The Hostel

[Pigeon]

"Edward Saladhands" was the Dutch guy who set them up.

No, don't think so: it Edward was the name they gave the weirdo on the train who's, like, such a savage he can't even use a knife & fork and who, having been telegraphed so early on as weirdo turns out to be- wow- a weirdo. Though, in fairness, the name "Edward Saladhands" is possibly the one memorable piece of dialogue.

The guy in the hostel doesn't seem to have a name and was some sort of non-specific East European, but turns up later in Slovakia and is mates with the callous Slovak sluts. They're all, like, foreign, anyway. Dutch,Slovak- like, whatever.

 

[Reno]

Seems like you missed half of the plot there. They meet the Dutch guy on the train at the start (where he eats salad with his hands and touches the leg of his future victim). They meet him again at the disco. He then tortures and murders one of them and he's there again at the end on the train (eating salad with his hands again) and then he gets killed in revenge by the surviving guy.

I didn't think the film was very interested in character "complexity". It was more of a black comedy where the immature randiness of something like Porky's (or any US teenage sex comedy) gets its comeuppance at the hands of medieval style European decadence. I saw it as more of a satire or a deliberately over the top cautionary tale than as something that should be taken at face value.

 

[Reno]

.

 

[Pigeon]

Seems like you missed out half of the plot there. They meet the Dutch guy on the train at the start (when he eats saled with his ends), they meet him again at the discohe then tortures and kills one of them and he's there again at the end when he gets killed by the surviving guy.

Geezer, trust me: I know full well who the guy on the train is, where they meet him, what tattoos he's got etc. But thank you for expalining the complexity of the plot to me.

You may be right, he may be Dutch, rather than Slovak- though he talks to the Gypsy kids in Slovakian outside the disco. Point I'm making is that all the European characters other than the Icelandic one turn are presented as identikit sadists who want,more than anything else on earth, to pay good money to torture and kill healthy young all American boys.

But the real point I'm making is that, for all its gore, the film's really quite, well, boring.

 

[Firky]

Well I wasn't expecting to see an amazing film, but just a gore fest. It delivered and it was pretty good at it too. Wasn't quite as good as Switchblade Romance because of the precarious lighting (you couldn't see the gore properly), but it was alright. Just a typical slasher b-movie parody and not an amazingly gruesome one either.

 

[rutabowa]

Just a typical slasher b-movie parody and not an amazingly gruesome one either.

bah i knew it.

 

[May Kasahara]

Has anyone else seen Rabid btw, I remember enjoying the first 30 minutes where they escape a lab after a motorcycle accident. Then they find that freaky skeleton monster in the room or something...help anyone, it's a lost favourite.

I love Rabid, it's a Cronenberg classic.

E2A: and very cheaply available on DVD.

 

[Wide Eyed Angel]

I watched this yesterday and I don't think I've seen a more sick and twisted film. I had to walk out the room at some parts

I had hoped that this would be what the film was like but it really wasn't that gory, it dribbled on a lot at the start with what's been repeated her with the european introduction making the american's/icelandic seem like an annoying bunch that I was quite looking forward to seeing the impending wrongness comence on them. We saw nothing of what happened to the first one, barely more of the second. The posters made it sound like it was going to be the most depraved film I'd ever imagine and it didn't even come close. I'm not sure if this should worry me.

 

[IPRN]

It looks shite in the trailer, and the only review I've read of it slags the fuck out of it.

 

[Sunray]

I had hoped that this would be what the film was like but it really wasn't that gory, it dribbled on a lot at the start with what's been repeated her with the european introduction making the american's/icelandic seem like an annoying bunch that I was quite looking forward to seeing the impending wrongness comence on them. We saw nothing of what happened to the first one, barely more of the second. The posters made it sound like it was going to be the most depraved film I'd ever imagine and it didn't even come close. I'm not sure if this should worry me.

Its hilarious,a very twisted version of the Beach if you thing about it. What kept me watching was wondering what method of torture they were going to use next and if they could top previous 'oohh nasty' moments. I thought they were quite inventive.

Suprisingly managing to keep the sadisim up for some time. Big hole, if you were free and in that cell you could just dress up as a customer and then walk through the place with a chain saw killing everyone without being noticed, its not as if people being chainsaw'd to death was an uncommon sound was it?

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

It looks shite in the trailer, and the only review I've read of it slags the fuck out of it.

Thats what I have heard too but it's got Miike Takashi in it which is enough for me.

I met Roth a few years ago when he was promoting his cabin fever DVD, he was such a top bloke and not many are.

 

[bonjour]

Saw this recently, shit as fuck, well shit considering it's from Tarantino. He's capable of something much more.
Im a huge Tarantino fan and all the films Ive seen from him have depth to them. But Hostel was just rubbish. As a horror film its an average 5/10 film, but as a Tarantino film, it's poor.
A few cool scenes here and there, but not worthy of being added to my collection of DVDs when it comes out. Pff.

 

[winston smith]

shite, shite, and more shite !

The bit were he removes the asian girls eye made me laugh out loud, it looked like a scene from the toxic avenger!

that said i liked the icelandic guys catch phrase (of course my horse )

give me cannibal holocaust any day

 

[Reno]

Saw this recently, shit as fuck, well shit considering it's from Tarantino. He's capable of something much more.
Im a huge Tarantino fan and all the films Ive seen from him have depth to them. But Hostel was just rubbish. As a horror film its an average 5/10 film, but as a Tarantino film, it's poor.
A few cool scenes here and there, but not worthy of being added to my collection of DVDs when it comes out. Pff.

Read the thread (or the credits). The film has as good as nothing to do with Tarantino.

 

[bonjour]

My bad, although he was the executive producer, I guess it's more Eli Roth fucking up.
Ugh I feel like Tarantino's name has been tainted by such an awful film.

 

[KellyDJ]

I had hoped that this would be what the film was like but it really wasn't that gory, it dribbled on a lot at the start with what's been repeated her with the european introduction making the american's/icelandic seem like an annoying bunch that I was quite looking forward to seeing the impending wrongness comence on them. We saw nothing of what happened to the first one, barely more of the second. The posters made it sound like it was going to be the most depraved film I'd ever imagine and it didn't even come close. I'm not sure if this should worry me.

Did we watch the same film? Drilling holes in people, and peoples eyes being burnt out and then cut off, not gory? There must be something wrong with me then cause I thought it was a bit sick.