accompany some lengthier reviews of the film. I didn’t see any posted so just in case you didn’t receive any here goes. I’ll spoil the whole thing. I would've hated to have known the whole story before watching the film because the unclear motivation behind some of the things going on are what make it so dreadful.
Imagine you see a middle aged man standing on a train station platform screaming his daughter’s name because she was just abducted by a stranger. She could be on any one of the departing rails, heading off to never be seen again. You’d probably be startled and shocked, feeling horrible for him and feeling a real sense of dread that some child-snatching dirt bag was just walking among you in the crowd.
Well the joke’s on you in this case because this man you see screaming his head off deserves everything he’s getting. This man’s child is being abducted because somebody has a real gripe with how he just spent his mini vacation: A patron at a secluded fantasy camp where people with sadistic, homicidal urges can pay to maim and ultimately kill living human captives, most of whom are weary travelers abducted from a nearby youth hostel.
This film is all about thrill seeking and aesthetics. Paxton and his friends are backpacking across Europe. In Amsterdam, they are suspiciously urged to get a real European experience at a hostel in a much more remote location. I’m reminded of that ghoulish man from “Tales from the Crypt’s Bordello of Blood”. The guy who steers bar patrons towards their doom by saying “I know a place, not too far from here, where you can get the best god damn piece of ass.”
On their train ride, they encounter a man who insists on eating with his fingers. He says people are too detached from their food, and goes on to describe how you can honor those animals that died for your sustenance by a tactile embrace. The friends notice his hands trembling wildly. We’ll later watch this man live out his failed dream of being a surgeon on an unwilling patient.
At the hostel they are met with smiles and instantly nude women. Despite a street gang of rough kids and some gloomy locals, this place seems to be the paradise they were promised. Soon enough, after hot sex and lots of drugs, Paxton’s friends go missing. They are nowhere to be found, not in their rooms. Not in the local museum of torture (undoubtedly an aesthetic side attraction to the main event) and after much searching, Paxton demands to be taken to his friends by the local hook-up girls who seem to know something he doesn’t.
As Paxton arrives outside the facility where all the butchery happening, he runs into satisfied customer Takashi Miike.
Paxton: What’s it like in there?
Miike: Be careful. You could spend all your money in there.
Inside Paxton is taken captive and this is where things fly way off the handle. He is chained up and clipped with scissors. He nearly chokes as he vomits beneath his gag. He is poked and gouged with metal scrapers as his fingers are then cut off via chainsaw. Slipping his modified hand out of the handcuff he makes a dodgy escape onto a giant cart of human remains. By watching Paxton sneak around, we are given the full tour of this whole operation and meet quite a few unsavory characters. The rest of the film is simply Paxton running the gauntlet that is the entire town where this facility functions.
At one point, he goes into a room to rescue a young asian girl who his being blowtorched in the face by one of the customers. He can’t quite get the girl to cooperate because she’s too busy screaming about her de-orbited, dangling eyeball. Paxton has to snip it off, only to watch as the wound expels a revolting amount of pus.
While the splattery gore is all there for the horror fans, there are far more haunting themes at work here. The idea that this is all a loose operation where people can stroll in and out almost like a theme park is very unsettling and seeing these people return to their everyday lives is an absolute nightmare. All of the settings in the film are atmospheric and moody. You really feel like these backpackers are all alone out there. Miles from their homes and with nobody to trust.
CK
Wow. Has Eli stepped up to make an American Miike film, a truly hardcore horror ride? My biggest problems with CABIN FEVER boil down to the way Eli handled the tone shifts in the film, but this sounds like once it gets nasty, there’s no going back, which is exactly what I like. Color me curious, and I hope to get a peek soon.
"Moriarty" out.
