Hostel (film)

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Hostel
Hostel film poster
Directed by	Eli Roth
Produced by	Eli Roth Quentin Tarantino
Written by	Eli Roth
Starring	Jay Hernandez Derek Richardson
Distributed by	Lions Gate Films Screen Gems
Release date(s)	January 6, 2006
Running time	95 min.
Language	English
Budget	$4.5 million
Followed by	Hostel: Part 2
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Hostel (2006) is director Eli Roth's second feature film. The movie is rated R for brutal scenes of torture and violence, strong sexual content, language, and drug use. Due to the graphic nature of this film, its showing has been restricted in certain countries, primarily those with strict censorship policies.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Reaction 4 Trivia 5 Sequel 6 Controversy 7 Rating 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Plot

The movie is set in Europe, opening with a shot of a man washing blood down the drain of a mysterious-looking room. Moving from there, we meet three backpacking buddies: Paxton, Josh (both from the United States) and Óli (from Iceland), who describes himself to his friends and to all who will listen as "the king of the swing." They enjoy repeated experiences of drugs and prostitution in Amsterdam, looking for cheap thrills instead of art.

After being kicked out of a club and locked out of their hotel, they meet Alex, a man who tells them of a Slovak hostel that is filled with American-loving women that are easy to get into bed. They take a train there, meeting a bizarre, sexually forward man on the way. Once they arrive at the hostel, they meet Natalia and Svetlana, two very beautiful young women who share their hotel room. The girls invite them down to a nude spa and later have sex with Paxton and Josh after a night out at a club.

Soon after, Óli and a Japanese woman who was also staying at the hostel go missing, leaving Paxton and Josh to wander about in search of them. (Little do they know that both of them have been abducted and taken to an abandoned factory used for torture). A Japanese woman named Kana runs up to them with a picture message on her cell phone. It shows Óli with her friend Yuki with a factory smokestack in the background. It says "Sayonara" (さよなら, sayonara^?), but they are not buying it. They follow a man wearing Óli's jacket to a Museum of Torture. When they ask him where the jacket is from, he answers that it is his. While on their way back to the hostel, Paxton receives another picture message on his cell phone, this one being a picture of Óli's decapitated head (cropped so as not to appear decapitated) with the caption underneath, "I go home." They argue about what to do next. Paxton asks Kana if she wants to get a train out of Bratislava with them. She says yes. They decide to hit the disco with their girlfriends; Josh gets sick, returns to the hostel and goes to bed while Paxton accidentally gets locked in the disco's storage room and passes out.

The next day, Josh wakes up handcuffed and in his underwear in a room similar to the one where Óli's decapitated head is shown. He is being tortured by the bizarre man from the train and offers to pay him to stop. He replies, "I am the one who is paying them." After Josh gets drilled in both legs and below the collarbone, the torturer cuts Josh's Achilles tendons, then removes his handcuffs and allows Josh's freedom. Josh gets up to exit the room, but his slit tendons create bodily imbalance, causing him to fall forward onto the floor. The torturer then proceeds to kill Josh off-screen.

Paxton is let out of the storage room the next morning and finds his surroundings growing more and more mysterious. He returns to the hostel to find Kana is also missing. When he returns to his room, he finds a new set of beautiful women inviting him down to the spa in the same manner as earlier in the film. He wanders the streets looking for the smokestack in the background of the cellphone photo of Óli and has his cell phone stolen by a candy-grubbing gang of violent children. He attempts to enlist the help of the police, but they inform him nothing much can be done. He finds Natalia and Svetlana at a non-tourist bar. They repeatedly insist he have a drink. He presses them for information on the whereabouts of his friends and they tell him that Josh and Óli have gone to an art show. He demands that they take him there.

Natalia brings Paxton to the same factory shown in the cell phone photo of Óli. She lures him inside where he witnesses the bizarre man from the train sewing up Josh's life-less body. Paxton confronts Natalia who laughs and says he will make her lots of money, as he is grabbed by two thugs, who drag him down the hall to his cell. Along the way, he witnesses unspeakable acts of butchery taking place in other rooms. He is handcuffed to a chair and left to await his fate in the dark.

