Perhaps I’m a little “sick”. I think it’s morally wrong to torture and kill people for no justifiable reason, but I can understand, even relate to, the desire to do it, especially when the victim is a girl who’s as sexually attractive as actress Lauren German. She plays a wealthy art student named Beth, who, along with two of her female classmates and the model girl they were assigned to draw, decide to take a train to Slovakia for a little “spa” vacation. That’s where the danger begins. Eventually one of the girls is hanging upside down from a ceiling, dripping sweat and gushing blood.

That scene, a display of lesbian sadism, is a turn-on. That’s where it goes back to me being a little sick. I’m not a sadist in that I’d ever do what these Hostel clients do; pay money to get their rocks off by torturing and killing innocent people; but it can be a thrill to watch. That’s the point of this movie; a Part 2 that’s a lot more entertaining than its predecessor partially because the main victims are cute girls but mostly because Eli Roth, probably inspired by mentor Quentin Tarantino, manages to provide an engaging, sometimes surprisingly suspenseful, plot.

It’s not quite a good movie. The individual parts are better than the whole. The beginning, an epilogue sort of prelude, is unnecessary. The ending, in which one of the girls starts behaving in a way that seems to go against her character; the set-up to another sequel; is just plain silly. This second Hostel is a movie I’d nonetheless recommend to anyone who’s into bloody horror and already had the displeasure of sitting thru the first one… or any sicko who gets a psychological rush from the sights and sounds of girls screaming, crying and wiggling around in physical anguish.

my rating : 3 of 5

2007