by GeniustoBurn

Created on: May 17, 2010

Darn it. I have spent years avoiding this film. "Torture porn" just isn't my thing, you see. I like Quentin Tarantino ok - even if the constant swearing does get on my nerves (grow up!) and I do feel vaguely uncomfortable with the obvious glee with which he directs scenes of pain being inflicted on helpless victims. Eli Roth has struck me, since "Cabin Fever," as being slightly creepy. You know, the type of guy who was a geek in high school and thought "One day I'm going to be a movie director and cast lots of hot chicks and then kill them!" So you see, I had good reason to hate this film. Trouble is, I didn't. How annoying.

That's not to say I enjoyed it - I'm not sure that is quite the right word. But if you want a film that will genuinely get your heart racing, this is the one for you. I actually wish I'd seen it when it first came out, so that I wouldn't know the urban legend-esque story. In fact, if you have been living under a rock for the last five years and have no idea what this is about, I suggest you go and watch it right now, before you read anything else about it. It'll be more fun for you that way.

So, Paxton (Jay Hernandez) and his buddy Josh (Derek Richardson) have travelled from the USA to do the European backpacking thing, as so many post graduates do. They hook up with Oli (Eythor Gudjonsson), a likably crazy Icelandic guy, and the three of them generally amble around; drinking, taking drugs, sleeping with girls. So far, so average. But then they get chatting to a guy who tells them about an amazing hostel - "that you won't find in any guidebooks" and hear about the women there (who are apparently starved of male attention). Well, what frat boy could resist?

We know this is a horror film. So in amongst all the hedonism, we are waiting for something bad to happen... but it takes its time, and much of the first half of the film is taken up by "18-30 holiday" type footage. They meet up with some girls, they pass out, etc etc. (Eli Roth, that uber feminist, tells us that all the writhing naked female flesh in this movie is ironic. Because "extreme" sex in a brothel parallels the extreme violence that you can also (apparently) pay to enjoy. Look out, Germaine Greer!)

The next morning, their pal Oli has apparently checked out - pretty odd, but then again, they haven't known him for that long, and "It's what people do." The scary thing is, it's true. It's so easy when travelling to meet up with people, agree to meet again down the coast,

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