Like director Eli Roth's debut horror flick Cabin Fever, Hostel has an intriguing idea at its core but is fatally fluffed in the execution. Sitting squarely in the noughties mini-fad for sadistic, almost exploitative horror (Saw and its sequel being prime examples), it follows a trio of backpackers who venture into the heart of Eastern Europe on a promise of easy sex. Once there, they are lured into an abandoned factory that acts as the location for a bizarre "snuff ring" in which depraved businessmen pay for the pleasure of torturing teenagers to death - Americans, inevitably, bring the highest price. The film starts well, playing cleverly and presciently on US xenophobia, and it certainly delivers on the chain saw, masonry drill and blowtorch fronts. But Roth fails to generate any real atmosphere of dread and the screenplay takes a turn for the worse by abandoning its "video nasty" roots and degenerating into an inept attempt at a Hollywood chase movie.