Horror Movie Review: Hostel (2005)

The ‘torture-porn’ sub-category of horror is not just one of the most controversial, it is also one that can confidently be seen as a style that consistently gives diminishing results. When most think of ‘torture-porn’ horror, it’s the likes of The Human Centipede, Saw and the subject of this review, Hostel.

Written and directed by Eli Roth, Hostel stars Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson, Eyþór Guðjónsson, and Barbara Nedeljáková.

Paxton (Hernandez) and Josh (Richardson) are two young men travelling across Europe with their new friend, Óli (Guðjónsson). The trio are super-horny and after a wild night in Amsterdam, get locked out of their hostel. It’s while outside, they meet a man named Alexei who lets them stay at his apartment.

He shows them pictures of the women at a hostel he knows and convinces them to go visit it as the woman are also super-horny. The three men decide to head to Slovakia and it is everything their filthy minds could dream it to be.

After a heavy night of debauchery, the next morning they discover Óli never came home. The hostel clerk says he checked out and later they receive a selfie from him saying he went home. The pair are surprised and disappointed but decide to have one more night out before leaving the country and continuing their trip.

Unfortunately, they’re not going to be leaving just yet as the women they met slip tranquillisers in their drinks. Josh collapses in bed while Paxton ends up being locked inside a pantry.

The former is the unlucky one as when he wakes, he is chained to chair in a dilapidated building. He has been selected by a mysterious organization that kidnaps tourists and sells them to rich businessmen to do what they wish with. Violent and inhumane acts of torture.

Paxton is found and let out of the pantry and upon returning to the hostel finds that both him and Josh have apparently been checked out. He finds the women and one agrees to take him to the where Josh is.

Will Paxton become another victim of someone’s disturbed pleasures?

Hostel’s problems arise from its unlikable cast and its disappointing final third. It does a great job of building towards its inevitable full reveal but when it does pull back the curtain, it’s all smoke and mirrors.

By spending so much time with the obnoxious and overtly horny characters at the start, you’d think we’d get some depth to them. However, that’s not the case. Instead, we get young men being young men. Talking non-stop about pussy, calling each other names because they’re not having sex every 5 minutes and staring wide-eyed at every pair of boobs that cross their path. It’s as tiresome as it sounds, so when the first of the characters start to go missing, it’s hard to care.

The only one that most will feel some kind of connection too is Hernandez’s Paxton but crucially, the ‘comeuppance’ side of story never really reaches its apex.

Yes, you’ll want to cheer for Paxton to get his revenge as the film comes to a close but he’s not a likable guy so it’s very muted.

Elsewhere, Hostel has no problem showing the gore as human bodies are drilled, chopped, sliced and ripped apart with a certain amount of glee. It is visceral and it is harsh but starts to wander into parody in the final third. Events just start to come across a bit silly and the infamous ‘eyeball’ scene might be where it fully jumps the shark.

When you break it down, Hostel is too bare-bones to really be called an effectively thrilling horror. What makes it memorable is how violently unflinching it is. That can be fun, in short spurts and provided it has a goal. That is something that Hostel really lacks. It will shock your grandparents and make the more squeamish squirm but that’s about it.