A torturer soon shows up to kill him. The torturer, who seems to have a sexual obsession with torture and suffering, toys with Paxton using scissors and pliers. First Paxton begins to beg for his life in English which does not phase the torturer, but after Paxton begins speaking German, the torturer slaps him and asks a guard to place a ballgag on him. The torturer, left alone again, grabs a chainsaw and revs it dangerously close to Paxton's head. Paxton starts to vomit, ballgag in mouth, and the torturer, wanting his money's worth, removes the ballgag from Paxton's mouth so he does not suffocate. Paxton tries to bite the torturer's fingers, and the torturer accidentally cuts through the handcuffs while taking off two of Paxton’s fingers. The torturer charges forward, slips on the blood and vomit (which has begun to pool on the floor) and falls, bringing the chainsaw down on his right leg, gruesomely severing it. Paxton is able to break free and kill the torturer with a shot to the head from a pistol from the torturer's tool bench. Paxton calls the guard in German (the torturer's native tongue) and shoots him. From there, he begins his escape from the factory, taking his severed fingers with him in his pocket.

Paxton's first plan is to dress himself as a torturer, by putting on a surgeon's apron and a horned helmet he finds in his torture room. He quickly exits his room, just as a group of thugs are rounding the corner of the hall he is in. Ducking into a closet to avoid being seen, he is disgusted by a pile of bodies on a cart. When he hears someone entering the room, he pretends to be a corpse and hides himself under the pile of bodies. The cart is taken by a butcher to another part of the factory where the bodies will be incinerated. Paxton spots Josh’s corpse, incapacitates the butcher with a hammer and continues his escape. He finds a locker room and looks out the window to see police officers talking to torturers, bringing him to realize that the police are part of the murder factory. He raids one of the lockers in the dressing room for a suit and leather gloves to hide his mangled hand. In the pocket of the suit he finds a business card for "Elite Hunting" On the back of the card are three handwritten prices: American $25,000, European $10,000, Russian $5,000.

An American businessman arrives. Believing Paxton is a fellow killer, the businessman talks to him about the $50,000 he paid for his "special treat" and asks whether or not he should "make it quick" with a pistol. The business man leaves without the pistol, which Paxton takes with him as he continues his escape. He turns back when he hears the screams of the businessman’s victim, who turns out to be Kana. He breaks back into the factory, entering a torture room in which the businessman is melting Kana's eye with a blowtorch. He shoots the businessman twice. Kana is still alive, but her right eye is loosely hanging from its socket. In an act of sympathy, Paxton cuts out her eye, and then takes her with him in his escape.

They steal a car and flee the factory, but are chased down by the guards. Paxton then finds Natalia and her friend, and also finds Alex, who was helping them lure the boys to their deaths all along. He runs them over in revenge and then when cornered by the Bubble Gum Gang hands the kids a bag of bubble gum that was in the car. The gang, now sufficiently bribed, attack and kill the pursuing guards when their car arrives. Paxton and Kana finally arrive at a train station, but other guards are waiting there with the police.

As Paxton prepares to hop a train, Kana sees her disfigured reflection and is horrified at what she sees. She kills herself by jumping in front of a passing locomotive. This creates a diversion which allows Paxton to get on the train and escape.

On the train Paxton hears the familiar voice of Josh's torturer. Paxton follows him as he exits the train at Hlavni Nadrazi, Prague's main train station, and enters a public restroom. Inside, Paxton takes him by surprise, cuts off two of his fingers, half drowns him in the toilet, and then gives him a glimpse of his killer before slitting his throat. Paxton then boards another train, and the film ends.

[edit] Cast

Actor	Role
Jay Hernandez	Paxton
Derek Richardson	Josh
Eythor Gudjonsson	Óli
Barbara Nedeljáková	Natalya
Jana Kadeřábková	Svetlana
Jan Vlasák	The Dutch Businessman
Jennifer Lim	Kana
Lubomir Šilhavecký	Alex
Paula Wild	Monique
Petr Janis	The German Surgeon
Jana Havlíčková	Vala
Vanessa Jungova	Saskia
Rick Hoffman	The American Client

[edit] Reaction

The film opened to decent reviews, especially for a horror film. The film scored a 61% “Fresh” rating at Rotten Tomatoes ^[1] and an initial B- at Yahoo! Movies ^[2], a good showing for a horror film (By comparison, Saw only received a 45% “Rotten” rating ^[3], but also has a B- average at Yahoo! ^[4]).

