Hostel (film)

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Hostel

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Eli Roth
Produced by Eli Roth
Quentin Tarantino
Boaz Yakin
Written by Eli Roth
Starring Jay Hernandez
Derek Richardson
Music by Nathan Barr
Cinematography Milan Chadima
Editing by George Folsey Jr.
Distributed by Lionsgate
Release date(s) January 6, 2006
Running time 94 min.
Country Flag of the United States
Language English
Czech example (info)
German example (info)
Icelandic example (info)
Japanese examp. (info)
Dutch example (info)
Russian example (info)
Slovak example (info)
Spanish example (info) (example help)
Budget $4.5 million
Gross revenue $80,578,934
Followed by Hostel: Part II
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Hostel is a 2005 horror film written and directed by Eli Roth, starring Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson, Jennifer Lim, Eythor Gudjonsson and Barbara Nedeljáková. The movie is rated "R" in the United States for its 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. The sequel, Hostel: Part II, was released on June 8, 2007.

Contents

[edit] Plot

In Amsterdam, American backpackers Paxton (Jay Hernandez) and Josh (Derek Richardson) and Icelandic Óli (Eyþór Guðjónsson) meet Alexei (Lubomir Bukovy), a Russian man who tells them about a Slovak hostel filled with American-loving local women. The backpackers board a train to Slovakia, where they meet a Dutch businessman (Jan Vlasák) long enough to be unnerved by his bizarre behavior. Upon arriving in the small village, the backpackers check into the local hostel and find themselves sharing a room with Natalya (Barbara Nedeljáková) and Svetlana (Jana Kadeřábková), two attractive, single women who entice the backpackers to a spa and a disco before sleeping with them.

Afterwards, the next morning, Óli is missing. A young Japanese backpacker named Kana (Jennifer Lim) also reports that her friend Yuki (Keiko Seiko) has disappeared. A MMS photo sent from Yuki's phone shows Yuki and Óli beneath a smokestack of an abandoned factory, the word Sayonara written beneath it. Unbeknownst to Josh and Paxton, Oli has been decapitated and Yuki tortured, and (presumably) killed. Paxton and Josh decide to leave Bratislava with Kana the following day. They spot a man wearing Oli's jacket at a museum of medieval torture relics. Paxton later notices that the MMS photo of the Oli, Yuki and the smokestack is faked. Later that night, while partying with Natalya and Svetlana, Paxton and Josh succumb to the effects of alcohol. Josh stumbles back to the hostel while Paxton passes out in the disco's storage room.

Hours later, Josh wakes up handcuffed to a chair in a dungeon-like room surrounded by power tools and weapons. The Dutch businessman enters in a leather apron and gloves and begins torturing Josh drilling him in his pecs just above josh's nipples. after he is done, the Dutch Business man sits down and talks to Josh, explaining his unfulfilled dreams of being a surgeon. Josh begs to be released, the businessman then cuts Josh's Achilles' tendon and lets him crawl towards the door before finally murdering him.

Across town, Paxton awakens and returns to the hostel to find both Josh and Kana missing. In his room are a different pair of beautiful women inviting him to a spa, eerily similar to Natalya's and Svetlana's offer from before. When the local police chief (Miroslav Táborský) proves unhelpful, Paxton locates Natalya and Svetlana and demands to be taken to an "art show" where he thinks his friends are. They drive to a factory on the outskirts of the town where inside, Paxton sees the Dutch Businessman cutting up Josh's dead body. He screams at Natalya who laughs at him and he is then ambushed by thugs who drag him past cells filled with other backpackers being tortured by various clients. Paxton is taken to his own cell and restrained to a chair, joined minutes later by a German client (Petr Janiš) who tortures him. Distracted by Paxton's ability to plea for his life in German, the client puts a ball-gag in his mouth and tries to kill him with a chainsaw, but before he can begin Paxton starts throwing up. Due to his ball-gag, he starts to choke on his own vomit, and the client quickly removes the ball-gag, probably to stop Paxton dying before he could kill him. He then continues his torture with the chainsaw, but inadvertently saws off Paxton's handcuffs along with his ring and pinky finger before slipping on the blood from Paxton's injury onto the floor. Where the chainsaw cuts off the client's leg. Paxton breaks free and shoots the client in the head with his own gun; When the guard comes to check on the situation Paxton shoots and kills him before escaping dressed in torture gear. He hides in a nearby room to avoid capture from other guards when he finds a collection of victims, he hides under a pile to body parts and is taken to a room where he sees dead bodies being chopped up by a butcher for cremation. Paxton kills the butcher with a hammer, and escapes to the surface where he then peers outside to see police officers conspiring with the factory men. Paxton dresses himself in the clothes of a client, pulling a glove over his mutilated hand, when he discovers a business card for Elite Hunting, now revealed as a secret, worldwide, murder-for-profit organization that charges ascending rates for Slovakians, Europeans, and most of all for Americans. An American businessman (Rick Hoffman) arrives and believing Paxton to be another client, discusses his intended victim and asks Paxton whether to kill her quickly or slowly. Paxton advises administering a quick death, but the American businessman disagrees and decides to resort to torturing, leaving behind a no longer needed firearm before exiting. Paxton steals the firearm and escapes to the courtyard when he hears a woman scream. Unable to ignore it, he returns to the factory and kills the American, now in the middle of burning Kana's face with a blowtorch.

