Hostel Part III Takes The Hostel Concept Stateside
| Tweet | |
Hostel Part III is the third installment in the popular series and transforms murder and torture from indulgent pastime to a high stakes game.
Written by The Horror Czar
December 20, 2011
Release: December 27, 2011 (U.S. DVD)
Directed by: Scott Spiegel
Written by: Michael Weiss and Eli Roth (characters)
Starring:
Thomas Kretschmann as Flemming
Zulay Henao as Nikki
Kip Pardue as Carter McMullen
John Hensley as Justin
Evelina Oboza as Anka
Brian Hallisay as Scott
Skyler Stone as Mike Malloy
Chris Coy as Travis
The premise of the Hostel films is pretty consistent: People staying in a youth hostel are abducted and made “prey” for wealthy members of the “Elite Hunting Club”. This is a place where those who can afford to live out their darkest desires choose young people to torture, dismember, disembowel and terrorize in an environment that allows them to act on their evil impulses without the threat of arrest and imprisonment. In the original and Hostel: Part II the location of both the harvesting of youngsters from the hostel and the hunting club “facilities” were in foreign lands, but in Hostel Part III we find that the land of glitter and neon has an Elite Hunting Club of it’s own.
Scott (Brian Hallisay) is engaged to be married to the girl of his dreams, and his buddies decide to take him to Palm Springs for some drinking and golf – a tame version of a bachelor party. That’s how it started out anyway… Carter (Kip Pardue) is Scott’s best friend and best man, and he’s arranged for a secret getaway to Las Vegas instead. Not long after the first hand of blackjack some lovely ladies introduce themselves to the crew and suggest going to a party that’s “off the strip”. What they means is WAY off the strip in some kind of isolated warehouse district, but the gentlemen decide to give it a go anyway and venture inside in search of a party. We can all see where this is headed.
Hostel Part III starts out with a bang, throwing a wrench in the formula we have all come to expect within the first 5 minutes – quite encouraging. From there the film takes a very different path than the previous Hostel installments and, while maintaining the thematic focus of the Elite Hunters Club and some extremely gory and creative kills, progresses the story in a very different way that focuses more on the drama of the people attempting to survive their fate than we have come to expect from a Hostel film.
We’re not talking in-depth docu-drama about the characters or anything, but the development of the guys out for one last weekend of debauchery goes much further than many horror films bother to, and the result is an actual twinge of concern as one is getting his face ripped off or another is being hunted by a hunter in an elaborate mask with twigs sticking out of it. There is a bit of back story, a smidge of the how, what why – those things that allow for some emotional engagement beyond the simple extravagance of the gore. And the gore is indeed extravagant.
The Hostel series is known for
over-the-top gore and
insane torture – the term “torture porn” when referring to films with
gratuitous suffering and bloody mayhem came to prominence with the
first Hostel and many films since the 2005 release of that
first film have continued to “up the ante” by going further and
further, bloodier and bloodier. Hostel Part III continues
this tradition with some incredible and outrageous gore that will leave
you squirming in your seat.
What’s missing in Hostel Part III is a bit of the cleverness that we saw in the first film. I know… it’s not often that Eli Roth and Hostel would be mentioned in the same sentence as “clever”, but hear me out. There were points in the first film, when the concept was new, that the escape of our hero became an interesting and satisfying drama. Many Horror Freaks had the chance to see some creative techniques used in escape that allowed us to imagine how we ourselves would have survived such an ordeal. Hostel Part III kind of glossed over some of the more interesting and intriguing points that would have enhanced the drama and the emotion of the climax, but then again this is a straight to DVD release.
From that perspective, Hostel Part III is a credible addition to the series that delivers those things that are expected without becoming simply a collection of gory scenes just because they can. This is the first segment without a theatrical release and as far as straight to DVD horror goes this one falls squarely in the “recommended” category. Nothing brilliant, but entertaining with good characters and great gore, Hostel Part III holds its own.
Questions or comments about Hostel Part III? Discuss it on The Ossuary Forums!
Take me to Horror Movie Reviews!
Hostel: Part III Trailer:
Horror Movie Freaks is the FREE eZine from Best-Horror-Movies.com that will give you the new horror releases, the new horror news and the new horror reviews that you CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT!!
Subscribing is easy, painless and free.
Do it NOW!!
