Hostel: Part II (2007) Director: Eli Roth

Hostel: Part II is not everyone's cup of tea. Torture and murder, Sir? How would you like to see your victims killed? Fancy a bit of cannibalism? Electrocution? Be-heading? I approched the sequel to 2005's fearful and iconic Hostel with, well, a scaredy cat stomach - I knew Eli Roth this time was putting the emphasis on female victims of the Hostel that never lets you leave. Now, I ADORE Eli Roth through his work with Lloyd Kaufman and his inspiration to me as an auteur - the first Hostel film, all about a facility where rich clients pay to torture and kill victims, was brutal. Utterly utterly horrific and sickening. Sadly Hostel II is, well, just not very good. And it pains me to say that. AS I LOVE ELI ROTH.

The concept of Hostel is more frightening than the lame special effects and very lame ending of the sequel. The film opens with the survivor of the first movie worrying that he will be tracked down by the Elite Hunting Club. Things don't go so well. We then follow three unlikeable American girls in Slovakia who are lured into staying at the infamous Hostel and are sold off to the highest bidders. They're, of course, blissfully unaware of this. Yeahhhhh, as you'd be out of there! The first dumb-ass girl bites it through a prolonged sexual witchy bathing in blood ritual slaying (oh Eli, you bad, bad man) - it's uncomfortable viewing as we watch the girl naked, strung up by her ankles upside-down, awaiting her fate. That's horror. However, as we get into the depths of the killing facility, pretty much nada else happens and the tables are in fact turned onto the clients. It is an interesting spin but the film comes to such an abrupt end with some really rubbish prosthetics.

It's such a shame as the sequel could have played much more on the fear and utter shock of the initial film - it was the ultimate 'torture porn' video nasty - but Hostel II really descends into a comedy. It's almost as if Roth had run out of time why he chose to end the movie that way. A lot more could have been done. Let me write Hostel 3.