Product Description

Presented by genre master Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2) and directed by Eli Roth (Cabin Fever) Hostel is a shocking and relentless film in the tradition of Saw about two American backpackers (Jay Hernandez Friday Night Lights and Derek Richardson Dumb and Dumberer) in Europe who find themselves lured in as victims of a murder-for-profit business.Paxton and Josh two college friends are lured by a fellow traveler to what's described as a nirvana for American backpackers a particular hostel in an out-of-the-way Slovakian town stocked with Eastern European women as desperate as they are gorgeous. The two friends arrive and soon easily pair off with exotic beauties Natalya and Svetlana. In fact too easily...Initially distracted by the good time they're having the two Americans quickly find themselves trapped in an increasingly sinister situation that they will discover is as wide and as deep as the darkest sickest recess of human nature itself if they survive.System Requirements:Run Time: 94 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS Rating: UNRATED UPC: 043396138384 Manufacturer No: 13838

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17905 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2006-04-18
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Czech, Dutch, English, German, Icelandic, Japanese, Russian, Slovak, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Dubbed in: French, Portuguese
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 94 minutes

Amazon.com
Well-made for the genre--the excessive-skin-displayed-before-gruesome-bloody-torture-begins genre--Hostel follows two randy Americans (Jay Hernandez, Friday Night Lights, and Derek Richardson, Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd) and an even randier Icelander (Eythor Gudjonsson) as they trek to Slovakia, where they're told beautiful girls will have sex with anyone with an American accent. Unfortunately, the girls will also sell young Americans to a company that offers victims to anyone who will pay to torture and murder. To his credit, writer/director Eli Roth (Cabin Fever) takes his time setting things up, laying a realistic foundation that makes the inevitable spilling of much blood all the more gruesome. The sardonic joke, of course, is that Americans are worth the most in this brothel of blood because everyone else in the world wants to take revenge upon them. This dark humor and political subtext help set Hostel above its more brainless sadistic compatriots, like House of Wax or The Devil's Rejects. In general, though, there's something lacking; horror used to suggest some threat to the spirit--today's horror can conceive of nothing more troubling than torturing the flesh. For aficionados, Hostel features a nice cameo by Takashi Miike, director of bloody Japanese flicks like Audition and Ichi the Killer. --Bret Fetzer

On the DVD
The first question most fans will ask is, "Where is the unrated footage?" Surprisingly, the only new footage to be found is 30 seconds added to the Fulci-esque "eyegasm" sequence (as it's affectionately referred to in the executive producers' commentary.) The meat, shall we say, of the DVD is in the extras, particularly in "HOSTEL Dissected" (a three part "making of" featurette) and the four feature-length commentaries. The featurette is very amusing mainly because of the wicked irony of the film crew having so much fun making a film whose subject manner is so graphic and unsettling. Some of the highlights include Eli Roth joking at a press conference about Icelandic actor Eythor Gudjonsson ("Oli") and how he is going to replace Björk as Iceland's big star, only to be picked up on Icelandic news as a confrontational proclamation. Also priceless is Roth telling actress Jennifer Lim ("Kana") that Hostel is inspired by true events about a similar place in Thailand, and she gullibly eats it up. The best extra by far is the executive producer's feature length commentary with Quentin Tarantino. During the film they discuss many topics including whether Hostel is a "horror" film or a "thriller," how they got away with an R rating, why the new breed of highly graphic horror films are so popular, why European actresses are less uptight about nudity, director Takashi Miike's cameo, and all the extra grossed-out ideas they never filmed but would love to add. Looking at Hostel you would think they're all a bunch of sadistic and creepy guys, but after listening to their commentary, nothing could be further from the truth. They all simply just love the horror genre, love filmmaking and are having a blast making their movies. What is great about the extras on this DVD is they really breathe life into the filmmakers' personalities and thought processes. If you think that Hotel is a simple soft-core torture film, watching the extras and listening to the commentaries may help change your perspective. --Rob Bracco

Customer Reviews

Ghastly
I really enjoyed Cabin Fever, which is partially what made Hostel such a letdown. Hostel is a movie that revels in pure sadism. It's not the first movie to do that sort of thing, but it does so in a way that is gratuitous and rather pointless, as though the writers and producers had lost interest in the plot and were trying to one-up each other to see who could come up with the grossest torture and nastiest injuries. Atmosphere is not a problem in the movie, but the gore-for-the-sake-of-gore element that drives the movie renders it unfulfilling as a viewing experience. The ending is also somewhat silly. Overall, a ghastly movie full of rather grotesque tortures that really don't aim towards any greater contextual purpose except to show off the crew's vivid imaginations. The film is not for those lacking strong constitutions.

So bad it's bad.
I saw this movie hoping it might be like the first Saw (i.e. have some orginality and true scariness - unlike the sequels), but was highly disappointed.
There is nothing scary, just disgusting torture and violence (that you know is completely fake), so the movie just looks gross, nothing more.

Not that good...
Really though, what can you expect from the director of that Cabin movie??

I thought this would be like the new name in terror films from the way people were talking, but overall, this was just kind of weak.

The movie had some good gore scenes if that is what you are into and some naked beautiful women which I always enjoy, but as a movie...ehhh...not very exciting.

The story is really linear and boring, not thought-provoking at all, and although I usually love the films that Tarantino endorses, after watching this all that I could think of is, "What the heck was that piece of crap?"

The movie is not completely without merits, as I mention women and gore, but really it was not entertaining. If I wanted to watch a good terror type of film that is also entertaining and meaningful, I would NEVER watch this.

We bought this, watched it once, and then gave it to a friend. Really, if you are a fan of the genre, then check it out, but I would not suggest wasting your money on this. By buying it, you are giving people hope for this level of film making, and really, that is just not right at all.