The Hostel (Warning Spoilers)

The Hostel made in 2005 and directed by Eli Roth, depicts the story of three friends who are backpacking around Europe, the film begins in Amsterdam where the three friends (Paxton, Josh and Oli) proceed to get stoned, and enter the Red Light district, where it becomes clear that Josh who has recently split up with his girlfriend, is struggling to be with other women. The three guys when they return to the hostel after a night out,  are annoyed to find out that the hostel has closed, so they go to the flat of a girl that Oli found earlier in the film, where they meet Alex, who tells them that the best girls are found in Slovakia, the boys are eager to go there and so make Slovakia their next destination, and this is the location where the film takes a dark turn, after a strange series of events Oli and then Josh go missing, Paxton finds the girls who they shared a room with, who then tell Paxton that Oli and Josh are at an Art Exhibition, Paxton demands to be taken there, where he then discovers that the "Art Exhibition" is actually a place where tourists are brutally tortured and murdered. Paxton is then captured and has to fight to stay alive. This is also the place where he learns that each type of tourist has a price, and that American tourists are worth $25,000 to be captured and then tortured. He escapes and then takes revenge on the people that are responsible for his two friends being captured and killed. He manages to leave the country with his life.

This particular film is shot rather simply, with strong sexual and extremely violent themes, it highlights the dangers that can be associated with backpackers travelling across Europe. The film creates a world where backpackers who go missing can end up in life threatening situations and as one character highlights in the film "You are very far from home." For anyone considering going backpacking Hostel is not the film to encourage travel. The set up of the film creates a rather believable yet highly disturbing scenario, each activity that the boys undertake before the attacks are things that are known to happen when people go travelling. As many teenagers believe that in places like Amsterdam it is common for people to smoke cannabis and go to the red and blue light districts. There have also been cases where young travellers have gone missing. But to contemplate that the events that take place in Hostel happen in real life is an extremely unsettling thought.

For me the film has a similar set up to the 2008 film Taken starring Liam Neeson and directed by Pierre Morel, which is more in the action genre than the horror genre, but the film similarly to Hostel shows the dangers that occur when teenagers, go travelling without their parents for the first time, all wanting to experience the wonders of different cultures, but are unaware of the dangers that are associated with such travel, these films create somewhat of a warning, that you should travel but be aware that a stranger offering to share a taxi may not be such an innocent request, and that when you travel you should be wary of the people that you meet. Making sure that any personal details that could cause you to come to harm should not be shared with people you do not know. That's by no means to say that every stranger you meet wants to cause harm to you, but that stranger danger should be always in the back of your mind.

Films like Taken and Hostel, highlight the dangers of travelling unsupervised, but also they highlight that unfortunately in the real world great evils do exist, and that we must all be careful, Hostel is very dramatised, and the brutal images that are shown ( very realistically created by the make up department) are things that make you recoil in to yourself, it is very grotesque violence that push audiences out of their comfort zone, and in many respects Hostel creates the sense of isolation and people that you think you can trust in the film, are actually leading the characters in to a trap, you hope that the three boys can fight their way out of it, because you know that there is no one else who can save them.