Here is the inevitable sequel to the hit "Hostel." It starts out much in the same vain with a some scenes that offer a fairly ridiculous portrayal of student travel in Europe. There is a party on a train, people sell drugs, thieves lurk, and most of the students are drunk out of their minds. For anyone who has traveled Europe by rail can see that this is an utterly careless portrayal. Next, there is the steady build-up to as unwary victims are captured and we witness some disturbing bloodbath - literally on the "bath" part. However, that is where the excesses of this sequel stop.
What happens next is quite a revelation for fans of more serious horror - the movie starts to become a thing of substance! This is somewhat hinted at in a few earlier scenes, but for the second half of the movie characterizations are seriously amped up, and there are several surprising twists that mark this film as a serious improvement over the first one. A key to noticing this is a cameo by Ruggero Deodato, who directed the highly allegorical horror film "Cannibal Holocaust" back in early 80s. With this in mind, it is easier to pick out clever doublespeak in the dialog and to understand why the tone of this film relies much less on blunt force shock the way that the first film did. The only downer is that all this happens in the second half of the film. Thus, what ends as a pretty good horror film unfortunately starts as trite. But the second half makes this film worth at least one viewing. --- 6/10
BsCDb Classification: 18+ --- brutality, violence/gore
What happens next is quite a revelation for fans of more serious horror - the movie starts to become a thing of substance! This is somewhat hinted at in a few earlier scenes, but for the second half of the movie characterizations are seriously amped up, and there are several surprising twists that mark this film as a serious improvement over the first one. A key to noticing this is a cameo by Ruggero Deodato, who directed the highly allegorical horror film "Cannibal Holocaust" back in early 80s. With this in mind, it is easier to pick out clever doublespeak in the dialog and to understand why the tone of this film relies much less on blunt force shock the way that the first film did. The only downer is that all this happens in the second half of the film. Thus, what ends as a pretty good horror film unfortunately starts as trite. But the second half makes this film worth at least one viewing. --- 6/10
BsCDb Classification: 18+ --- brutality, violence/gore