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Hostel
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Hostel
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Summary
Horror from the director of Cabin Fever, starring Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson and Eythor Gudjonsson. Lured into darkest Slovakia by the promise of casual sex with easy local girls, three excited backpackers instead stumble upon the nightmarish world of a snuff ring.
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IMDB
Review
A star rating of 2 out of 5.
Adam Smith
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.
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5.9/10
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Credits
Cast
rolenamePaxtonJay HernandezJoshDerek RichardsonOliEythor GudjonssonNatalyaBarbara NedeljakovaDutch BusinessmanJan VlasakSvetlanaJana KaderabkovaKanaJennifer LimJapanese clientTakashi MiikeAmerican clientRick Hoffman
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Crew
rolenameDirectorEli Roth
Details
Theatrical distributor
Columbia TriStar
Released on
2006-03-24
Languages
English | Czech | German | Russian | Japanese | Slovak | Icelandic | Spanish | Dutch
Guidance
Violence, swearing, sex scenes, drug abuse and nudity.
Available on
DVD and Blu-ray
Formats
Colour
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