HOSTEL PART II (2007)

The first Hostel (see review here) set the bar high for the beginning of the torture-porn era that still seems to pop up here and there. Only inevitable we would get a HOSTEL PART II. In this one though, we get a trio of girls as the main characters and we see how far the organization, Elite Hunting, can spread and what they do. Like any sequels, we get more explanation and in this case I feel it takes just a tad bit of mystery out of the whole thing. To begin with, in the opening scene we revisit Paxton who survived the first and see what happens to him when the organization catches up to him. I get that the idea is they have this seemingly global reach and it does allow for this ‘you can never escape’ narrative. So I'm mixed on that front. Moving forward, we meet two businessmen throughout the film who are about to be new clients and it’s an interesting dichotomy between their contrasting personalities and who ultimately ends up going through with the ordeal. Adds for a nice crossover of characters between the new clients and main girls when it's all said and done. By the time this movie came out, we already had a few Saw flicks, Wrong Turn, among others, so the shock factor of this particular genre wore off a bit but the gore and carnage is still present. Interesting to see too how the organization works and does their recruiting. The beginning and ending is a bit stale in my opinion but for more of the same with a bigger scope, check into this place.

SLASH SCENE: The final kill

SLASH SCORE: 3.5/5