TIFF Report: Hostel Review

The film follows a pair of Amaerican college friends, Josh and Paxton, backpacking around Europe for one final fling before succumbing to the real world of jobs and committments. Somewhere along the way the duo met up with Icelandic free spirit Oli and the trio is roaming freely in search of cheap drugs and exotic sex. When they here of a travellers hostel in Slovakia loaded with beautiful and (ahem) affectionate women the trio promptly set off. And the rumors are true. When they arrive they walk in on their hostel room mates - a pair of stunningly beautiful women - in a state of undress as they prepare to head for the hostel’s spa. Yes, a spa in a hostel. The boys join them there, breasts are exposed - quite a lot of breasts are exposed, really, the entire first act being a fairly non stop succession of perky bosoms - sex is had and the boys believe they’ve found heaven. That is, until the next morning, when Oli goes missing. And when Paxton finds himself all alone the morning after that something is clearly wrong. This is where things get dark and brutal and bloody, fast.

The opening act of the film is clearly Roth’s love letter to the eighties slasher film. His characters are so stock that it must be intentional and even the color scheme, lighting style and shooting angles are clearly based of eighties films. His college friends are breathtakingly stereotyped American tourists - brash, demanding and offensive to local cultures, at one point complaining that Slovak TV is gay because it doesn’t include English subtitles to cater to them - and Paxton, in particular, is rather difficult to like. Interesting, then, that Paxton is the one we follow to the gruesome end.

Riffing on the long standing urban legends about underground societies that buy and sell people for snuff parties the main body of the film is intensely graphic and very, very bloody. Power tools are employed and body parts removed. Roth proves himself adept at building and maintaining tension and, bloody as the film is, he is also supremely skilled at making you feel that you have seen far more than you actually have. There are some logical and plot problems - Paxton, for instance, is constantly hiding in plain site without anyone noticing - and will be hugely offensive to those troubled by sex and violence on film, but this is one destined to be a cult classic amongst slasher fans.

A few other notes: Takashi Miike fans will want to know that Miike’s role is very brief, though he does have a few lines. I overheard Roth telling someone that the film hasn’t gone before the MPAA yet but my hunch is that it should make it through as a hard R. A very hard R, but an R nonetheless. And, finally, the version being screened here is a work in progress with temp music and no color timing done yet. It looked good to me, though.