I don’t know whether there is really a point to doing much of a review for Hostel II. If you are interested at all in seeing it, you probably watched the first one, and if you did, you know what is going to happen, since it is basically the same movie.
Hostel II starts right after the events of Hostel. We learn what happened to Jay Hernandez’ character from the first film in a somewhat unnecessary prologue, then begin to follow three American girls on holiday in Europe. That’s the major plot twist: first movie, three guys, second movie, three girls. I did find the movie worked well on one level. You know from the beginning the fate to which the girls are heading, so there is a palpable sense of dread that builds as the film progresses. Although the movie has gotten a lot of attention for the quantity of gore and torture, the creepiest scene to me was when the motel clerk sent the girls passport photos over the internet for an auction to see who would “buy” which girl. The coldness of this seemed closer to true horror than the actual torture scenes.
I like a lot about the controversial director of these films, Eli Roth. I think he works the camera well, handles dialogue with ease, and gets good performances out of his mostly unknown actors. One day, I hope to see him direct something with a little more plot.
The upshot is, if you liked Hostel, you’ll probably like Hostel II.
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