and well acted by a stable of Eastern European unknowns. Since we didn't see the final cut, I am anxious about how it will show in theaters. I hope that Hostel keeps its edge. If so, it will emerge as a modern-day horror classic.

balls-to-the-wall hell ride it should be not a Disney theme park ride .You know there's hope when Tarantino is the Exec producer! Watch this movie Pre-neutered un cut! if you can. My real fear now, is that the censors will cut this movie down to the opening half hour.

solutions in the script are brilliant, to say the least. Eli Roth is doing a perfect job. I can't even remember when I saw a decent horror film. This film is like a long awaited rain of blood in the desert. To set the story in the murky eastern Europe is a good move, because who knows what's going on out there? For all I know there might be such a thing going on right now. I mean, Count Dracula was alive and kicking once, or still is, in his native Romania. Where there is smoke, there must be a fire.I would recommend this film to anyone... except my grandmother.

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.

I was especially impressed with Jay Hernandez, and Derek Richardson, two relatively unknown actors. There are a lot of funny scenes, and dialog in the early parts of the film. It's not that slapstick, forced stuff that was so prevalent in Cabin Fever. There also lots of nudity in the early parts in the film as well. When things begin to turn towards horror, you truly feel the sense of terror the characters are going through. The build up to the climax is just done so well. I loved the fact the story is very believable.Make no mistake about it, this is a violent, sick, and gory flick. It's not for the squeamish. I haven't seen this type of extreme violence in a North America mainstream cinema. The Takashi Miike, and Asian Cinema influences are clearly seen here.This is a film that will shock people, and remain in there heads well after the film is over. It will be interesting to see how the film is edited, and rated. In it's current state, I don't see how it could get anything less than the dreaded NC-17 rating. I just hope that it's not butchered too much, as the audience deserves to see the film how it was intended. Eli Roth has completely redeemed himself for what I thought was a very poor film in Cabin Fever, and has made one kick-ass horror film.

satanic evil or whatever. In Hostel, by contrast, we really believe that the scenario is very plausible and for that, all the more frightening. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this kind of thing goes on in certain parts of the world. As far as maximum creep value, I saw it in a packed house at a screening in Beverly Hills last night, and many in the audience couldn't take it and ran out -- one guy was retching in the bathroom and was too scared to leave! The organizer had to talk him down and call one of his friends to take him home. The director was there for a Q&A which will be on the Creative Screen writing Magazine podcast, and he said that at one test screening they had to call a ambulances for two different people. It appears that the explicit sex, torture and violence will not be toned down for the theatrical release and it will still have an R rating instead of NC-17 which most of us thought it deserved. The trick, is that there is no sex during the violent scenes, and no violence in the sex scenes, which makes the MPAA more comfortable. By the way, this was shot near Prague, and is amazingly beautiful to look at -- I was there a month ago and the place is like something out of a fairy tale unlike most historic European areas, there isn't a McDonalds every hundred feet . The ending is very, very satisfying yet believable and unforced. The audience was screaming, gasping, cheering, and hiding their faces at all the right moments. Eli's interview was a hoot, also, so check out the podcast once they post it on itunes. It's worth it for no other reason than to hear his anti-Union rant!

effective - thought maybe i should pick up some German for situations like these. as for the other commentators complaining that the characters were jerks - that's actually part of what makes this movie so good - Usually it's the nice, earnest, innocent hero/heroine goes through hell but always makes it out alive - being rewarded by fate or god or whatever for being good. but here the nice st fellow of the three bites it, in a bad way, leaving us to think we've got no one to root for. left with the jackass, we're forced us shift our alligence to a less likable hero - that is unless you're rooting for the torturers. Nice twist really. --SPOILER -- What really did it for me and probably why i give this movie such a high rating are the revenge scenes. In most movies, our beleaguered hero/heroine escapes, we have the one last scare and the hero/heroine kills the bad thing and then we all go home. But we all kinda feel hollow, like the bad thing's death just wasn't enough to make up for all the crap our hero/heroine had to go through. Here, in Hostel- the last 10 mins outta nowhere change from horror into a revenge film and it's quite satisfying, like a big ole bacon cheeseburger. Everyone that brought our characters to their lowly states gets it and gets it good. I wish I had a pack of wild orphaned gypsy children to do my bidding for bubble gum.

has grew in the three years since the release of his first film. It's also safe to say that he's targeted his audience well, and Hostel is sure to appeal to fans of grisly, gory horror that leaves nothing to the imagination. The simple plot follows two Americans and their Icelandic friend on a backpacking trip through Europe. We first meet them in Amsterdam where they are directed to a Slovakian hostel on the promise of beautiful and easy girls by a stoned Dutch man. Everything is going well for the trio...until they start getting killed.Roth shoots on location in Europe, and this brings a great style to the film. We start off in sleazy Amsterdam, where drugs and naked girls are the order of the day. From there, we move onto a beautiful village in Slovakia, upon which Roth creates a great sense of wonder. The central location is an abandoned hospital, and this setting provides the scene for all the ghastly action once the movie turns into a horror film. Hostel is a film of two halves; we start off with a scenario that reminded me a lot of 'An American Werewolf in Paris', in that wide-eyed American tourists are seen taking in the sights of Europe. There's no horror early on, but there's lots of comedy and this allows Roth to build his characters and show the audience a good time. Once it becomes a horror film, the shocks come thick and fast and the second half of the film is very different from first; but also very good. The characters and acting are both surprisingly well done. Although they're not exactly deep, Roth's teens are easy to like and it actually is a shame once they enter the chamber of horrors. The horror scenes are more along the lines of cringe-worthy torture than any real scares; but Roth makes good of it, as mystery is created early on and then the film breaks into a thrilling climax towards the end. The ending itself is really good, and provides the perfect finale to a grotesque monster of a film. Well worth ninety minutes of your time.

of them, Hostel was their first real break in the business and Oli's VERY FIRST movie...that a boy, King of Swing! .I think most of you are just being critical for the sake of being critical, but seriously, open your eyes...so I can burn 'em with a blowtorch! HAHAHA! P.S. this is a brilliant example - how many movies do you see something like THAT? Anyways, although the story pretty well revolves around a bunch of guys trying to get laid in Europe, you gotta respect Eli Roth's ability to provide us viewers with a crazy little thing called "shock value". I look forward to the sequel...it better not suck.