Paxton and Kana flee the factory in a stolen car and heads to the railway station, on the way spotting Alexei, Natalya, and Svetlana from the original hostel. Paxton subsequently runs them over, presumably for revenge. He later runs into the gang of kids and notices that he is in the same car that he was driven in to the 'art show', which has a bag of candy in it. The gang then kills the people chasing Paxton having been bribed with the bag of candy. At the railway station, Kana, who notices the disfigured reflection of her missing eye, is unable to live with her hideous scars and throws herself into the path of an incoming train, distracting the guards and allowing Paxton to escape aboard another train. Once aboard, Paxton hears the familiar voice of Josh's torturer, the Dutch businessman. As the train stops in Vienna, Austria, Paxton follows him to a public restroom and throws the Elite Hunting's card under his stall. When the Dutch businessman reaches down to pick it up, Paxton grabs his hand and, using a scalpel, cuts off the same fingers he lost during his escape. He then breaks in the stall and nearly drowns the Dutch businessman in the toilet bowl, allowing time for him to recognize Paxton, before slitting his throat, killing him. Paxton then leaves to board another train out of Austria.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Production

Chinese promotional poster
Chinese promotional poster

The film was billed as "inspired by true events"; Eli Roth claimed to have read about poverty stricken individuals in Thailand who would sell "members of their family to organized crime, then American and European businessmen would pay $10,000 to walk in a room and shoot them in the head."[1]

Despite the fact that most of the movie is set in a small fictional location near Bratislava, Slovakia, actually not a single sequence was shot in Slovakia. The filming locations were at the Barrandov Studios, in Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic. In addition to the lower costs of filming in the 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.

[edit] Reception

[edit] Box office

The film's opening weekend North American box office gross was $19.5 million, making it the top grossing film that weekend. It went on to gross a total of $47.2 million in the U.S. The film's budget was around $4.5 million,[2] and the film went on to gross over $80 million dollars at the box office worldwide.

[edit] Reviews

The film received mixed reviews from critics. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 58% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 96 reviews.[3] On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 55 out of 100, based on 21 reviews.[4]

Critics attacked the film for its violence, while defenders interpreted it a commentary about Americans' reluctance to travel far from home and ignorance of other cultures.[5] Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw noted that Hostel was "actually silly, crass and queasy. And not in a good way".[6] David Edelstein of New York Magazine credited director Roth with creating the horror sub-genre 'torture porn,' or 'gorno,' using excessive violence to excite audiences like a sexual act.[7] Jean Francois Rauger, film critic for Le Monde, a French newspaper, and programmer of the Cinémathèque Française, listed Hostel as the Best American Film of 2006, and hailed the film as a brilliant comment on capitalism gone too far.[citation needed] Artforum magazine in America called the film the smartest comment in cinema to date on American imperialism.[citation needed] Hostel won the 2006 Empire Award for Best Horror Film. In October 2007 H.M.V. stores' annual Horror poll ranked Hostel on their list of the 10 best horror films of all time. It was the only modern horror film on the list, the most recent after it was made in 1988. Bravo's "100 Scariest Movie Moments: Even Scarier Movie Moments" ranked Hostel as the #1 scariest film moment of all time.

[edit] Controversy

The film received strong pre-release complaints from the country of Slovakia, which is depicted in the film, and also from the Czech Republic. Slovak officials were disgusted by the film's portrayal of their native country as an undeveloped, poor and uncultured country suffering from high criminality, war and prostitution, fearing that it would "damage the good reputation of Slovakia" and would make foreigners feel that it was a dangerous place to be. 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 gypsy kids who kill for bubble gum. Tomas Galbavy, a Slovak Member of Parliament, recently commented: "I am offended by this film. I think that all Slovaks should feel offended."[5]

In his defense, Director Eli Roth said that the film was not meant to be offensive, arguing that "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."[5] To many viewers, Hostel appears to be misplaced, both culturally and geographically. Roth said he did this intentionally, meaning to show American stereotypes of Eastern Europe, while the Americans in the film are portrayed accurately.[8] Roth has repeatedly argued that despite the many films in the The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series, people still go to Texas.[9][10]

At the very first screening of Hostel at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival, two separate ambulances were called from people having such extreme reactions to the film. One man left the theater during Josh's torture, fainted, and tumbled down the escalator, and during Paxton's torture a woman had festival volunteers call an ambulance, claiming the film was giving her a heart attack. Both patrons were okay, and local media thought it was a publicity stunt by director Eli Roth.[citation needed] Roth said he knew nothing of the incidents, as he was in the theater watching the film, and only found out after when he was told by the festival programmer Colin Geddes of the chaos that transpired.[citation needed]

[edit] Sequel

Hostel: Part II is the sequel to Hostel. The film was released on June 8, 2007.

[edit] References

  1. ^ 'Hostel' - Eli Roth Q&A - News - Film - Time Out London
  2. ^ Hostel (2005) - Box office / business
  3. ^ Hostel - Movie Reviews, Trailers, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2008-02-08.
  4. ^ Hostel (2006): Reviews. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2008-02-08.
  5. ^ a b c Movie & TV News @ IMDb.com - WENN - 28 February 2006
  6. ^ Peter Bradshaw: "Hostel" review, at Guardian Unlimited
  7. ^ David Edelstein: Now Playing at Your Local Multiplex: Torture Porn, at New York Magazine, published on January 28th, 2006.
  8. ^ Hostel: April 2006 Archives
  9. ^ Close-Up Film Features
  10. ^ Really Scary Interviews Eli Roth

[edit] External links

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Preceded by
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe		 Box office number-one films of 2006 (USA)
January 8, 2006		 Succeeded by
Glory Road
v • d • e
Films directed by Eli Roth

Cabin Fever • Hostel • Hostel: Part II • Grindhouse (Segment Thanksgiving) • Trailer Trash • Cell