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Average User Score: 6 (125 sources)

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BoredMark

-1

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As far as gory slasher films go, this is top-notch. There isn't much hidden meaning in this one.

Roth started well with establishing reasoning for anti-American ideas in the backgroud. Up front he showed how they were luring the...
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As far as gory slasher films go, this is top-notch. There isn't much hidden meaning in this one.

Roth started well with establishing reasoning for anti-American ideas in the backgroud. Up front he showed how they were luring the American college kids in about the only way you could get me to go to Eastern Europe.

The film has a feeling of reality that something like this is very possible. There is no giant, cheasy twist in the story, just a slow unveiling of whats really going on, and very well done at that.

I was genuinely surprised at the storyline and how much I enjoyed the movie overall - just don't go into it expecting a tasteful documentary.

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Posted may 2, 2008 7:32 am pt

belial_77

-1

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If I wanted to watch an over-rated fake snuff-film, I would watch one of the Guinea Pig series... But I never have, or can I image, ever will.

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Posted sep 14, 2007 7:02 am pt

lokikitty

-1

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I had high expectations for this film. When one hear words like "disturbing" and "raw" for a film, normally one would expect something of value. I have rarely been so disappointed.

This movie doesn't even know...
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I had high expectations for this film. When one hear words like "disturbing" and "raw" for a film, normally one would expect something of value. I have rarely been so disappointed.

This movie doesn't even know what type of film it wants to be. The first half of the movie was wannabe soft porn, then shifts gears into the quality of movie one would expect to see in a snuff film.

The acting was horrible. The script, well I hope there was a script. The lead characters were the dumbest people I have seen in a movie. Ever. There is one school of thought that proclaims anything that is talked about for days afterward as art. I would have to disagree.

The only thing that saved this film from zero stars was the marketing. It managed to get full ticket price out of me, so it succeeded on that level. I just wish I didn't feel so dirty watching it.

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Posted sep 10, 2007 9:21 pm pt

telvisnostic

-1

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This movie was awful from the start. The gore didn't even make me enjoy it. Do not subject you eyes or ears to this terrible piece of brain sapping nonsense.

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Posted sep 9, 2007 12:54 pm pt

wawaweewa16

-1

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Ths gore fest was dumb from the moment the title card was shown. There was too much sex, stupid characters & a story that seems good but is completely ruined. The cool gore effects keep me from giving this film a lower review

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Posted sep 8, 2007 1:30 am pt

CancerTheCrab

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since my expectations were pretty low for this movie, i ended up liking it. i would say this would be about a $4.00 movie. it had lots of sex in it, kinda like eurotrip, but not funny. it wasnt as grusome as i thought it would be, just a lot of...
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since my expectations were pretty low for this movie, i ended up liking it. i would say this would be about a $4.00 movie. it had lots of sex in it, kinda like eurotrip, but not funny. it wasnt as grusome as i thought it would be, just a lot of screaming, and eye puss. it started off really, really slow, best part was the end. i would say if you like grusome stuff like saw, this movie would be alittle dissapointing. if you see this movie with no expectations you should like it.

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Posted sep 4, 2007 11:22 am pt

Jeric-Ho

-1

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Crap, crap, crap! not even a good story, acting was pathetic and just to end this....how does this get called a horror? nothing even scary about it, or any scenes that even make you jump, all it is, is just abit of gore and blood! rubbish, not...
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Crap, crap, crap! not even a good story, acting was pathetic and just to end this....how does this get called a horror? nothing even scary about it, or any scenes that even make you jump, all it is, is just abit of gore and blood! rubbish, not even going to waste my time watching the 2nd one!

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Posted jul 11, 2007 9:17 am pt

Stijbeta

-1

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Terrible movie, but quality is not what you watch Hostel for.


Hostel is for the gore. The severed limbs, the screwdrivers to the face, and electric circlesaws pointblank to the face. If you want to see this, and much more, you...
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Terrible movie, but quality is not what you watch Hostel for.


Hostel is for the gore. The severed limbs, the screwdrivers to the face, and electric circlesaws pointblank to the face. If you want to see this, and much more, you watch Hostel.

It is no masterpiece. It is not well written. It is not wellfilmed. It's not even your average horror film. It's Saw, but without the plot and quadruple the nasty.


Seriously. Only watch this if all you want to see is brutal violence. Otherwise you'll just be disappointed.

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Posted jun 18, 2007 4:30 am pt

trevs2399

-1

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Hostel was written and directed by eli roth. The film told the story of a few guys who tour europe looking for girls. One night they are coming back and miss the curfew and nearly cause a scene. upon causing it a guy calls them up to his den where...
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Hostel was written and directed by eli roth. The film told the story of a few guys who tour europe looking for girls. One night they are coming back and miss the curfew and nearly cause a scene. upon causing it a guy calls them up to his den where they are told of this place called hostel.