However, the film was not very well-received with audiences. It only has a 5.8 score on the Internet Movie Database, in contrast to Saw 's 7.6 average on the Database. ^[5][6] Also, Yahoo! users give the film a C+, while Saw has a B average from Yahoo!'s users. ^[7][8]

The film's opening weekend North American box office gross was $19.5 million ^[9], making it the top grossing film that weekend. And it went on to gross a total of $47.2 million. The film's budget was around $4.5 million ^[10].

Critical results were mixed, and the film received strong complaints from the country of Slovakia, which is depicted in the film. Slovak officials were disgusted by the film’s portrayal of their native country, claiming that it would “damage the good reputation of Slovakia” and would make foreigners feel that it was a dangerous place to be. The film was not shot in Slovakia. It was mostly filmed in the Czech Republic. Director Eli Roth said that the film was not meant to be offensive, but rather to point out “Americans' ignorance of the world around them.” ^[11]

"Hostel" was praised in the summer 2006 issue of Artforum magazine, which called it "the smartest, most subversively political American film about American attitudes overseas."

[edit] Trivia

• The trailers bill the movie as "inspired by true events". Director Eli Roth says that he found a Thai website that advertised itself as a "murder vacation," offering users the chance to torture and kill someone for the price of $10,000. Roth later showed the site to Quentin Tarantino and the two developed the idea for the film. Tarantino and Roth said later on an Icelandic talk show that they have no idea if the website was real or not.
• Executive Producer Quentin Tarantino admitted to doing an uncredited rewrite on the film, which also includes numerous references to Tarantino's works, including Pulp Fiction running on a TV at the hostel.
• In the hostel, the main characters stay in room 237, a reference to The Shining.
• There are several references to classic European horror films of the 1970s. The music played during the sex scene in the hostel is the Sneaker Pimps cover version of "How Do", the song (also known as "Willow's Song" and also covered by Doves) that is played during the nude dance in The Wicker Man (1973).
• Most of the movie is set in a small fictional location near Bratislava, Slovakia, but actually no sequence was shot in Slovakia. The filming locations were at the Barrandov Studios, in Prague, Czech Republic. Barrandov has well-equipped sound stages, making it a popular choice for US productions set in Europe. 95% of the film was shot on location in and around Prague, and the stage was only used for the main torture rooms.
• The "slovakian" town where the characters go is actually Český Krumlov, a very popular tourist destination in the Czech Republic. In spite of its small size, it is popular with backpackers exploring the South Bohemian Region.
• At the end of the film, when Paxton arrives at the railway station in Vienna, there is a fictional billboard saying "jetz auch am dvd-grosse hits". In correct German it should read "Jetzt auch auf DVD — große Hits". The shot was actually done in Prague.
• All the Dutch characters in the movie speak German instead of Dutch.
• On the director's commentary for the unrated version of the DVD, Eli Roth revealed that Takashi Miike travelled nine hours by plane to Prague to film his brief cameo.
• Kana's suicide by train is a reference to the opening sequence of the movie Suicide Circle, where 54 school girls commit suicide in the same way, using similar camera angles.
• Other notable horror references are the sequence when the German torturer accidentally cuts his own leg with a chainsaw (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and the severing of the achilles tendon to prevent the victim from escaping (possibly Pet Semetary, Kill Bill, or Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance). In fact, the feet prop that were used were the same ones that were used on the set of Kill Bill. Howard Berger from K.N.B. effects brought them from China to Prague to use them. Roth was honored that he got to use a Tarantino prop, saying it had good heritage.
• The only scene which was extended for the DVD unrated edition was the scene in which Paxton cuts Kana's eye.
• Eli Roth made an uncredited appearance in the movie, playing an American stoner.^[12]
• The guards pursuing Paxton drove a Czech made Tatra T613 luxury car
• When Paxton is in the slaughterhouse with the German, he delivers a speech in German. He is saying, "If you kill me, it'll destroy your life. Every time you close your eyes, you'll see me. I'll be in your nightmares every night, your whole life. I will ruin it."

