I’ve decided to review “Hostel” a little bit differently than I review most movies. Instead of giving my thoughts about character development, casting choices, and camera angles, I’m going to talk about something that I think a lot of people who saw this movie missed. I believe that “Hostel” is the best piece of social commentary to hit theaters in a long time. I also believe this commentary is being overlooked because of the gratuitous violence and nudity.

Director Eli Roth (“Cabin Fever”) introduces the two main characters as the stereotypical young Americans abroad, their primary concerns being European girls and cheap drugs. On the other hand, Roth displays the ways that European countries are forced to cater to foreigners like the main characters, sacrificing their dignity and selling their cultures and people to the highest bidder through prostitution, marijuana bars, and glammed up night clubs. As our heroes travel deep into the former Communist country of Slovakia in search of the legendary hostel with “women who will do anything” and are “crazy about Americans”, the audience gets a brief glimpse at how sudden and caustic the emergence of the free market economy has been on their previously government supported culture. Businesses and factories that had depended on federal funding have fallen victim to economic survival of the fittest, unemployed young men gather around trash fires while women sell their bodies to stay alive and children roam the streets in vicious gangs. In rural areas like this, the rules of life are to get rich or kill trying.

On the surface of all these metaphors, our boys are busy meeting new friends, hooking up with less than reputable women, and having a good time. All this less than terrifying activity only makes the suspense grow even more intense and believable as we grow more and more wary of the inevitable deceit which will lead to what everyone in the theater has paid to see, torture like its never been seen before. Needless to say, sadist viewers will get their wishes as the trio of happy-go-lucky hikers are captured and taken to an abandoned warehouse where clients from all over the world pay vast sums of money to torture and kill other human beings.

And that is where “Hostel” truly shines, but not only for the horror, but also for the re-emergence of underlying metaphors. As one of the characters is dragged on the ground towards his cell, he catches glimpses into the other chambers, where he witnesses a variety of sickening scenes of torture, exactly like a previous scene where the same character wanders down the hallway of an Amsterdam whorehouse, peeking in each room to witness various sexual acts. Roth really drives his point home in an amazing scene featuring Rick Hoffman as the American businessman who explains his reason for choosing to torture a defenseless girl. Hoffman’s character explains that gratuitous violence is the last taboo in a world where sex and drugs can be bought off the street and one only needs to turn on the six o’clock news to be bombarded by the aftermath of school shootings and natural disasters. And deep down, every human being on earth loves to indulge themselves in a little forbidden pleasure; Hostel simply takes that emotion and shows us what it can drive a man to do if left unbridled.

After a rapid shift of character focus, followed by an equally rapid escape from almost certain death, “Hostel” reveals its final form, a revenge film. As the only surviving character escapes from hell, returns, and gets revenge on his captors, violence that was just viewed as malicious and grotesque becomes humorous and admirable. We root for the hero as he stabs guards with meat cleavers and slits their throats; in this Roth has yet again slipped in commentary, proving that in society murder is only viewed as wrong in certain circumstances. Whereas fifteen minutes ago we had been averting our eyes from the screen, we now revel in the bloody and satisfying revenge the final character slowly excruciates from his would be murderers.

Readers must note, even though most of the violence is craftily implied rather than shoved in our faces as the previews would have you believe, the film is still generous in blood, gore, and dismemberment and is not for everyone, though anyone who has heard Roth’s truly sadistic original ending will see this final version as tame in comparison.

Overall “Hostel” was a well crafted movie that quickly built in momentum, building up to a fast paced ending that will leave you on the edge of your seats, either in fear or anticipation. Attention grabbing scenes of lewdness and gore effectively mask the subtle metaphors that only arise after mulling over the movie a few hours later. Those who see this film may think that anyone who would pay to torture and kill another human being is terrible and disgusting, but they must also realize that they have paid to watch it.

5 out of 5 stars