Upon finding out there are girls they set out towards the town. upon going there they think it is heaven but one by one they are sold off for being torured and killed. I liked it alot and thought it was a good horror film. The budget was cheap(approximitally 10 million to make) but it was a well done horror film.

Stuff like this can happen in real life so it is easy to relate to. The movies drawback had to be the gore effects. They were very cheap but concidering the budget of the film it is passable.

I personally think eli roth is going to be one good horror film director and with films like cabin fever,hostel, the fake trailer thanksgiving and the upcoming hostel part 2 I can easily see how much better he is getting to be.

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Posted may 30, 2007 3:18 pm pt

qrp911

-1

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This is a movie that I put off in the first 20 minutes. I was expecting HORROR the whole way through but then suddenly we get erotic porn scenes that mess up the movie.

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Posted may 29, 2007 5:40 pm pt

• [+] Entertainment Weekly
  
  75
  It's obligatory for a horror film to feature exploitative sex as an appetizer, but Roth, even as he fulfills the sleaze imperative, does something shrewder: He mocks his heroes, presenting them as cold-eyed horndog jerks who fail to see that they've wandered into an entire country of exploitation.

  by Owen Gleiberman | Read Full Review »
• [+] TV Guide
  
  75
  It's a back-to-basics, gore-and-gristle look at the no-frills nastiness of 1970s films, in which monsters, mutants and ghosts can't hold a candle to the sheer, unadulterated evil that lurks in the hearts of men.

  by Maitland McDonagh | Read Full Review »
• [+] New York Post
  
  75
  What kind of hellspawn might result if "Saw" bought a copy of "Let's Go: Europe" and went backpacking across Europe to have a one-night stand with Dracula? Something like Hostel.

  by Kyle Smith | Read Full Review »
• [+] Premiere
  
  75
  The entertainingly unhinged Hostel reeks of kneeling reverence to the grisliest of psychotronica while simultaneously striving to out-gore and out-shock its predecessors.

  by Aaron Hillis | Read Full Review »
• [+] Salon.com
  
  70
  I admired the humor, the tremendous craftsmanship and even the shock value of Hostel, but found the Grand Guignol torture scenes excessive. (Unless you're a hardcore fan of Italian, Spanish and Japanese gore flicks, you've never seen anything like this.)

  by Andrew O'Hehir | Read Full Review »
• [+] Washington Post
  
  70
  There's a reason why one goes to see cinematic gorefests like Hostel: to partake vicariously of the bloodfest, to get hopped up on the sickness of it all, the utter degradation, the fall of Western Civilization, yadda yadda yadda, and oh yeah, to hoot at the flying fingers, the guts, the blood, the bare breasts.

  by Teresa Wiltz | Read Full Review »
• [+] The Hollywood Reporter
  
  70
  Eli Roth turns to modern-day Asian fright filmmakers as inspiration for his latest blood-soaked effort while demonstrating an intriguing, original voice of his own.

  by Michael Rechtshaffen | Read Full Review »
• [+] Variety
  
  70
  Hostel may become something of a classic among Fangoria magazine's readership, acolytes of George Romero and audiences who thought "Saw II" was for babies.

  by John Anderson | Read Full Review »
• [+] The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
  
  63
  The thing is just a clunky and tasteless and dumb scare picture, isn't it? Clunky, yes. Tasteless, for sure. But not so dumb I fear.

  by Rick Groen | Read Full Review »
• [+] LA Weekly
  
  60
  Although he damn near slanders an entire country - expect poor Slovakia's tourism industry to take a hit - Roth is not an unskilled ringleader of gory crisis moments, or breathless escapes. The squeamish should simply stay away, but carnage queens will appreciate some of Roth's less grisly, even amusing details.

  by Robert Abele | Read Full Review »
• [+] Los Angeles Times
  
  60
  Seems to have been tailored to its designated R "for brutal scenes of torture and violence, strong sexual content, language and drug use."

  by Jan Stuart | Read Full Review »
• [+] Empire
  
  60
  This is an old-school exercise in shock and gore, with scary ideas and unblinking splatter.

  by Simon Crook | Read Full Review »
• [+] Film Threat
  
  50
  What prevents Hostel from fully harnessing the suspense factor in its rising action, climax, and conflict resolution is the insufficient impetus to pity or to feel too badly for Paxton and Josh.

  by Stina Chyn | Read Full Review »
• [+] Boston Globe
  
  50
  Not horrifying enough.

  by Wesley Morris | Read Full Review »
• [+] The Onion (A.V. Club)
  
  50
  Roth gets the notes right while missing the music: He studiously replicates Miike's unblinking depiction of torture, but without much reflection or wit. It's merely unpleasant and more than a little dumb.

  by Scott Tobias | Read Full Review »