Hostel: Part II (2007)

Did you people see the same film I saw?

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Worthy sequel picks up where the original left off, with the one surviving protagonist of the first film, Jay Hernandez, back in America but still haunted by his ordeal. The film quickly cuts to a new group of ugly Americans abroad, this time a group of girls instead of boys, again with two party girls and one good-girl character. Writer/director Eli Roth wisely doesn't try to simply retell the same story again and he comes up with a smart solution for where to take the story, since the first film already revealed the purpose of "Elite Hunting Club," who offer torture and murder to the rich and powerful, this time taking the audience behind-the-scenes club's operations. Besides following a new group of girls who are target of the club, it also follows two rich guys on their first experience with the hunting club (one full of bluster and the other more mild mannered) along with their build up to their eventual descent into the torture chamber. As you'd expect, the two stories collide, but with quite unexpected results. My main complaint about the sequel is that it doesn't offer anything new thematically, but in terms of suspense and shock value, the film does manage to live up to the original and even exceed the first film in some respects. As with the first film, "Hostel: Part II" does not have wide appeal value and most viewers would find it a repellent endurance test, but if you are part of that narrow band of horror fans who this film does target, "Hostel: Part II" is a must see.

Three female American college students find themselves the unwitting targets of a Slovakian hostel that's the front for an evil business in which decadent and depraved wealthy people pay top dollar for the privilege of torturing and murdering innocent folks who are specifically abducted to serve as fodder for the clients.Writer/director Eli Roth's sequel to his savagely effective original alas not only gets bogged down in both hackneyed horror tropes like an opening which turns out to be just a bad dream and a grindingly predictable narrative trajectory complete with a final girl who's clearly signposted for survival from the get-go, but also further suffers from a crippling dearth of much-needed tension and creepy atmosphere. Fortunately, the subplot about corrupt and eager businessman Todd (a chilling portrayal by Richard Burgi) and his wimpy reluctant buddy Stuart (a likable performance by Roger Bart) doesn't pan out exactly as one might initially expect it to. Moreover, Lauren Graham as spunky rich girl Beth, Bijou Phillips as the snarky Whitney, and especially Heather Matarazzo as the hopelessly gawky'n'geeky Lorna make for appealing damsels in distress. The fact that such familiar Italian horror cinema veterans as Luc Merenda, Ruggero Deodata (wittily cast as a cannibal), and the ever-luscious Edwige Fenech pop up in colorful cameos helps a good deal. However, the moments of dark humor fall flat (for example, a bunch of little kids play soccer with a freshly severed head) and the bulk of the gore gags fail to make any substantial impact, although the blood bath set piece does prove to be quite startling and disturbing. Okay at best, but the first one was far more edgy and unsettling.

There is nothing wrong with horror, nor with thrillers, but what is right with this combination? The beginning is a bit disjointed, but that is because it is a segue from the previous venture. The bottom line is that there is an organisation in Eastern Europe that offers those of a certain mentality the opportunity to murder or even torture people to death, obviously for a hefty price. Naturally the victims are attractive young women, but to deflect any allegations of misogyny, there are male victims too, and not all the bad guys wear trousers. Also, the victims in the first film were predominantly male. There are a couple of obvious cultural references for those in the know about real life horror and Quentin Tarantino: Mrs Bathory who bathes in blood takes her name from the real life Blood Countess, and what was that film they were watching on television?Okay, there were some decent special effects, but torture and murder for the sake of it...is it any wonder mass shootings are on the rise and even teachers are not safe even in their own classrooms? This film is clearly fantasy, unfortunately, fragile minds, including those of the young, are often unable to tell where fantasy ends and reality begins.

I wasn't exactly a big fan of the first "Hostel" movie, so it probably comes as no surprise (especially when you also consider most sequels are inferior to the original) that this first sequel failed to move me as well. Actually, there is one thing about this sequel that I thought was better that the first movie, and that was with its look. This sequel looks a lot slicker than the first movie, from the cinematography to the sets and location. However, this sequel also takes problems the first movie had and increases them. The movie is agonizingly slow at times - it takes forever for the movie to really start going. Is it worth the wait when the blood starts to fly? I would say no. While there are some gruesome moments, they are few and far between (and I saw the unrated version of the movie!) This is a real boring movie for the most part. Needless to say, after subjecting myself to the first two movies of this series, I am in no mood to check out part three.