DVD Review: Hostel - Part II (Unrated Widescreen Edition)

“More violent…and bloody than the original” so says the blurb on the front of the DVD case. And that isn’t a lie, it’s definitely more violent and bloodier than the original, but does that justify its existence?

Genre apologists may say yes but when the sole creative thrust of a picture is to deliver as much button-pushing taboos as possible within an already established template, I gotta cry foul.

Not being a fan of the original, the same issues plague the sequel (to be sure, the film plays more like a remake with girls instead of guys…) i.e. a filmmaker, Eli Roth - self-appointed bad boy of horror cinema – who loves to ape the exploitation era that resulted in proper terror, but can’t quite get around the idea of actually making a film scary through ambiance or implication. A filmmaker only concerned with how much blood and guts can be splayed across the screen but without the ingenious know-how to achieve ‘Evil Dead II’ or ‘Dead-Alive’ results. So if he’s not aiming for the wit of Raimi or Jackson, then what is he going for? Well, it’s no surprise that the special features of the disc reveal Eli Roth’s favorite director to be Ruggero Deodato (who cameos in this pic), infamous director of ‘Cannibal Holocaust’, whose only intent was to repel audiences via any sick thought that entered his mind including actual torture of animals and a castration scene that despite Roth’s ambitions will forever remain ‘the’ cringe-inducing sequence of all time. But of course, Roth can never approach the genuinely disturbed nature of his exploitation forebears as he’s too busy getting his picture made with them – say cheese!Pretty much a carbon copy of the first pic, with the predictable addition of a villain subplot, we once again focus on backpackers being herded towards Slovakia for the slaughter.

Yet, instead of male stereotypes, we now get some female ones. We have the slutty Whitney (Bijou Phillips), the cautious, even-headed Beth (Lauren German) and the dorky Lorna (Heather Matarazzo) – characters we learn almost nothing about other than the aforementioned classifications. Wait, Beth has lots of money…that we learn. When the bi-curious Beth attracts a gorgeous Slovakian model Axelle (Vera Jordanova), Beth and buds come under the spell of an almost mythical hot-springs spa and one guess where they end up. Sadly, that’s as much narrative explanation as I can muster. The switch from men to women protagonists is a logical one but Roth has absolutely no idea how to capitalize on even this meager new conceit. The far-fetched meant-to-be-jaw dropping conclusion supposedly serves two purposes: first, to be the end-all, be-all of torture porn – a gruesome act that he conceived for no one to follow including himself - By gosh, he created the oft and mil-used moniker ‘torture porn’ genre and by golly he’ll end it. Second, it’s a rather convenient way to end a pic that up to that point would be labeled misogynist in the worst way – they can’t call the pic misogynistic now, can they?! Of course, this criticism is based on ‘Hostel: Part II’ being compared to contemp horror, if we look back at the B flicks Roth is trying to emulate like ‘The Last House on the Left’, ‘I Spit on your Grave’ and ‘Cannibal Holocaust’, then this sequence is even worse – just pitifully redundant. Like his mentor bud Quentin Tarantino, Roth is an assiduous student of B movies – content to splatter an amalgam of past influences and current styling’s on the screen and hoping we don’t notice.

The film is presented in 2.35:1 widescreen and is enhanced for widescreen televisions. I did not see this film in theaters so I can’t comment on what’s different about the ‘unrated director’s cut’ but generally having a good idea of what’s allowed in a R-rated cut, I have to concede that this film, unlike most, probably does live up to its ‘unrated’ banner – a gore hound’s delight visually if not mentally. Special Features start off with 3 audio commentaries (on my DVD review of ‘Hostel’, I laughed about the pathetic inclusion of only 4 audio commentaries from ‘Cabin Fever’s’ generous 5 commentaries, and now we get shorted one more…) with Eli Roth, Eli Roth and Quentin Tarantino, and finally Eli Roth and hot chick actresses. To be fair, after spot-checking all the commentaries, they do seem fun particularly the Roth/Tarantino track where they seem to try to out film-geek each other with obscure film references. ‘Hostel Part II: The Next Level’ featurette is your basic making-of, ‘The Art of KNB Effects’ focuses on the accomplished gore, a ‘Production Design’ featurette and a very cool ‘Hostel Part II: A Legacy of Torture’ featurette that takes a look at torture devices through the ages. Superfluous deleted scenes, a radio interview with Roth, and a gag reel (that provides a much needed laugh to the material) finish off a decent package of bonus content. Eli Roth is not technically unskilled as a filmmaker but the fact is that he has no concern whatsoever for making his films scary. He’s attempting to push the envelope but can’t manage even one scene that comes off as unsettling (even via schlocky gore). Like the first ‘Hostel’, there is enough gore here to satisfy adolescent cravings for such content but to Roth, horror is a color and an effect but nothing more.