HOSTEL

Eli Roth :: USA 2005 :: 35mm :: 95 min :: Screen Gems
Derek Richardson, Jay Hernandez

THE PRINT YOU WILL BE SEEING IS A WORK IN PROGRESS, WITH TEMPORARY SCORE, SOUND AND VISUAL EFFECTS.

"Prepare to go to a dark place. Eli Roth returns to the Festival after Cabin Fever, his fantastic, flesh-ripping orgy that started life as a Midnight Madness premiere. With Hostel, his newest, he asks the question: how far is too far when you're on vacation?

It's the last hurrah before entering the real world of jobs and responsibility for Josh (Derek Richardson) and Paxton (Jay Hernandez).They are backpacking around Europe, sampling the finest in booze and drugs and partaking in the seedy thrills of sex tourism. In Amsterdam they meet up with a fellow trekker, a wild and capricious Icelander named Oli (Eythor Gudjonsson), and the three hear about a libidinous backpacker's Shangri-La. It's a Slovakian city nearly devoid of men due to ongoing civil strife. There they are meant to find a hostel frequented by local babes eager to hook up with foreign fellas.

The merry trio arrive in the picturesque old-world town and check into the legendary hostel. They aren't disappointed: the place resembles a chateau, replete with a spa and plenty of hot ladies. After a night of debauchery, Oli is nowhere to be found. Chalking it up to his unpredictable ways, Paxton continues on his licentious path to enlightenment while Josh begins to question the wisdom of what they are doing. The mystery behind Oli's disappearance leads the two friends into a hell never mentioned in any travel guide, a hell where, language differences aside, the screams are loud and clear.

A word of warning to those expecting Cabin Fever's tongue-in-cheek delivery: Hostel takes no prisoners. Writer-director Roth's much-anticipated sophomore effort is a gruelling shocker not for the squeamish, even by Midnight Madness standards. The film starts mildly enough but gets steadily heavier and darker as Roth's nightmarish scenario unfolds. With this gutsy second feature, he rises confidently to meet the challenges of shooting in Prague, directing his actors and sustaining the film's tension.

Get ready for an evening of Roth 'n' roll. You'll need to pinch yourself to remember that what you see on the screen is not actual blood - and that it's only a movie." - Colin Geddes, Toronto Film Festival

Eli Roth graduated from the film school at New York University. In addition to directing the short film Restaurant Dogs (95) and creating the animated projects "Chowdaheads" and "The Rotten Fruit," Roth worked as a producer with David Lynch, shooting shorts for the director's website.