Hostel

Welcome To Your Worst Nightmare!

Paxton(Jay Hernandez), Josh (Derek Richardson) and Oli (newcomer Eythor Gudjonsson) are backpacking across Europe when they are told about a hostel in Slovakia. Once they hear that this hostel is THE place to find beautiful European woman who only want tourists, they quickly get on a train to the wonderful promise land. As soon as they get there, they start having the time of their lives until one of them turns up missing.

Eli Roth (producer of Cabin Fever) and the world renown Quentin Tarantino bring us a gore fest worthy of a #1 slot in a Halloween horror-thon! Although is starts out slow, (that is slow to those who are not looking for a lot of breast shots a la spring break) it doesn't take too long to get to the action. The bright colors and vibrant music are soon replaced with dark corners, gore, and a sense of dread. Criticized by many for being too campy and tasteless, I think it flys above the average B ranking of a bad gore movie manly for it's clever ending.

With special effects by award winnning Greg Nicotero (of Day of the Dead fame) there is no let down what so ever in the gore department. As this was trailered to be an ultimate shocking horror movie, the special effects department was tasked to out do others in it's genre. Over 150 gallons of fake blood were used to convey the various depths of torture and death depicted in this slaughterhouse extravaganza!

Interesting note: This film knocked "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" (2005) off the top spot both at the box office, and when it was released on DVD. The production budget of "The Chronicles of Narnia" is nearly 50 times the $4 million dollar production budget of Hostel, which earned $20 million dollars in its opening weekend alone.

I can't wait to see part 2 due out June 8th 2007!!

• Today's Cure song is "In Your House" from the Seventeen Seconds CD -(1980) ...feeling uncomfortable in someone else's presence, but still always returning...

"Silence
In the empty rooms
I drown at night in your house
Pretending to swim"

CJ