With “Hostel”, Eli Roth not only created a zeitgeist phenomenon, but also a really good horror film that still works brilliantly today. For FILMSTARTS editor Pascal Reis, the reason is obvious: Roth has understood the genre.
Eli Roth (“Knock Knock”) has been one of the interesting filmmakers of contemporary horror cinema for twenty years now. This is mainly because Roth not only has a pronounced passion for the harder pace (blood, gore and co. are all part of the man’s tone), but also because he has mastered the mechanisms of the genre, constantly playing with them without displaying a didactic gesture. His debut, the epidemic shocker “Cabin Fever”, was already an ambiguous, self-reflective FSK 18 smash hit.
“Hostel”, probably Eli Roth’s best-known directorial work to date, is cut from a fairly similar cloth, but still sees itself as a completely different viewing experience. Even if you can recognise some black humour here and there, this representative of torture porn is no winking genre fun, but a deeply bilious reckoning with misery tourism, sensationalism and the perverse manifestations of modern capitalism. You haven’t seen “Hostel” yet? Then you can catch up on the film right now with a Netflix subscription.
WHAT “HOSTEL” IS ABOUT
Party, alcohol and lots of fast sex. That’s exactly what the two American backpackers Paxton (Jay Hernandez) and Josh (Derek Richardson) expect. They met the Icelander Oli (Eythor Gudjonsson) on their European tour and have been travelling as a trio ever since. A promising secret tip soon sends the holidaymakers to a hostel in Bratislava.
Here they meet the beauties Natalya (Barbara Nedeljakova) and Svetlana (Jana Kaderabkova) and a night of drinking follows. The next morning, however, Oli is nowhere to be found. Paxton and Josh set off to look for him, but are unsuccessful. When Josh also disappears from the face of the earth without a trace, it is clear to Paxton that his buddies urgently need help. But the nightmare has only just begun…
A MODERN TORTURE CLASSIC
It’s fair to say that there have been few films in the last 20 years or so that have had such an impact on the genre as “Hostel”. This already starts with the borderline-genius viral marketing, which for a long time gave the impression that we were in for what was probably the toughest film of all time. In the end, this was not the case, but anyone who was still at school when “Hostel” was released in cinemas will remember that there was really only one topic in the schoolyard: Who dares to watch “Hostel”? Who has seen “Hostel”? Who knows people who have already seen “Hostel” and can tell about it?
With a little distance, however, one will quickly realise that “Hostel” does not need torrents of blood to unleash its violence. Although Eli Roth is certainly not squeamish when it comes to brutality, the film lives above all from the eerie idea that in some remote industrial complex such cruel things actually go on as Eli Roth describes in his film. What an authentic scaremonger “Hostel” really is can also be seen from the fact that the city of Bratislava posted a letter online in which it was made clear that as a tourist you don’t have to fear for your life here, but can have a good time.
Paxton
Clever thing about “Hostel” is the fact that Eli Roth mirrors depravity and exploitation. While our backpackers are first and foremost busy indulging in their own lust in a completely reckless and selfish manner and are continuously on the lookout for the ultimate fuck paradise, the tide turns very quickly. The exploiters, after all, become commodities when they finally end up in the net of a human trafficking ring. Roth quotes his way through the exploitation cinema of the 1970s and, just like this, always takes the horror back to its origins. Here there are no supernatural beings, only people who have too many opportunities to act out their inner cruelty.
In the end, “Hostel” deals with a society dominated by power fantasies, which cannibalises itself in an endless vicious circle – both figuratively and in a very physical sense. However, it should not be forgotten that “Hostel” also functions as a superficial shocker that deals with human abysses and turns into a real revenge thriller in the last third. Eli Roth never advocates the intended act of revenge, but rather makes it comprehensible from a human point of view. And if you just think about how tangible all the horror is here, you can only feel sick.
