Hostel
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
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I’ll never forget when Hostel first came out and was the taboo horror film of my lifetime (or so it seemed). Eli Roth was a rising name in splatter gore, and this film was meant to completely change the tables in the same ways that Saw and A Serbian Film would also apparently do so afterwards. As a teenager, Hostel delivered for me. I used to only be into horror flicks, and I got my fix. I guess you could say that the film was made for fans like I used to be. Well, too bad. I am who I am now, and I feel like Hostel — when critiqued fairly and soundly — is so insanely lopsided that it’s actually frustrating. I get that the emphasis will always be on gore in horror films, but Hostel is borderline desperate with how much it solely cares about this side of its story, despite how it has glimpses of something a little more interesting.
That side of the story is a dangerous part of the world that preys on naive tourists (although the damage that Central Europe’s tourism industry received after the release of Hostel isn’t fun or accurate). For the first act, you can barely tell that Hostel even is a horror film, as you view a gang of friends traverse and party around Europe. This all ends once Hostel plunges into its main premise at an instant, and it’s a switcheroo that you’ll expect (because you’ll be watching Hostel only for this horror portion of the film) and yet it feels pleasantly startling. After that, it’s all a contest of seeing how much worse these acts of torture are as the victims aim to escape this insane industry they are now a part of (their lives being sacrificed for the entertainment of others).
There are the smallest glimpses of humanity in Hostel, but it isn’t enough to make the film feel rounded.
There are hints of humanity and nuance in Hostel, but not many, and not enough to make the ride feel worthwhile. Although the question of how far one’s perseverance can save a soul is interesting (one particular story arc of a supporting character, which I’m avoiding spoiling, is a key example of this), Hostel as an end result barely cares about having this discussion in full. Make way for the extreme levels of gore instead. As a teenager, this didn’t matter to me, because I was there to see blood and the kinds of images that could scar me for life (I was a very twisted teenager). As a mature adult with taste, Hostel is just too half baked if it’s going to pretend to be about something more poignant, and a film cannot just be scares without actual substance or a solid foundation. It’s like eating a cake, but there’s only the icing and the rest of the ingredients are mush. How far are you really gonna go with your enjoyment of such a concoction? That’s Hostel: a film that is effective as a session of shocks and gasps, but borderline useless as anything else.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.