Hostel

Eli Roth has a sick mind, very sick. Hostel is his follow up to 2002's Cabin Fever, a movie I did not like, but it had some nice ideas and very nice gore. Now this one, this one is something else, this one will make young Americans totally avoid going backpacking to Eastern Europe for a while, as our heroes Jay Hernandez's Paxton and Derek Richardson's Josh meet with Oli (Eythor Gudjonsson), a crazy Icelander, and together travel through Europe in search for sex, booze and more sex. They find all that of course, because there's a saying that "if you ask 20 women in any European city to fuck you, at least one of them will", but they also find something they hope they had never found.

There's a torture house, but the people in there are nice. They are in Bratislava, Slovakia, and they put you in a nice hotel, let you stay in the same room with beautiful naked women (check out the gorgeous and amazingly hot Natalya, played by Barbara Nedeljakova), they let you fuck these wonderful young women the first night, but the next night prepare because they are going to kidnap you, strap you to a chair, and then they are going to fuck you in the ass. Not literally though, but what happens to you could be anything, literally. And the reason why it all happens it's great so I won't spoil it.

But the movie starts with the guys partying and trying to get laid, and we get nudity, lots of it. And once the torture begins the movie is a feast for any horror fan. The things put in there are homage to Takashi Miike's work (especially Audition), but it's also from Roth own rotten mind. For example, and the only thing I'll mention (it's much better to experience these things than to read them here), it's a scene involving an eyeball that almost kills you of how much disgusting it is. And it's amazing.

Quentin Tarantino produced the movie and "presents" it even though it's not his movie. He does it because the movie really deserves to be seen and his name there will probably attract lots of people. For those that get scared easily and want some laughs, the movie delivers too. There's the classic guys banter, and there's also a bunch of creepy kids that show up every now and then asking for money and they are hilarious.
The excellent make-up effects by Greg Nicotero (Land of the Dead, Kill Bill, Sin City) make for so much good, realistic gore, and the atmosphere and tension Roth creates once the characters get to the torture house is truly terrifying. Hostel is fucking sick, and that's a very good thing. My hat (if I'd wear one) is off to you, Eli Roth. Can't wait for what you have in store for us next.