Monday Movie Madness - Movie Review "Hostel"

Our Rating **** (4stars)

After writing the review for Rampage last week where I mentioned the blood and guts movies like Saw, Hostel and The Human Centipede, I thought I had better challenge myself and watch and review one of these. Kind of wish now that I hadn't.
We had seen, and been repulsed by, the original Saw movie many years ago, so generally we tend to stay away from this kind of film. As reasonably gentle folk we just don't need these thoughts in our lives, and the wonders of modern film making make that graphic nature of these movies really stay with you for quite some time.

This 2005 movie from Eli Roth is down right chilling.
The violence is "next level" and very graphic, but I found the concept to be even more chilling, as it is supposedly based on true events, and portrayed in such a way that it is all very unbelievable.
You could imagine that, given the degree of moral decay we now have in our society, somewhere out there is a company running such a murder for fun and profit operation.
I would not enjoy, nor want to know the numbers of young travellers that go missing each year globally whilst travelling in foreign lands, never to be heard from again. It is terrifying to think that some of the wonderful travellers I have met over the years could be the unlucky ones to meet their end in this kind of torture inspired terror.

The premise for the movie is that there is a hostel in Eastern Europe which acts as a recruiting ground for a "murder for profit" business. Young, predominantly male backpackers are lured into staying by gorgeous Slovakian young ladies, they are made to feel "very welcome" and then nek minnut, sorry, next minute....

The movie made quite a bit of money (around USD$80.5million) from an initial budget of just shy of USD$5million, and spawned a follow up film Hostel 2 in 2007. The tourism board of Slovania was less than thrilled however.

The impression you really do get from the movie is that Eastern Europe really is the last place you would ever want to travel. The way that the film is constructed, directed and shot is quite brilliant - the sense of realism is sobering. The actors do quite a convincing job, the script does not stretch the story too much, and the graphic violence is enough to be believable and more than enought to create a disturbed sense of complete apathy on behalf of some of the characters for the fate of others. The complicit nature of interconnected characters, the girls in the hostel, the hostel management, the "sales agent" in Amsterdam, the local police generates a deep seated question about the morality of our collective society - what will a group of people do for the big money?

Thsi movie does not compared to the likes of SAW to me. The violence in SAW seemed quite contrived and there as a part of a plot based around shock value. HOSTEL on the other hand is slightly less graphically violent but way more scarring and jolting as this kind of thing could be happening all over the world. More so these days as the chasm between those nations that have got excessive amounts of everything broadcast their indulgence to a world that does not.

Infact, upon reflection over the last couple of days since watching this, I am quite put off travel altogether. The thought that ths could happen is not only quite real, but events like this are happening every day around us to some degree. Sometimes you hear about it, sometimes you don't. ManKind it seems has over the millenia lost the KIND part of mankind, and has the ability to be very very cruel.

This really is intense, and what is scarier is that it is apparently based on true events, but getting to the bottom of that claim is harder than it looks.
Here is a wee interview from the release of Hostel 2, but gives you an idea of the goings on.

The Business of Torture.

The pathway some folks take is an absolute mystery to me sometimes. I just cannot understand how a human could inflict pain and sheer terror on any other human, let alone another conscious creature or animal.
Some torture is carried out in the name of war, or religion, and even within the justification of cultural practises. Some is man against man, and some is man against animal. Either way it is all the same, completely unecessary.

In the "making of" documentary, the director of Hostel, Eli Roth talks about the fact that the plot is based around true events. It actally transpires that this is not first hand knowledge, or even second hand. He had heard about a murder for profit business based in Bangkok, with an attached website where clients could select their victims. He did not know whether it was actually true or not. I am sure if you had the time, the inclination and were not too concerned if anyone ever trolled through your internet activity, you could find out all sorts of unbelievably disgusting things you could do to other humans or animals in out of the way places, and pay good money for the priviledge. The concept of this is what is the most horrific part of this whole topic - we now live in a world where everything is for sale, even the quality of the death of another creature.

It is these kind of fundamentals which make us not want to eat animals in any way shape or form - the concept of supporting the terror that they go through as a part of the slaughter house process is something our family wants nothing of. As a vegan teenager I had the displeasure of creating a short film of the process found in the Beef Abattoir / Slaughterhouse in my vain attempt to show those that would watch, just the kind of horror that their personal dietary choices make for the cows in question. It was shocking for me, it effected me deeply and 20+ years on from that moment I still do not eat any meat. This website is no place for me to go ranting about the benefits of not eating meat (or any animal products for that matter), but the topic is closely related to the review of the movie in question.

I once watched a documentary on Serial Killers, a mob contract killer in particular whom had killed, or rather "whacked" over 100 hits, progressively becoming more violent and tortuous as his career as a mob hitman continued to blossom. The one thing that the clinical criminal phycologists all said was the connection between torturing animals as a young child. This was almost a right of passage for most serial killers. As children they nearly always had a fascination, and ability to carry out and practise, torture on neighbourhood animals. This torture became progressively worse as time went on, until they eventually moved from animals onto people. These people are truly scary individuals. The ability to perform these acts is monsterous.

For me personally, the torture of any creature is disgusting and completely unwarranted.
Every creature has a consciousness to exist and operate with, it is just a part of being alive. Every living thing has just as much right as any other to live and die in peace. To say that it is "just natures way" that animals get killed for food is slack and lazy methodology. Any reasonable amount of research into anthropology, comparative religion and biology will tell you otherwise.