I had seen a poster referring to the latest, frightening movie around. It showed a drill entering the mouth of a poor guy sitting in some kind of torture chamber. Just by seeing the scene on the poster it looked really scary and hard to contemplate, would I dare to watch the movie?? The answer was “yes”. Lately, for some reason, I’ve been in the mood of watching scary, bloody, movies. Maybe it’s because lately Hollywood has been in the mood also, just count how many scary movies have been around for the last three years and you will realize they have been more than a few, they have been? a lot.
But coming back to Hostel movie; I decided to go and see how scary this “new scary” movie really was. The theater was not totally full, but there was much more people than I thought, somehow the movie trailers had attracted a good deal of audience. After a scene that seemed taken from a deep hell’s dungeon with a dirty man cleaning the gray floors of the tortures room, the beginning of the movie showed us a group of guys, two American students and a man from Island inside some kind of club in Amsterdam, doing what most tourists do in that famous European port. After a couple of scenes in those clubs, including the leaving behind of the sensual services of a gorgeous blond by one of the American guys, they arrive to their hostel only to realize the door is locked and they would have to wait outside until down to regain access to their room. But after an incident with the neighbors they find help and a roof for their heads that night thanks to the good manners of a strange guy that invites them to his room. Again the scenes of drugs and sex are present all around, I wonder if everything in Amsterdam is really sex and drugs, sincerely I doubt it.
This strange guy has a secret he wants to share with his new friends. If they want to spend a really good time with all the pleasure and excitation women can give they are in the wrong place, they should go East. There is a town in Eastern Europe where beautiful women abound and they are willing to spend their time and senses with you. Obviously he arises the curiosity of these young men and they eagerly ask for directions. He carelessly gives them the address of a very special hostel, the place where they will find all those amenities. Once morning arrives they are on the road, let’s better say, on the rails.
They travel by train as most Europeans do and everything goes fine except for an incident that introduces us to one of the main characters of the film. He is a business man that travels in the same cabin and that happens to be heading to the same location they are going. He is a man that seems to be in his sixties and he shows to the world with a peaceful appearance; though there is something that makes the audience doubt about his intentions. Specially after a shameful incident that forces him to leave the cabin.
Some time afterwards our three adventurous guys have arrived to their destination. It is a typical Eastern Europe small town full of charming old houses and brick streets. As they approach the address they were given by that strange guy back in Amsterdam the expectation of the fun ahead lets them have the best of moods. Now they are inside the Hostel, they are asked for their passports and then they are assigned to their room.
They find the first surprise of the trip once they have entered their room, they gladly realize they will be sharing the room with two beautiful ladies that seem to be perfectly alright standing nude in their presence. All seems to be according their expectations of the so highly recommended town. They spend the night at one of the clubs, go home with the ladies but suddenly, as an army of dark clouds in the sky, everything that seemed so perfect starts to reconfigure into the form of a nightmare.
Oli, the guy from Island, has disappeared without a trace after leaving with one woman they met at the club. Paxton and Josh prefer to think that he left without notice than thinking about something bad happening to him. They try to return to the good times at the club with their girlfriends but things go wrong again. Josh starts feeling sick and leaves the club. He barely makes it to the Hostel where they are waiting for him. Scene by scene we start to realize there something very wrong happening in that town. Specially when the head of Oli appears on screen has a scene coming from a hell dungeon.
Now is Josh’s turn, he will meet with his friend from the train again, Jan Vlasák. But now it won’t be at the club surrounded by pretty ladies. Now he will be his merciless torturer in one of the chambers of that horror land. The movie shows how Vlasák satisfies his instincts and frustrated vocation as a surgeon by cutting Josh’s body at will with the movements and calm of the most sadistic butcher.
Now there is only Paxton left; there was something in the drink he took and he has fallen asleep inside the restroom at the club saving his life for the moment. Everything is confusing, everyone has left; even their girlfriends are gone and no one knows about Josh. He goes to the police but they just take the case nominally, later we would learn they are also a slab in the horror chain of this salvage town.
Walking one of the streets Paxton passes by his ex-girlfriend that looks nothing like the nights before, she is changed and there are no more kisses. He asks her about his friends and after some thought she accedes to take him where they are. They take a taxi and follow a road that takes them to an old factory building that seems to be only ruins. But there is something more than ruins inside, the building is also a home of human misery.
There are men all around, some entering others leaving, always protected by escorts. It is a multimillionaire gathering for the most cruel of the games. Human hunting and torturing as a way of excitation and relax for the powerful. Paxton passes by the chambers where the most despicable acts are being performed; and suddenly he realizes he has fallen in the trap. They have paid $50 grand for him, the price of an American male ready to be hunted.
After losing three fingers and being tortured by a sinister short and bald man. Paxton manages to escape thanks to the inexperience of his torturer. But he would still need to evade all the guards surrounding the installation before he can be free?.there are still many horrors ahead for Paxton… I won’t tell you the end?you go and watch it your self?.
