Hostel (2005)

Three backpackers head to a Slovak city that promises to meet their hedonistic expectations, with no idea of the hell that awaits them.

Director:

Eli Roth

Writer:

Eli Roth

Stars:

Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson, Eythor Gudjonsson

4 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jay Hernandez	...	Paxton
Derek Richardson	...	Josh
Eythor Gudjonsson	...	Oli
Barbara Nedeljakova	...	Natalya
Jan Vlasák	...	The Dutch Businessman
Jana Kaderabkova	...	Svetlana
Jennifer Lim	...	Kana
Keiko Seiko	...	Yuki
Lubomír Bukový	...	Alex
Jana Havlickova	...	Vala
Rick Hoffman	...	The American Client
Petr Janis	...	The German Surgeon
Takashi Miike	...	Miike Takashi
Patrik Zigo	...	Bubble Gum Gang Leader (as Zigo Patrik)
Milda Jedi Havlas	...	Desk Clerk Jedi

Storyline

3 backpackers are in Amsterdam where they get locked out of their youth hostel. They are invited into a man's house where he tells them of a hostel somewhere in eastern Europe where the women are all incredibly hot and have a taste for American men. When they get there, everything is too good to be true - the hostel is "to die for"

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Plot Keywords:

hostel | europe | bratislava | backpacker | slovakia | 

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Taglines:

Shen mer tsui huai neng fa sheng (What's the worst that could happen)

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Genres:

Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for brutal scenes of torture and violence, strong sexual content, language and drug use

Details

Official Sites:

Gaumont Columbia Tristar [fr] Lions Gate Films [us]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Czech German Dutch Slovak Japanese Icelandic Russian Spanish

Release Date:

6 January 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Hostal

Filming Locations:

Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic

Box Office

Budget:

$4,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$74,276 (South Africa) (28 April 2006)

Gross:

$197,565 (South Africa) (5 May 2006)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hostel LLC, International Production Company, Next Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min 93 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the Unrated DVD version of the film, the word "fuck" is spoken 128 times.

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Goofs

When Paxton is handcuffed to the chair and his torturer grabs the three-pronged metal pole, Paxton is shown with bloody hole marks on his shirt. Then it shows the guy holding the rod, then hitting Paxton twice, then the shot goes back to Paxton and the bloody holes are there. The holes were added and filmed before the torturer hit him.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Paxton: Amsterdam, motherfucker!

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Crazy Credits

Eli Roth Thanks The Boston Redsox

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Connections

References The Wicker Man (1973)

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Soundtracks

"We Ain't Fuckin' wit Y'All"
Written by Shawn Thomas
Performed by C-BO
Courtesy of West Coast Mafia Records

User Reviews

Moral Choices and the Dark Side of Humanity

I just got back from an L.A. screening of Hostel. I haven't seen an effective horror film like this in a long time. My stomach was still knotted up after we left the screening. The last time I felt like that was when I saw ALIENS for the first time about 19 years ago. Since then, no other horror film has ever made me feel like that. I certainly didn't expect it from this one. As much as I loved Cabin Fever, I'm not blind to the shortcomings of its script. As such,I was expecting more of the same from Hostel - dark humor, gore, and a sense of dread. I'm happy to see that director Eli Roth has taken a big step forward in becoming a better storyteller and filmmaker.

Admittedly my heart sank when the film began. The scenes introducing the main characters were blandly shot and edited. All I could think was, 'Oh no. Roth succumbed to some unseen studio pressure to make a normal-looking horror flick'. The style was typical of the what you'd see in crap like I know what you did last summer. But in very subtle ways, the blandness gets washed away and as our heroes enter the threshold of Hell, the style of the film changes as well. This, I learned during the Q&A afterwards with Roth, was intentional.

If you've read some of the other reviews posted here from people who saw it at the Toronto Film Festival, you get the general idea of the story. Contrary to what you might've heard, this is not a 90 minute film on torture. The torture scenes are brief and to the point. Roth doesn't wallow in pointless gore. And this is where I think it shows how he's improved as a filmmaker. He's more interested in scenes and ideas that move the story forward. Yes, there is plenty of gore, but it's relevant to the story and doesn't exist just for it's own sake.

One of the aspects of this film that made it so powerful was how Roth created a sense of helpless and inevitability. He provides the dark setup, throws in a sympathetic character, and begins twisting the screws and ratcheting up the suspense. This isn't a movie where you turn off your brain to enjoy it. On the contrary. The more you think about it, the more horrifying it becomes. You begin putting yourself into the character's situation and wondering what you'd do. When you realize that there is no hope for the character, no way to escape, no 'buddy' who's gonna turn up at the last minute to save the hero, and not a shred of humanity or compassion to the antagonists, real fear begins to set in.

Another great element in the script is how the 'survivor' makes moral choices that define their character. Instead of being merely reactive like the characters in Cabin Fever, the survivor makes several decisions which change the course of the story. It's a sign of well thought-out script and a filmmaker who cares about the fate of his characters.

For horror fans, this is an absolute must-see. It's so refreshing to see a horror movie that actually makes you feel uncomfortable and one in which you have no idea what's going to happen next. As for the gore, I was surprised by what they got away with. Although there were no credits at the end of the film, the cut I saw was rated R by the MPAA and according to Roth, he didn't cut anything out.