Hostel: Part II (AF)

Stars: Lauren German, Roger Bart, Heather Matarazzo, Bijou Phillips, Richard Burgi, Vera Jordanova, Milan Knazko, Stanislav Ianevski

Director: Eli Roth

Writer-directir Roth followed his first film, the unpretentious, efficiently scary shocker Cabin Fever with the unpleasantly sadistic Hostel, which made a fortune thanks to its well-staged, truly terrifying scenes of (male) American backpackers suffering at the hands of the sick sadists who have paid a fortune to torture them.

Hostel, the production notes smugly inform us, became an international hit, claiming the top spot at the US box office in its $20 million opening weekend. Since money matters more than anything else in the movies, Roth returns with an even sicker, more sadistic, utterly vile sequel. This time, however, the victims are women, presumably to ensure coverage of all possible box-office and demographic bases.

Its simply a pile of poop but the title Quentin Tarantino Presents Hostel, Part II, may go a little way to explaining its sheer unpleasantness. Like the luckless sufferers in Hostel, here three female American tourists, German, Phillips and Matarazzo, are lured to Darkest Slovakia and end up being variously tortured (by the highest bidders in a world-wide auction) in a grim factory.

Roth shamelessly panders to the lowest common denominator horrorflick fan with a piece of putrid torture porn that, because its technically well made, is even more morally repugnant and loathsome as Turistas/Paradise Lost, Captivity and, of course, Hostel, taking no chances at the box office by essentially remaking the original with little more than a change of sex. Along the way a child is shot. One can only just hope and pray that its not a clue that Roth is considering child torture for Hostel: Part III.

Alan Frank

USA 2007. UK Distributor: Sony. Colour.
94 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 18.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 3, Violence/Horror 3, Drugs 2, Swearing 3.

Review date: 25 Jun 2007