Hostel

I saw the movie Hostel last week with my buddy Dave. If your wondering why, my only answer is that I suppose I possess a deviant trait that encourages my 3rd party participation in grotesque/shocking behaviors...and Dave is the only one I thought would share in this recidivism. We used to joke about torture contraptions and painful processes that would be conducted upon the most aberrent of criminals...Of course these "experiments" were always imagined in casual conversation: over eggs at 3am, bike rides or road trips - and always conceived in a "white lab-coat, bespectacled, beyond the plexi-glass wall sort of setting"...as if something important were taking place. This was all for our own dark amusement of course, so we figured this movie would be an articulated version of these inside jokes.

It was certainly articulated. But in a gritty, euro-medieval, blood-dried-in-the-cracks-of-stone sort of way. It was very disturbing.

While travelling across Europe, two Americans end up in a Slovakian hostel reported to have the most beautiful, eager young women in Europe. The hostel turns out to be a sort of "specimen" holding pen for an organization that offers an "opportunity" (to any one who can afford it) for its' sadistic customers to torture/kill their subjects in any fashion they please. Most of them choose "personal" techniques ...power tools, hand tools, cutting, twisting, prying, mind games etc...

What makes the movie disturbing is not the gore-this has unfortunately become ubiquitous in movie culture-it's the way it's filmed and the way it's set up. The film is gritty and dark, often viewed from the victim's point of view, with things often just out of focus or implied. And the setting of a not-so-prosperous central-european city is very eerie. Adding to the creep value is the fact that many of the central characters are set up by sexy, young, beautiful women who are getting paid for their snaring prowess. Thinking how I was in my early 20s, it's pretty easy to imagine getting tricked with pretty girls, booze and partying only to get carved up like a Chritmas ham.

Anyway, Dave and were both pretty disturbed (in a satisfied sort of way...) afterwards. Both of us pretty speechless, just kind of reiterating what we saw and then going home. As a film, it has it's flaws, but as an idea it's an effective premise for a horror story.

Anyway, dreams were strange that night.