Hostel Part II

Hostel was an odd movie. The first half was pretty much porn, but the second half offered a terrifying yet intelligent horror film. With Part II, filmmaker Eli Roth has avoided another first half of porn and opted to go with strong characterization and a more interesting story. The film adds to the "Hostel mythology", letting us in on lots of secrets behind everyone's favourite vacation, which of course is killing an American in Slovakia. Instead of just torture, we discover more and more, while in a way, wanting to know less. The business like fashion that everything is being run is scary in it's own right. Speaking of torture, there's less of it here, but when the couple scenes occur, Roth raises the bar again. The one thing that stands out in Part II is that we get to see inside the minds of the killers this time. The movie follows two men in the States all the way to the torture room. During this journey we are presented interesting characters, and while we are not giving every little detail about them, Roth presents them in an indirect style which lets us put together the pieces until the shocking climax. Eli Roth proves again to be a director with enormous potential, and some of said potential has already been realized. Hostel Part II ups the horror, suspense, the story, the characters and now may have in his hands a "Saw" like franchise. The difference? The Hostel movies are brilliant.