Hostel (film)
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| Hostel | |
 Theatrical release poster |
|
| Directed by | Eli Roth |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Eli Roth Quentin Tarantino Boaz Yakin |
| Written by | Eli Roth |
| Starring | Jay Hernandez Derek Richardson Eyþór Guðjónsson Jennifer Lim |
| Music by | Nathan Barr |
| Cinematography | Milan Chadima |
| Editing by | George Folsey, Jr. |
| Distributed by | Lionsgate |
| Release date(s) | January 6, 2006 |
| Running time | 94 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English Czech German Icelandic Japanese Dutch Russian Slovak Spanish |
| Budget | $4.8 million |
| Gross revenue | $80,578,934 |
| Followed by | Hostel: Part II |
Hostel is a 2005 horror film written and directed by Eli Roth, starring Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson, Jennifer Lim, Eythor Gudjonsson and Barbara Nedeljáková. Due to the graphic nature of this film, its showing has been restricted in certain countries, primarily those with strict censorship policies. The sequel, Hostel: Part II, was released on June 8, 2007.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The film opens with shots of blood being washed off surgical equipment, off walls and down drains. The sound of someone whistling a cheery tune is heard. Amongst the blood are stray human teeth and pieces of flesh.
In Amsterdam, American backpackers Paxton (Jay Hernandez), Josh (Derek Richardson), and Icelandic Óli (Eyþór Guðjónsson) meet Alexei (Lubomir Bukovy), a Russian man who tells them about a Slovak hostel filled with American-loving local women. The backpackers board a train to Slovakia, where they meet a Dutch businessman (Jan Vlasák) and are unnerved by his bizarre behavior. Upon arriving in the small village, the backpackers check into the local hostel and find themselves sharing a room with Natalya (Barbara Nedeljáková) and Svetlana (Jana Kadeřábková), two attractive single women who entice them into going to a spa and a disco before sleeping with them.
The next morning, Óli is missing. A young Japanese backpacker named Kana (Jennifer Lim) also reports that her friend Yuki (Keiko Seiko) has disappeared. A MMS photo sent from Yuki's phone shows Yuki and Óli beneath a smokestack of an abandoned factory, with the word Sayonara written beneath it. Paxton and Josh decide to leave Bratislava with Kana the following day. They spot a man wearing Oli's jacket at a museum of medieval torture relics. Paxton later notices that the MMS photo of Oli and Yuki is faked. Later that night, while partying with Natalya and Svetlana, Paxton and Josh pass out, having been slipped tranquilizers. Josh stumbles back to the hostel while Paxton passes out in the disco's storage room. Later, Josh wakes up handcuffed to a chair in a dungeon-like room surrounded. The Dutch businessman enters in a leather apron and gloves and begins torturing Josh by drilling him in his pectorals. After he is done, the Dutch businessman sits down and tells Josh his unfulfilled dream of being a surgeon. The businessman then cuts Josh's Achilles' tendons and allows him to crawl towards the door before finally murdering him.
Across town, Paxton awakens and returns to the hostel to find both Josh and Kana missing. In his room are a different pair of beautiful women inviting him to a spa, eerily similar to Natalya and Svetlana. When the local police chief (Miroslav Táborský) proves unhelpful, Paxton locates Natalya and Svetlana, who drive him to a factory where Paxton sees the Dutch businessman cutting up Josh's dead body. He is then ambushed by thugs who drag him past cells filled with other backpackers being tortured by various clients. Paxton is taken to his own cell and restrained in a chair, joined minutes later by a German client, Johan (Petr Janiš) who tortures him. He cuts two of Paxton's fingers off and then you see a puddle of blood on the ground. Johan runs toward Paxton with a chainsaw and slips on the blood and cuts his own leg off. Paxton gets himself out of the chair and shoots Johan in the head as he tries to reach for the chainsaw again. Paxton manages to get out of the building but he hears Kana screaming for her life so he goes back in and saves her. They get in a car and get chased by thugs but manage to escape. They get to a train and Kana sees her face and how much it is damaged from torture so she jumps in front of an oncoming train.
Once aboard the train, Paxton hears the voice of Josh's torturer, the Dutch businessman. When the train stops in Vienna, Paxton follows him to a public restroom and throws the Elite Hunting's card under his stall. When the Dutch businessman reaches down to pick it up, Paxton cuts off two of his fingers. Paxton then begins to drown the businessman in the toilet, allowing him to recognize Paxton and beg for mercy before having his throat slit. Paxton then leaves to board another train out of Vienna as the credits start to roll.
