I saw Hostel ages ago, and was disappointed. The horror wasn’t as gruesome as I had been promised, and the “surprise” ending was ridiculously obvious. Like Saw and this new era of “extreme” horror, I was promised heinous and gut-wrenching horror. I get my hopes up and am usually disappointed. With the exception of maybe Rob Zombie’s films, no modern-day movie can reach the disturbing heights of 1960s/1970s classics such as I Spit on Your Grave, Last House On the Left, and Cannibal Holocaust.
Maybe it was because I had no expectations, or maybe this was simply a superior film. But I really, really enjoyed Hostel Part II. This one follows three female art students as they travel from Italy to Prague. On the way, the hostel “recruiter” convinces them to join her at a Slovakia spa. And of course, it is there that the ladies become hamburger, so to speak.
What sets Hostel Part II apart from its predecessor is that you get to see how the other half live. You see how the Hostel clients bid on their victims in a fierce, covert online auction. The film spends just as much time following the two men who bought two of our leading ladies (the third was killed off rather quickly, in an ode to Erzabet Bathory). And it is these two men who I find far more fascinating. Scream queens are a dime a dozen; they have been around since film was invented. There is not much new territory to explore with female victims. But the killers have stories to tell. And not just the psychopaths like Michael Myers; or the sociopaths like Hannibal Lecter; or the paranormal evil of Freddy Krueger. These are just normal guys. Both have families; both hold well paying jobs. But you get to see them, beginning to end, as they buy human beings like cattle - and plot a far worse slaughter.
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