Movie Review - “Hostel 2″
** 1/2 STARS
Last year Eli Roth’s “Hostel” debuted with stellar numbers in the #1 slot and shocked millions of horror movie lovers with his over the top vision of horror. Some people call this type of horror film “slasher porn” or “gore porn”. The underlined sexual nature is there, but the creepy images of torture and killings are intensely graphic and at times are a bit comedic. Eli Roth did a fabulous job balancing the dynamic of comedy and gore in “Hostel” but he loses a bit of his edge in the follow up, “Hostel 2″.
There were a few fleeting moments of genius in this movie. In the last 5 minutes of this film and in a part of the movie I will only describe as the “castration scene”, there are some glimmers of brilliant dark comedy (and I mean dark). This movie is not for someone who has a light stomach or cannot stand the blood and carnage of horror films like “Saw” or “Halloween”. This movie goes above and beyond anything you have ever witnessed on the big screen in terms of gore.
One thing Roth does well is creating real to life characters and situations in his films. These aren’t the same sex crazed teenagers from the “Friday the 13th” movies. There is always a bit of gritty realism added to his plots and characters. This movie does have less of that movie magic than it’s predecessor. All in all it was a fun ride, but not as satisfying as the original.
I am excited to what Eli Roth does with the Stephen King novel “Cell”. “Cell” involves zombies, and mass destruction of cities and the end of society from one electronic pulse emanating from a phone call. It will be fun to see what Roth does when using material with this big of a scope. As for this time around, “Hostel 2″ was not as good as the original and not as fun as his first feature “Cabin Fever”.
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