Hostel (2005)


 Being a budding horror fan in the 2000's was a crazy time for me. You had foreign horror also known as J-Horror entering the mainstream market with films like The Grudge, The Ring and One Missed Call. Then we had remakes invade Hollywood and let me tell you, I remember the IMDB message boards where people went ballistic as they didn't want their favorite movies remade and their nightmares of a cast they thought would ruin should it happen. I remember the shock when there was fake news about Ashton Kutcher doing a remake of Evil Dead. Those were the days. I've done enough reminiscing here. With the release of the first Saw in 2004, it started a new genre called Torture Porn where instead of scares it was all about torturing people. I personally wasn't invested in the genre back then as I was all about the scares and if I was in the mood, gore. Hostel attempted to cash in on Saw's success at the time and you could definitely see it when watching the movie itself. I've said before that I didn't see it originally when it came out as I didn't know what to make of it and wasn't interested at the time. Years later after watching it for the very first time, I can say that Hostel is definitely a product of it's time. From the get-go, I could see a comparison to the Saw franchise but I didn't see any puppets. The script is full of torture porn cliches and the acting leaves a lot to be desired as these films weren't known for it's acting. I did garner a chuckle or two out of the effects as I know that Hostel cares more about the torture than the actual story itself. As a horror fan back in the day, I do regret missing out on some big films and I'm actually glad I waited over 10 years to check out Hostel so I can have a better frame of mind compared to my teenage years when I would have loved everything and not cared about story.

3/5

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Demon City (2025)

Image
When one thinks of a title like Demon City. You're thinking to yourself, a Japanese horror flick?? No, it's an action flick. I was a little misled by the title, thinking it was a horror film because the dialogue in the film keeps referencing the word "demons" but as I continued to watch Demon City, I realized that it was a straight up action flick. I would say it's more of a Japanese knock-off of the John Wick franchise but more violent. The story has been done many times before. I guess people are used to cookie cutter plots. Don't get me wrong, I love action movies and I love Chinese, Japanese action flicks but sometimes they can be a little repetitive. Demon City is decent, but it's all been done before. 3/5 
Read more

Clown in a Cornfield (2025)

Image
Every once in awhile, there's always a killer clown film that ends up being good, It, Clown... There's a few more but they escape me at the moment. Unfortunately, Clown in a Cornfield isn't a good film. Despite some cool kills and a interesting premise, there are two things that stood out to me when watching the film. The pacing was sluggish which tuned me out at times which is a shame because I really wanted to like Clown in a Cornfield. The script needed work which results in it's clunky pacing and if there's one thing I despise it's social media influencers. Every horror film I've seen has characters that are addicted to social media and all I want to say is a get a job. I can't stand them at all. But I'm trailing off here. Apparently, this is based on a book series and they are coming out with book 4. If they really want to do another film, I suggest writing a strong script to maintain the pacing or *shudder, a soft reboot of the film. I can'...
Read more

Alien Rubicon (2024)

Image
Alien Rubicon has no affiliation with the Alien film series. It was made by one of my favorite studios, The Asylum who specialize in making knock-off movies of big budget Hollywood films. Most of the time they're better than the Hollywood film they're making fun of and Alien Rubicon is no exception. With it's bad CGI effects, bad acting, Alien Rubicon is a fun bad movie that tries to not be serious but you can't help but laugh at how bad it is. I grew up watching movies like these to laugh at and make fun of and now as I get older, I begin to appreciate bad movies more. 1/5   
Read more