Hostel: Part II is a 2007 American horror film written and directed by Eli Roth, and the sequel to his 2005 horror film Hostel. It stars Lauren German, Roger Bart, Heather Matarazzo and Bijou Phillips. Director Eli Roth, his brother Gabriel, and co-producer Dan Fisner make cameo appearances as heads on sticks. Italian director Ruggero Deodato (Last Cannibal World; Cannibal Holocaust) makes an appearance as a cannibalistic client and cult actress Edwige Fenech (The Case of the Bloody Iris; Strip Nude for your Killer) also has a small role as an Art professor.
While studying art in Rome for the summer, three young American women, Beth (Lauren German), Lorna (Heather Matarazzo) and Whitney (Bijou Phillips) are lured away to a Slovakian hostel by the beautiful Eastern European model from their life drawing class. What they find there is a living hell as they are forced into servitude by an exclusive club that sells them off to the highest bidder, a sick and depraved pervert who ties them up, tortures them in all kinds of unthinkable ways and gets his kicks from watching the young women die a slow and painful death…
The film was released on June 8, 2007 in the United States. Like its predecessor, the film is set in Slovakia and centers on a facility in which rich clients pay to torture and kill kidnapped victims. The film performed poorly at the box office totaling just $17 million by the end of its theatrical run whereas the original made $19 million in its opening weekend alone. Eli Roth shot scenes for the movie in the Prague online brothel Big Sister and at the Blue Lagoon in Iceland.
Director Eli Roth
The film has been restricted to adults in most countries. However, it has been cut in Germany, Malaysia and Singapore, and the “German Extended Version” (in which Lorna’s torture and death scene is still not shown completely) has subsequently been banned in Germany. The court in Munich decided that releasing the movie in this or the uncut version is to be punished. Only a heavily edited “not under 18″ version is still available. It was banned in New Zealand, after the distributor refused to cut the scene showing the torture of Lorna to receive an R18 certificate. The film, with the scene in question edited out, was later released on DVD.
Unbelievably, on October 8, 2007, the film was cited in the British House of Commons as an example where stills from the film could be illegal to possess under a proposed law to criminalise possession of extreme imagery. Conservative MP Charles Walker claimed that although he had never seen the film, he was “assured by trusted sources” that “From beginning to end it depicts obscene, misogynistic acts of brutality against women”.
A direct-to-DVD release, Hostel: Part III followed in late 2011.
Eli Roth and Ruggero Deodato
Buy Hostel Part II on US Blu-ray at Amazon.com
Buy Hostel Part II on UK Blu-ray at Amazon.co.uk
“Roth is way ahead of the game, giving us only one major drawn out damsel in distress sequence. The rest of the time, events happen off screen, or within a unique twist on the aggressor/victim paradigm. Indeed, all of Hostel Part II is about bucking trends. Don’t listen to the messageboards that lament that this is more of the same thing. It’s not.” PopMatters
Eli Roth with Edwige Fenech
“While the film suffers from many of the same flaws as its predecessor – poor character development, predictability and playing to clichés this second film is more entertaining than the one that came before it. It moves at a much faster pace and three women victims in the picture are slightly more likeable than the male victims in the original were.” Ian Jane, Rock! Shock! Pop!
“The first Hostel was unexpectedly brutal, with an almost eerie enthusiasm in torturing its victims in graphic glory on-screen. Now, with screaming nubile teenage women the subject of assault in Hostel: Part II, the violence changes somewhat, taking on orgiastic qualities, for lack of a cleaner word. Whether intentional or not, the violence is sexual in nature, all full of molestation and terrible, horrible, no-good very-bad things—themes not present in the original Hostel. Nasty business indeed, and frankly, it makes the film difficult to enjoy.” Adam Arseneau, DVD Verdict
Posted by Will Holland
