Movie Review- Hostel Part 2

Hostel Part 2 (2007)

Eli Roth

Brief Plot Outline: The film is about 3 girls traveling around Europe when they are persuaded to go to Slovakia where they are kidnapped and taken to a sinister looking building where customers pay to torture and murder the captives. The guy attempting to torture and kill the female survivor messes up and the survivor ends up killing him and escaping.

Which two scenes impressed you the most? Why? When the first of the 3 girls is killed the woman killing her is bathing in her blood. The blood looks so realistic and the whole idea of the torture/death is very disturbing. My second favourite scene consists of a man (a customer) is cutting of slices of human flesh and eating it in front of the victim. The body horror of the victims leg is very graphical and effective.

How has watching the film helped you understand this genre of filmmaking? Which features on the genre checklist did you spot in the film? When? How? Body horror was the most obvious feature. In the above examples the body horror was the most graphic, apart from the female survivor cutting of a client’s penis. Restricted narration is however, also used when the boss of the organization kills a child before the female survivor is captured. The film actually used contrapuntal music at the end when the final girl kills the girl who led to her capture. A cheerful song is playing while she is beheaded. Although the screaming victim isn’t killed first she is definitely being punished for being sexual and promiscuous, the man killing her is talking about her ‘pretty face getting her anything she wanted’. The main theme of the films was obviously a sadistic ideology. Everyone apart from the victims in the film wanted to inflict pain. This explains why the film is sometimes labelled gorenogrophy.

Which aspects of the film would you like to include in your own trailer? Why? I would like to include some sadistic violence in my film as humans who want to inflict pain are quite scary. Psycho killers outside of the CDI really seem to creep horror audiences out, which many horrors take advantage of. Restricted narration, as well, will be in my film trailer as too much body horror looks tacky and less scary. I also liked that the female survivor seemed weak and defenceless then at the end dominates her torturer and this takes away the sexist feel of the film, I would like to include a twist against sexism as many modern horror films also do this.

What aspects of the film would you like to avoid in your own trailer? Why? There was too much gore for the film to be scary; it was more horrific to watch rather than chilling. As the film is set in Easton Europe all of the antagonists have heavy eastern European accents which gives the film a slightly racist feel, although 2 of the ‘clients’ are American, all of the other antagonists are foreign and I would like to avoid stereotyping. I would also avoid leaving the creepy, secluded setting until very late into the film; it made the film less horror and more of an action/thriller.

What was the best aspect/ more enjoyable moment of the film? Why? Can you recreate this in your own film? How? My favourite aspect of the film is how the female survivor not only fights off her torturer and shows herself not to be so weak, but carry’s on to kill her torture and joining the organization and ends up tasking revenge. I would like to recreate this in my film with maybe having a female psycho killer who likes to kill men with a sexual intention/motive.