People get their personal thrills from any number of sources. Good or bad, legal or not, and harmful or harmless, such behavior usually acts upon the primitive parts of our brains responsible for enjoyment and/or the cathartic rush of release. For me, my "drug" of choice is riding roller coasters. Nothing beats, the anticipation of the buildup, the terror right at the zenith, and then the giddy release of letting gravity do its thing.
In a similar sense, that's why people enjoy horror flicks. As is the case with most coasters, such "riders" can see the track ahead of them, but it's still thrilling to anticipate and then experience the various chills, thrills and scares such films deliver.
Much like those who enjoy rides that actually brutalize riders (or watching those being thrown and bashed around inside such coaster cars), there's a subset of horror fans who enjoy what are best described as soft-core, snuff films. While the victims in such films aren't really tortured or killed, certain viewers seem to enjoy watching such material in movies such as "Hostel."
That's the sub-par 2006 flick from director Eli Roth that featured people being victimized in an old factory somewhere near the titular location (read recruiting ground) over in Europe. While there was plenty of torture and resultant blood and gore (although to Roth's credit, he didn't always show everything, leaving some of that work to our imagination), the film was lacking in what it really needed: Genuine scares and characters we could or should worry about.
Since such films are cheap to make and always find some sort of audience (albeit not a very large one in this particular instance), it isn't surprising that we're now being treated to "Hostel: Part II." Or that it's just more of the same old, same old, with the "twist" this time being that it's women who are the subject of such atrocities. Considering that most horror films of old always featured damsels in varying degrees of horrific distress (and who often garnered the courage to stand up to and often get revenge on their tormentors), this isn't really much of a novel or inspired plot change.
That said, fans of such carnage might be disappointed in the way in which Roth proceeds with the material. After a brief but violent prologue of sorts that wraps up some loose ends from the first film, he then introduces us to the next three potential parts of his cinematic meat grinder. And introduces them, and then introduces them some more.
Since we know what ultimately lies in store for them but they don't, that assigned superior position is supposed to make the normal among us worry about their plight, while the deranged crowd presumably will enjoy the buildup to the eventual sadistic mayhem. The problem is, we don't care about the three women, thanks to a combination of mediocre to bad acting on the part of Lauren German, Bijou Phillips, and especially Heather Matarazzo, as well as lackluster dialogue and uninspired direction from Roth.
One need only look at the latest offering from Roth's idol and this film's executive producer, Quentin Tarantino. In his "Death Proof" half of "Grindhouse," the veteran filmmaker also introduced us to a group of women headed for obvious disaster. Yet, with far better acting, crisp dialogue, terrific direction, and a far more interesting twist of events, the result - even with a similarly long buildup -- was far better than anything this film can muster.
Here, we don't care simply because we're bored and none of the characters seem like real people. In fact, about the only interesting thing is that two actors from TV's "Desperate Housewives" -- Roger Bart and Richard Burgi -- show up as the highest bidding sadists. The fact that they switch attitudes about their involvement is supposed to be some sort of statement about human nature or just an intended perverted twist, but it has no impact since there's no emotional connectivity to anyone who appears on the screen.
As I said about the last film, perhaps if Tarantino had directed this film, it might have been more interesting, engaging, and/or disturbing. Alas, that's not the case, and thus the intended horror coaster known as "Hostel: Part II" is nothing but a flat ride that rates as just a 3 out of 10.
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