Too many fans seem to be blown away

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

This Eli Roth movie is pretty straight forward in terms of horror and gorefest movies go, so don't expect to be blown away by anything remotely revolutionary.The storyline was predictable, but still have enough gore and gruesomeness to make it watchable.Granted that the movie was predictable and generic, then it was well worth sitting through it to watch the gruesome torture scenes and the inventive ways that writer and director Eli Roth came up with ways of how to inflict bodily harm and pain upon people. With scenes such as these, then it is a make or break whether or not the scenes are believable and can make the audience cringe. Eli Roth is certainly good at making the audience cringe.The characters in the movie were actually quite nicely fleshed out, pardon the pun. More than others, obviously. I will say that Jay Hernandez actually carried the movie quite nicely throughout the entire course of the movie.I remember watching this movie when it was first released, and I was somewhat impressed back in the day. However, after revisiting it now some 13 years later, I am not all that impressed anymore. The movie is still entertaining, but in terms of storyline and plot it was mediocre. It is the grotesque torture that keeps the movie afloat.

Rule #1 of horror: The audience must connect with the main characters, must like them and/or relate to them, and must feel like they're real people. That's what makes good horror so horrific. If you like people and can imagine yourself in their shoes and want them to be well, the events of the movie are terrifying. On the other hand, if the main characters are two-dimensional badly-written annoying actors, you don't care what happens to them. Or worse, you start hoping they die just so they're not in the movie any more.Hostel breaks this rule. The characters are stereotypical American college men saying stereotypical college dialog. Five minutes in and already I want these annoying twats executed. I would keep watching for the satisfaction of seeing badly written characters tortured, but I have better things to do with my time.

Unfairly dismissed as torture porn by many critics, this terrific horror film plays off audience expectations and takes them on a terrifying ride you cannot predict where it will go. The story revolves around a group of three Americans traveling through Europe, staying in hostels. Two are obnoxious party-boys and one is the nice-guy character. When one of the obnoxious guys is lured away by pretty girls, the two remaining become suspicious of what happened and begin to investigate. All the while, since the film opened with images of horrific implements of torture in a dark, dank torture chamber, the audience has already had seeds planted in their minds of what really happened. Writer/director Eli Roth does an amazing job of playing against horror film tropes and audience expectations, particularly (SPOILER ALERT) when he kills off the nice-guy hero of the film Marion Crane-style and the audience is left without a safety net. After that, it feels as if anything is possible, which has the impact of creating genuine suspense now that we've seen that all of the characters are expendable. Roth really knows his horror films (his first film, "Cabin Fever," was a slasher film without a slasher, and it completely worked), and he uses that knowledge to surprise the audience throughout. When the nice-guy is killed, it's as if all bets are off and anything can happen. It also helps that the film doesn't feature and name actors, because when you cast Brad Pitt in your film, you know Brad Pitt isn't going to be killed. This tension is olstered by Roth establishing early on in the film that he's not going to cut away from the violence and that he is going to show the audience the full bloody graphic horror of what's happening (and it's extreme!). As with the best horror films, "Hostel" has an interesting subtext about America's interventionist nature around the globe and how that's received by the rest of the world. American arrogance is a ripe topic for a revenge-like thriller, especially when it's framed around an underground Eastern European business that caters to the depraved murderous desires of wealthy men who want the exotic adventure of torturing and murdering attractive youth without consequences.This film is credited (or accused) of ushering in the "torture porn" horror subgenera, which it most certainly did. Extreme horror films, like "Audition" or "Ichi the Killer" had been around Asia Cinema for awhile, and Roth rightfully gives a not to those film with a cameo appearance by Takashi Miike, the likely the originator of "extreme" horror films. "Saw" did come out the year before, but it relied more on traditional implied horror instead of showing all the graphic violence (unlike it's subsequent sequels). Roth also provides other nods that horror fans will likely pick up on, such as the slow tracking shots of the door at the end of the torture hallway as a nice homage to the menacing door at the end of the hall in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Overall, "Hostel" is a film that is not intended to appeal to a wide audience and not even to all horror fans, but for horror film fans of a hearty nature, this film is amazing!

I have noticed that many people not only dislike this film as a whole, but tend to point out every single flaw or judge based on elements that a true movie lover/critic would not be focused on when open-mindedly enjoying a production. I not only think this film is unique, a strongly held concept, and a situational horror that is not only realistic, but actually capable of happening... I believe it is a one-of-a-kind, edge of your seat, well-acted and well-written masterpiece. When your main characters are college-induced vacationers who enjoy the wonderful perks of youth, which of course include alcohol, drugs, and banging hot chicks, I believe the dialogue and actions are spot on when it comes to portraying the mindset that the average collegiate tool obtains.I love the idea of humans taking the lives of others for a price. It takes you beneath the surface of human nature, and our need to attempt anything to get a spark of euphoria. What I think Eli was trying to accomplish is that some people do drugs, some people drink, some people have meaningless sex, and some people murder. It's all about what a human is willing to do at the expense of others to receive their own personal thrill. I very much applaud the acting, the script, the cinematography, and the concept. Those who have rated this film poorly obviously did not take from it exactly what it was attempting to say, satirically and literally. In my opinion it is worth the watch.