Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2412 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-10-22
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Box set, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 180 minutes

Amazon.co.uk

Hostel

Well made for the genre (the excessive-skin-displayed-before-gruesome-bloody-torture-begins genre, that is) 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 humour 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 afficionados, Hostel features a nice cameo by Takashi Miike, director of bloody Japanese flicks like Audition and Ichi the Killer. --Bret Fetzer

Synopsis

Hostel 2

With only one film under his belt and the endorsement of Quentin Tarantino, Eli Roth became a virtual horror brand with Hostel, a yarn about a group of thrill-seeking American college dudes backpacking through Europe, only to be seduced into a Slovakian money-for-torture ring where they became the prey.

The sequel begins right where that film left off, filling us in on the whereabouts of lone survivor Paxton (Jay Hernandez). But before long, we see that gender roles are reversed and we are travelling with sensible Beth (Lauren German), hedonistic Whitney (Bijou Phillips), and virginal Lorna (Heather Matarazzo). After tussling with a gaggle of shifty men on a train, they meet Axelle (Vera Jordanova), a gorgeous woman who persuades them to follow her to a rejuvenating spa in Slovakia. As the trio checks into the same infamous hostel, Roth shows us the inner workings of the previously mysterious torture club. Once the girls are put up on the auction block, online bidding begins among the club's members---who are revealed to be prominent international business-people.

After Beth and Whitney are won by type-A American corporate jerk Todd (Richard Burgi), who believes that killing someone will give him power, and his reluctant associate, Stuart (Roger Bart), the film shifts to the preparations for their inaugural slayings within the bloody walls of the warehouse. For those who embraced Hostel's abrupt tonal shifts and very realistic gore, Roth serves up amplified doses of both in his follow-up. Astute horror fans will find a few amusing in-jokes among the carnage, but beware---things get incredibly strong, and Roth's charnel house chic intends to offend.

Synopsis
Features the Eli Roth horror films HOSTEL and HOSTEL PART 2, which both see young American tourists stay at a terrifying hostel in Slovakia that caters for very specific needs.
In HOSTEL, two young Americans embark upon a backpacking trip across Europe. A fellow traveller recommends a hostel in Bratislava that is full of attractive women who love Americans. However when the two men arrive at their destination, they find themselves in a terrifying situation.
In HOSTEL PART 2, American backpackers Beth, Whitney, and Lorna are travelling around Europe when they meet Axelle, a gorgeous woman who persuades them to follow her to a rejuvenating spa in Slovakia. However, the spa/hostel in question has some nasty surprises in store for the trio.

Customer Reviews

Buckets Of Blood. Tons Of Torture. An Epic Boxset.
As a film reviewer, I've never really understood why so many people hate the 'Hostel' franchise. I can understand that people may find it disturbing and that it is very twisted in many ways but I can't get my head around why they are 'bad' films?

They are great films in my opnion, you know you are watching a good film when you feel shudders run down your spine, you know your watching a good film when you look around every corner to see if someone's there, you know you are watching a good film when you feel so involved in the film's element and you can't escape from it, that is what these films do fantastically.
Eli Roth has totally redeemed himself with these two diamonds after his first motion picture, 'Cabin Fever' which was without a doubt, the poorest and most terrible excuse of a 'Teen Horror' I think I have ever seen.

These two films are an essential to anyone's DVD collection and this boxset is a fantastic price. These are two ideal films to watch over this Halloween period.

Before you start thinking that I believe hours of mindless violence makes a film good(which it doesn't on any terms), if you haven't seen either of the 'Hostel' films, watch them and see for yourself.
They are an acquired in all respect but they are thoroughly enjoyable and take a step away from violence in reality for a while.

Unnecessarily Hostel?
Me and my homies down at the baptist church found these films to be rather distasteful.
It contained unnecessary amounts of violence although which hilarious, ruined the film's other wise pleasent atmospheric climate. The film's setting was rather well chosen, with strong credit going to the director, for generally shooting two terrific films.

And The One Star Is For Hostel 2
Director Eli Roth who made the dreadful Cabin Fever hits the jackpot with these two pieces of garbage masquerading as Horror.

In Hostel three male backpackers travelling around Europe are seduced to Slovakia on the promise of hot women only to find themselves victims of a torture factory where wealthy men and women can murder them in any way they wish for a price.

In Hostel 2 same story just substitute girls for boys with slicker production values and more backstory for the torturers, two of which are graced with a sports style montage before going into "kill mode"(I kid you not).

Decent production values are left marooned by cardboard characters,woeful performances(admittedly you care more about the girls than the boys),laughable villains(admittedly there are some I wouldn't want to meet on a dark night but isn't that the point?) and in both films we see a gang of feral children who are portrayed as something akin to a cross between the Bash Street Kids and homicidal dwarfs on speed and I never saw the Bash Street kicking round a severed head and the plot twists you could drive a bus through(on Hostel's extras there is an alternative ending that if it had been used would have sent the film into the realms of comedy).

Very gruesome in places although again Roth pulls his punches by having some of the key moments off camera,the basic failing of these Two films and emblematic of Roth's career to date is they are just Not SCARY!!!.
Until he can achieve a balance between depravity,scares and sympathetic protagonists(yes you really do have to care whether they survive or not),Roth will remain exactly where he is ...a purveyor of glossy trash for the undemanding.

Giving these films 5 stars(as a previous"film reviewer"did)is akin to saying that Vinnie Jones was the most technically gifted midfielder of his generation.Both assertions are nonsense and if you really think that these two films are at the cutting edge of horror,before you post your disagreement think about this list
Whip and the Body(Bava at his best)
Suspiria(delirious and frightening)
Halloween(the ultimate slasher film)
Hills Have Eyes(the original superbly unsettling and the remake's not bad either)
and if you don't think that the opening sequence in Wes Craven's Scream isn't hands down more frightening than anything in these two films then post away because you are an idiot.