[edit] Sequel

Hostel: Part 2 is the upcoming thriller sequel to Hostel. The film is currently scheduled for release on January 5, 2007. Read more on ^[13].

[edit] Controversy

The movie has been subject to harsh criticism in both Slovakia and in the Czech Republic. It portrays Slovakia as an undeveloped, poor and uncultured country suffering from high criminality and prostitution. To many people, Hostel appears to be misplaced, both culturally and geographically. Slovakia is really in Central, rather than Eastern Europe ^[14] and although the country has some underdeveloped regions, it hardly differs from any other Central or West European country^{[citation needed]}. Roth claims he used Slovakia to point out the ignorance of Americans, and that the film is not meant to be an actual description. The tourist board of Slovakia invited Roth on an all-expense paid trip to their country so he could see it's not made up of run down factories and kids who kill for bubble gum.

The "local" songs in the film are 20 year old pop songs from Communist Czechoslovakia. The buildings, pubs, discos and other equipment do not reflect the reality - all cars shown in the film allegedly showing Slovakia are 20 to 30 year old cars that are not used anymore (Lada 2101, Volga M21, Tatra T613), the TV sets shown in the film have not been used since the 1960s in this region. According to himself, Roth very deliberately art directed the film this way to create a country that reflected American fears and stereotypes of Eastern Europe, not to show what the country actually looks like. ^{[citation needed]}

The region of Bratislava, where the film is set, is the second most economically advanced region in whole Central and Eastern Europe (far more prosperous than many regions in western Europe or the US Bratislava (Economy)) and does not consist only of historic buildings and empty factories, as portrayed in the film.

Member of Parliament Tomas Galbavy recently commented about the film and said, "I am offended by this film. I think that all Slovaks should feel offended." In the same article, Roth has defended his work and commented "Americans do not even know that this country exists. My film is not a geographical work but aims to show Americans' ignorance of the world around them." ^[15]

In defense, Roth said he did this intentionally to portray Slovakia as old stereotypes to represent the backpackers' general ignorance of their surroundings.^[16]

Roth has repeatedly pointed out in numerous interviews that despite many films in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series, people still go to Texas^[17][18]-the second most populous and third fastest growing of all of the U.S. states-so the tourist board of Slovakia should not be concerned.

Hostel has also been subject to further criticism by film critics as sadistic and horrific beyond redemption regardless of Roth's excuses, often cited as an exemplification of the current shift of mainstream consciousness into the amusement of watching people suffer horrific deaths. However, the brutality in the film make reference to the twisted side of human fantasy and curiosity as well as the dangers of wealth, particularly towards Americans.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Rating

• Argentina - 16
• Australia - R18
• Canada - 18
• Finland - 18
• France - 16
• Germany - 18
• Iceland - 16
• Ireland - 18
• Malaysia - Banned
• New Zealand - R18
• Norway - 18 (DVD rating of "20" as a PR stunt from the publisher, not an official rating)
• Philippines - R18
• Spain - 18
• Sweden - 15
• United Kingdom - 18
• United States - R

[edit] References

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ [2]
3. ^ [3]
4. ^ [4]
5. ^ [5]
6. ^ [6]
7. ^ [7]
8. ^ [8]
9. ^ [9]
10. ^ [10]
11. ^ [11]
12. ^ [12]
13. ^ IMDB
14. ^ [13]
15. ^ [14]
16. ^ [15]
17. ^ [16]
18. ^ [17]

[edit] External links

• Official site
• Hostel at the Internet Movie Database
• Time Out Set visit and Eli Roth interview
• Official site of Bratislava, capital of Slovakia
• Metacritic: Hostel
• "Hostel" review by Peter Bradshaw at Guardian Unlimited]]
• Coverage of Bratislava and Slovakia reactions