Besides, there are plenty of people who would disagree with my assessment of the film. Worse films than Hostel: Part II have experienced tremendous success at the box office. Arguably too little money had been spent on the film for it to be considered a flop, but it would be fair to say that it performed massively below expectations, grossing just $35.6m worldwide – less than half of Hostel’s haul.Īlthough it would be easy to blame this on the film simply not being very good, that doesn’t seem likely to be the case.
Perhaps more surprising than the problems with Hostel: Part II was the film’s poor performance at the box office. I’d also mention the recap at the beginning (something that used to be commonplace in horror sequels which I’d love to see make a comeback), the strong cast and the wonderful cameo from Cannibal Holocaust director Ruggero Deodato. Gore hounds will be thrilled by some of the kills, particularly the spectacular messy tribute to Elizabeth Bathory. The film is again well shot, perhaps more so than the first one. It would be easy to consign Hostel: Part II to the same shelf as The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 – sequels to influential horror films that simply aren’t worth bothering with – were it not for the elements that really work. Baffling plot twists abound as characters attempt to borrow each other’s personality traits in the name of keeping the audience guessing. Problems are scattered throughout the film, which is frustrating, but things really start to unravel in the final 20 minutes. With one of the ‘killers’, his change is so dramatic that it comes across as cartoonish, and others aren’t far behind. This is fine when it works, which is infrequently, but it often takes the form of out-of-character behavior from the film’s protagonists and antagonists. Knowing that the audience will be familiar with the Hostel format, the sequel plays with its expectations. These are the small things that the first film got right. A sub-plot involving the main character’s distaste for the c-word is another confusing addition, since it asks us to believe that she’ll stand for torture, attempted murder and rape but draws the line at being insulted. The attempts to integrate the Bubblegum Gang into this film feels labored and don’t work at all. Here, we’re a shown a mansion with a secret room just to display the decapitated heads of the owner’s enemies. The group shown in the first film seemed smaller – operating in an abandoned warehouse in a small town where people are exploited and the local authorities are paid off.
Hostel: Part II expands the Elite Hunting organisation shown in the first movie to a level that almost implies a global conspiracy. What I can remember is how disappointed I felt. I couldn’t tell you when I saw it in relation to its release, and I couldn’t tell you where I saw it. Perhaps it’s telling that my memory of seeing the first Hostel is so vivid, but that I can’t remember a thing about seeing Hostel: Part II. So while writers can be working on Saw 4 while Saw 3 is still being finished, Hostel’s script would need to be guided by Roth and would likely take longer to write. The script is more intelligent, and it has Roth’s distinctive voice.
HOSTEL THE MOVIE DIRECTOR SERIES
This meant that very little was necessary to sell them – people knew what to expect, and they knew when they were going to be out (the same strategy is currently being aped by the Paranormal Activity franchise – a series even cheaper to produce).īut, despite some similarities, Hostel is actually quite different from Saw. Of course, the Saw franchise was establishing itself as a yearly event, with a new film released every Halloween. Extreme horror, crudely dubbed ‘torture porn’ by critics and would-be censors, was proving popular at the box office, and with Saw II having grossed just shy of $150m just a few months before Hostel’s success, a Hostel sequel seemed inevitable. The strength of Roth’s script, littered with interesting touches, such as the Bubblegum Gang, combined with the movie’s excellent execution (it’s extremely well shot) meant that Hostel was a real stand-out at an interesting time for the horror genre.