By Omar P.L. Moore/May 31, 2007
Lauren German as Beth (left), and Vera Jordanova as Axelle, in Eli Roth's "Hostel Part II", opening on June 8 in North America.
(All photos: Rico Torres/LionsGate)
printer-friendly
Eli Roth doesn't push the envelope of the R-rating with "Hostel Part II" -- he leaps into the Grand Canyon without a safety net in order to land on the postage stamp of the envelope lying at the very bottom of the Canyon. Weak stomachs aren't an option. In "Hostel Part II" all the stops (and other things) are pulled out, and at this point it is strongly recommended that if you have a weak disposition or are adverse to intensely graphic bloody violence and torture you are well advised to skip Mr. Roth's gory feast. (The film was tough enough for a certain reviewer to leave his seat three quarters of the way through but remain in the theater.) First and foremost, Mr. Roth's new film is for horror fans and all the violence seen here could not possibly be stomached without humor, which is consistently on display in "Hostel Part II", which opens on June 8 in North America. The good thing is that people do not have to see "Hostel", the director's original worldwide hit film of 2006, to follow or appreciate "Part II".
"Hostel Part II" is the first sequel of the summer with guts, both literally and figuratively. It is unremitting and unpretentious in its aspirations and content. By film's end, the audience has had to process some unforgettable images, some of them traumatic, some of them outrageously funny. While more than a few may be in agreement that the best horror is that left to an audience's imagination, "Hostel Part II" doesn't play by such rules or conventional wisdom, though it contains telling moments of underlying subtlety, distinct cues affording one last foreshadowing moment giving audiences a chance to gasp, "oh no, big mistake."
Three American women in Rome travel to Slovakia for a trip to a weekend spa and end up staying at a hostel, which appears to be a foreboding presence amidst such an idyllic backdrop. Lorna (Heather Matarazzo) is a quintessential little miss sunshine, an innocent and virginal young woman who will lose all sense of innocence by the time the horrors of the hostel are complete. Her companions Beth (Lauren German) and Whitney (Bijou Phillips) are led by the mysterious and alluring Axelle (Vera Jordanova) to Prague's countryside, where things just seem too good to be true.
Meanwhile, American businessmen Stuart (Roger Bart) and Todd (Richard Burgi) are gearing themselves up to engage in the ultimate blood sport: killing the people they have been bidding on in a 21st century slavery-like auction via an EBay-type electronic chat room, except that no one is speaking -- only typing feverishly to up the price in the bidding war for human flesh. You can almost hear Inya -- sublimely played with perfectly icy detachment by Zuzana Geislerova -- saying, "you want good meat? -- well here it is, prime, young and tender American girls for your pleasure . . . ". Inya is the fashionable manager of the discreetly-named Elite Hunting, the underground corporation that controls the human slaughterhouse where bloody, fatal rendezvous are the stuff of legend. Milan Knazko plays Sasha, the cold-blooded owner of Elite. Knazko, formerly Slovakia's Minister of Culture, presides over stretches of this film with his entrance alone, a grand, avuncular figure lending weight to the story. And the hound dogs that accompany him!
The thrill of the chop shop: Stuart (Roger Bart) left, and Todd (Richard Burgi). Between them in the background is Zuzana Geislerova as Inya, with instruments of violence on the right, in "Hostel Part II", opening on June 8 in the United States and Canada.
