Hostel Part 2

Another sequel. For those not in the know, the original Hostel movie was about a two college friends taking a trip to a hostel in Slovakia and ending up as gore fodder for rich folk seeking their ultimate thrill: to torture and murder backpackers (maybe not only backpackers, but current movie trends suggests these unwitting participants are the main targets). With a strong mix of gratuitous pornography and gore, it doesn't exactly make the best film for a first date. Oops. Maybe that's why she never called again...

The writer and director of Hostel and, indeed, Hostel part 2, is Eli Roth. The only problem here being that Mr Roth's main strengths don't seem to lie with writing and directing. The original was marketed on the gore content and torture scenes, and knocked The Chronicles of Narnia off the #1 spot at the box office; a scary peek at the mindset of the populace.

The sequel has been marketed on... er... the gore content and torture scenes, but this time its a little different. The sales pitch could have gone something like this: "Imagine Hostel again. But this time, lets have girls instead of guys!" That's about the height of the change. Those movie-making guys, they've got smarts.

Okay. At least with girls we have a bit more eye candy to watch, right guys? Well, with very little nudity, bar the odd bit of full frontal male and one scene later on, it doesn't challenge in that respect (honestly mum, I wasn't watching out for any rude bits). What we have is another poorly scripted group of characters walking into stupid predicaments. Haven't we learnt by now that eastern Europe is no place to go? They all wear black leather jackets with dark clothing, have shaven heads and insane glints in their eyes, don't they?

I have to say that I thought this film was a bit better than its predecessor, it had another angle on the gruesome goings-on by following characters on the other side, those that pay for the pleasure of the killing, and an interesting death scene involving a bath, a scythe and two naked women. However, more than just whether it was a case of 'liked it' or 'hated it' Hostel 2 raises the interesting debate about what is acceptable.

Now, I'm not one for censorship, but with a film like this, where do you draw the line? If this were some hard-to-get film like the infamous movies from the 70's and 80's, then okay. Most people would have to search hard before coming across those gore-soaked classics. But the fact that it is a pretty major, well-marketed release is a worrying sign of the times. There is a trend of pushing the boundaries, making movies as shocking as possible that is starting to, in my opinion, get out of hand. Movies such as Hostel, Saw, Captivity and Paradise Lost contain torture and murder for the sake of torture and murder. Even 10 years ago these movies would not have been granted a release, whereas now they are major players in this new horror sub genre. I'm not saying they should be banned or censored, I happen to like these sorts of movies, but with society in general getting more and more hostile and violent, maybe its time to re-analyse. Or perhaps I'm getting too old.