[edit] Alternative ending
After following the Dutch businessman, off the train, Paxton sees the Dutch businessman's daughter. Paxton follows her to the ladies restroom while the business man is washing in the men's room. When he discovers his daughter is gone, he goes into the ladies restroom calling her name and then looks around the station. We then see Paxton restraining the Dutchman's daughter on the train with his hand over her mouth. After the credits there is a voice of a Russian girl talking and then laughing.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Character |
|---|---|
| Jay Hernandez | Paxton |
| Derek Richardson | Josh |
| Eyþór Guðjónsson | Oli |
| Barbara Nedeljáková | Natalya |
| Jan Vlasák | The Dutch Businessman |
| Jana Kaderabkova | Svetlana |
| Jennifer Lim | Kana |
| Keiko Seiko | Yuki |
| Lubomir Bukovy | Alexei |
| Jana Havlickova | Vala |
| Rick Hoffman | The American Client |
| Petr Janis | The German Surgeon |
| Takashi Miike | Miike Takashi |
| Patrik Zigo | The Bubblegum Gang Leader |
[edit] Production
The film was billed as "inspired by true events"; Eli Roth claimed to have read about poverty stricken individuals in Thailand who would sell "members of their family to organized crime, then American and European businessmen would pay $10,000 to walk in a room and shoot them in the head."[1]
Despite the fact that most of the movie is set in a small fictional location near Bratislava, Slovakia, actually not a single sequence was shot in Slovakia. The filming locations were at the Barrandov Studios, Prague and in Český Krumlov, Czech Republic. In addition to the lower costs of filming in the Czech Republic, Barrandov has well-equipped sound stages, making it a popular choice for US productions set in Europe. 95% of the film was shot on location in and around Prague, and the stage was only used for the main torture rooms.
[edit] Reception
[edit] Box office
The film's opening weekend North American box office gross was $19.5 million, making it the top grossing film that weekend. It went on to gross a total of $47.2 million in the U.S. The film's budget was around $4.5 million,[2] and the film went on to gross over $80 million dollars at the box office worldwide.
[edit] Reviews
The film received mixed reviews from critics. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 58% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 96 reviews.[3] On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 55 out of 100, based on 21 reviews.[4]
Some of the Slovak public and their government attacked the film for its violence, while Roth defended it as a commentary on Americans' reluctance to travel far from home and ignorance of other cultures.[5] Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw noted that Hostel was "actually silly, crass and queasy. And not in a good way".[6] David Edelstein of New York Magazine was equally negative deriding director Roth with creating the horror sub-genre 'torture porn,' or 'gorno,' using excessive violence to excite audiences like a sexual act.[7] Jean Francois Rauger, film critic for Le Monde, a French newspaper, and programmer of the Cinémathèque Française, listed Hostel as the best American film of 2006, calling it an example of modern consumerism.[8] Hostel won the 2006 Empire Award for Best Horror Film.
[edit] Slovak reaction to setting
The film's release was accompanied by strong complaints from the country of Slovakia, and also from the Czech Republic[citation needed]. Slovak officials were disgusted by the film's portrayal of their country as an undeveloped, poor and uncultured land suffering from high criminality, war and prostitution[9], fearing that it would "damage the good reputation of Slovakia" and make foreigners feel that it was a dangerous place to be.[5] The tourist board of Slovakia invited Roth on an all-expense paid trip to their country so he could see that it's not made up of run down factories and kids who kill for bubble gum. Tomáš Galbavý, a Slovak Member of Parliament, commented: "I am offended by this film. I think that all Slovaks should feel offended."[5]
Defending himself, Roth said that the film was not meant to be offensive, arguing that "Americans do not even know that this country exists. My film is not a geographical work but aims to show Americans' ignorance of the world around them."[5] To many viewers,[who?] Hostel appears to be misplaced, both culturally and geographically; the Czech pop songs used in the film highlight this disconnect because they were hits in Czechoslovakia between 1982 and 1989 but the movie was set in 2005. Roth said he did this intentionally, meaning to show American stereotypes of Eastern Europe, while the Americans in the film are portrayed accurately.[10] Roth has repeatedly argued that despite the many films in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series, people still go to Texas.[11][12]
[edit] References
- ^ 'Hostel' - Eli Roth Q&A - News - Film - Time Out London
- ^ Hostel (2005) - Box office / business
- ^ "Hostel - Movie Reviews, Trailers, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hostel/. Retrieved on 2008-02-08.
- ^ "Hostel (2006): Reviews". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/hostel. Retrieved on 2008-02-08.
- ^ a b c d "Slovakia angered by horror film". BBC News. 27 February 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolpda/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_4754000/4754744.stm. Retrieved on 2008-09-07.
- ^ Peter Bradshaw: "Hostel" review, at Guardian Unlimited
- ^ David Edelstein: Now Playing at Your Local Multiplex: Torture Porn, at New York Magazine, published on January 28th, 2006.
- ^ Jean Francois Rauger (2006-12-27). "Les films préférés des critiques du "Monde" en 2006". Le Monde (accessed with Google Translate). http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article_interactif/2006/12/27/les-films-preferes-des-critiques-du-monde-en-2006_849933_3476_2.html&ei=rO0KSta-HZG-NJqT1d8L&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=9&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522Jean%2BFrancois%2BRauger%2522%2B%2522Hostel%2522%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1W1DKUS_en. Retrieved on 2009-05-13.
- ^ Cameron, Rob (24 February 2006). "Smash hit horror Hostel causes a stir among citizens of sleepy Slovakia". Radio Prague. http://www.radio.cz/en/issue/76244. Retrieved on 2008-09-07.
- ^ Hostel: April 2006 Archives
- ^ Close-Up Film Features
- ^ Really Scary Interviews Eli Roth
[edit] External links
 |
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Hostel (film) |
- Official website
- Hostel at the Internet Movie Database
- Hostel at Rotten Tomatoes
- Hostel at Metacritic
- Hostel at Box Office Mojo
- Hostel at Allmovie
| Preceded by The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe |
Box office number-one films of 2006 (USA) January 8, 2006 |
Succeeded by Glory Road |
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