The following is excerpted from an Associated Press review of a movie starting today.
Writer-director Eli Roth won’t just show you a close-up of a chain saw severing the fingers of a hapless backpacker who has been chained to a chair and tortured. He’ll also show you the bloody stumps falling onto the dark stone floor, as well as the partial paw that remains. Such is the relentlessly graphic nature of “Hostel,” which is not for the faint of heart. …
“Hostel” is extremely effective in achieving its goal: to make you squirm in your seat, heart pounding, fingers splayed across your eyes, in sheer amazement at the intensity of the images on the screen. A lot of horror movies come out every year but few of them are truly disturbing. This one is. …
But the main point, without giving too much away, is the idea of torture as sport — arbitrary, elaborate, depraved. And whether or not this kind of horror movie is your cup of tea, you have to at least admire Roth for the daring and creativity with which he illustrates that concept.
Actually, no, we don’t. These chaps apparently would, however. Except for the guy in the middle.
