One of the worst movies I've ever seen

Masterful Movie

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Worthy sequel picks up where the original left off, with the one surviving protagonist of the first film, Jay Hernandez, back in America but still haunted by his ordeal. The film quickly cuts to a new group of ugly Americans abroad, this time a group of girls instead of boys, again with two party girls and one good-girl character. Writer/director Eli Roth wisely doesn't try to simply retell the same story again and he comes up with a smart solution for where to take the story, since the first film already revealed the purpose of "Elite Hunting Club," who offer torture and murder to the rich and powerful, this time taking the audience behind-the-scenes club's operations. Besides following a new group of girls who are target of the club, it also follows two rich guys on their first experience with the hunting club (one full of bluster and the other more mild mannered) along with their build up to their eventual descent into the torture chamber. As you'd expect, the two stories collide, but with quite unexpected results. My main complaint about the sequel is that it doesn't offer anything new thematically, but in terms of suspense and shock value, the film does manage to live up to the original and even exceed the first film in some respects. As with the first film, "Hostel: Part II" does not have wide appeal value and most viewers would find it a repellent endurance test, but if you are part of that narrow band of horror fans who this film does target, "Hostel: Part II" is a must see.

Three female American college students find themselves the unwitting targets of a Slovakian hostel that's the front for an evil business in which decadent and depraved wealthy people pay top dollar for the privilege of torturing and murdering innocent folks who are specifically abducted to serve as fodder for the clients.Writer/director Eli Roth's sequel to his savagely effective original alas not only gets bogged down in both hackneyed horror tropes like an opening which turns out to be just a bad dream and a grindingly predictable narrative trajectory complete with a final girl who's clearly signposted for survival from the get-go, but also further suffers from a crippling dearth of much-needed tension and creepy atmosphere. Fortunately, the subplot about corrupt and eager businessman Todd (a chilling portrayal by Richard Burgi) and his wimpy reluctant buddy Stuart (a likable performance by Roger Bart) doesn't pan out exactly as one might initially expect it to. Moreover, Lauren Graham as spunky rich girl Beth, Bijou Phillips as the snarky Whitney, and especially Heather Matarazzo as the hopelessly gawky'n'geeky Lorna make for appealing damsels in distress. The fact that such familiar Italian horror cinema veterans as Luc Merenda, Ruggero Deodata (wittily cast as a cannibal), and the ever-luscious Edwige Fenech pop up in colorful cameos helps a good deal. However, the moments of dark humor fall flat (for example, a bunch of little kids play soccer with a freshly severed head) and the bulk of the gore gags fail to make any substantial impact, although the blood bath set piece does prove to be quite startling and disturbing. Okay at best, but the first one was far more edgy and unsettling.

OK, I had to think long and hard about how to review this sequel. This movie gave me mixed feelings. I thought this film was just slightly better than the original. They upped the ante on the gore factor which I didn't like. There was a couple scenes in particular that I that I thought were way too graphic. The acting was actually pretty good. The main actresses did very well with their roles, I enjoyed them in this movie. The gang of crazy kids from the first Hostel are in this movie, and I didn't like them at all, they were one of the worst parts of this film. Paxton does make a brief appearance in this movie. I didn't like that his character was killed off, that kinda made me mad. I thought his character should have lived. OK, so the plot overall I thought was better executed than in the first. I thought this movie was just overall better handled that the original. I think that like I said earlier, the graphic nature of a couple scenes I just thought they took it too far. For example, the shower scene, aka the death of one character, was just too dark and way too graphic, I did not enjoy that, I don't know who could like that! I mean I had to look away, it was just too much. But I did like the other two main female characters, they were tough and could really defended themselves, and the two main male antagonists, they did pretty well with their roles, it was kinda like a oh I'm big Macho and tough, and I must make women fear me type of thing. I thought that attitude was fitting, if of course bothered me because I'm a big feminist, but it was supposed to bother me because they were evil so they did their job on that part. Overall, it was better than the first in my opinion, but I had a pretty big issue with the amount of gore. 7/10 Hostel: Part II.

I wasn't exactly a big fan of the first "Hostel" movie, so it probably comes as no surprise (especially when you also consider most sequels are inferior to the original) that this first sequel failed to move me as well. Actually, there is one thing about this sequel that I thought was better that the first movie, and that was with its look. This sequel looks a lot slicker than the first movie, from the cinematography to the sets and location. However, this sequel also takes problems the first movie had and increases them. The movie is agonizingly slow at times - it takes forever for the movie to really start going. Is it worth the wait when the blood starts to fly? I would say no. While there are some gruesome moments, they are few and far between (and I saw the unrated version of the movie!) This is a real boring movie for the most part. Needless to say, after subjecting myself to the first two movies of this series, I am in no mood to check out part three.