Hostel

[schild]

Fuck this movie.

Not sure how else to say it.

[schild]

On that note, Takashi Miike plays Takashi Miike. I'm fairly sure he had more to do with the movie than Eli Roth or Quintin Tarantino. But you know me, still the same 'ol G.

[Wolf]

Haven't seen it. Don't intend to. The synopsis made me wish to slash my wrists.

[stray]

Probably won't bother with it until it pops on TV.

Speaking of that, I waited too long to see Ichi the Killer (came on the other night).

[schild]

Watching those movies on TV doesn't make much sense (the Miike stuff). It's too good for TV. As in, even on the most uncensored of channels, it'll still be sensored.

As for Hostel, I liked the synopsis. Sure, it's a wretched abortion of a ripoff of Most Dangerous Game, but it's a reasonable plot. I just wish the gore wasn't such cheese. The movie took itself too seriously. That doesn't happen often. It terribly, really, badly wanted to be a great arthouse flick of sorts. It failed.

[stray]

Watching those movies on TV doesn't make much sense (the Miike stuff). It's too good for TV. As in, even on the most uncensored of channels, it'll still be sensored.

Do you mean TV or cable? It's hard to imagine a version being more gruesome than the one I watched (think it was Showtime or TMC, not sure).

[schild]

Eh. I would be surprised if they played the uncut version of Ichi on pay per view let alone anywhere else. But I'm only assuming as I've only seen the uncut version.

[Llava]

I've come to the conclusion that I don't like watching suffering for the sake of watching suffering.  I realized this somewhere in the middle of Devil's Rejects, whereas before I mistook it for squeamishness.

I still like slasher movies, but give me something aside from the pain and gore.  That should only be the window dressing for the movie you're actually making.

[schild]

Hostel would have been fine if Eli Roth didn't think he was such an arteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeest.

[Wolf]

You liked the synopsis 'cause you don't live in Eastern Europe. American movie makers have the weirdest idea about what the fuck is going on here and I generally tend to skip movies that are in/about the region because 90% of them are ridiculous.

[schild]

You disliked it because you weren't informed. The only reason they put it in Eastern Europe was so they could make a Bratislava joke.....again.

The horror behind “Hostel” seems to be based on a non-existent urban legend. Apparently Roth heard of a similar torture/murder operation in Thailand through some web site, but never discovered if it was true. He did say that the fact someone had thought of it and that people were debating whether or not it was true was creepy enough.

Edit: Also, Thailand would probably have not been too interesting.

[Lt.Dan]

I don't know, Deer Hunter scared the shit out of me.  Bad mojo in Thailand.

[bhodi]

Scott: A dollar and 83 cents American. What can we get for that?
[cut to a lavish Slovak hotel]
Scott: Gotta love that exchange rate!

[Toast]

My friends from Bratislava are not happy about this movie. Bratislava is a pretty cool city that most americans know nothing about, and this movie pisses all over it.

[Bunk]

Full agreement with Llava here. You couldn't pay me to watch that shit.

I understand Suspense movies - they are scary. Being scared is fun and exhilerating. I even understand Horror movies - over the top Gore is gross and entertaining at the same time. The thing is though - its over the top. But Torture? A fucking movie about Torture. Why?

I haven't seen the movie and I have no intention too, because the synopsis basically says its a movie about people torturing people for fun. Making me remember just how fucked up humanity can be is not entertainment for me. I put it on the same level as snuff based erotic fiction. No thanks.

[Flood]

Well I'm all for the gore aspect, and the technology involved in a movie that makes it look more "real".  There is enough technology now to make most gore effects completely real.  I also can intellectualize the excercise of going to the extreme side of one dynamic as art, satire, social commentary, blah blah.

But.  Nothing so base and cruel should be packaged, marketted and made into a commodity.  There are just some things that are not acceptable as social fodder.  I'll pass.

[Sky]

I haven't seen the Devil's Rejects yet, but I liked House of 1000 Corpses because it was some funny shit, not because there was omgtorture! Those were actually the weakest parts of the film imo.

This Hostel...just looks stupid. I saw an extended trailer on INHD or something and couldn't be less interested.

[Johny Cee]

I'll say first that I liked Hostel.  I also liked Cabin Fever.  I like how Roth takes a movie in one direction,  with every indication of continuing in that direction,  and then drops a seriously fucked up horror situation right in the middle of it.

I think one of the major problems with US horror right now is that film makers have forgotten that you have to adequately set up the backstory and situation before you can drop the fucked up on the characters.

Predator is a great, entertaining, enjoyable monster flick.  Scifi channel churns out dozens of shitty monster flicks with virtually the same plot,  and they are by and large TERRIBLE.  A couple are mediocre.  In Predator,  you establish the characters and their motivations.  You illustrate that these guys are badasses.  And then you slowly kill them off.  Arnold wins in the end,  not so much from crazy fluke chance, as from the fact that the predator has crazy Greek levels of hubris and acts according to the nature that was set up for it early on.

In the shitty stuff,  you glance at it and you know which character will die, which will get together, and you know the monster will be dispatched in some suitably freak explosion on the cusp of winning.

I liked the fact I had a dislike for the main characters.  They're overbearing, arrogant, selfish.  Huge glaring flaws.  Like the homophobe that's obviously in the closet and not dealing with it well.  Or the hispanic that's trying hard to be the proto-typical WASP frat boy.  And the fact that they're on a hedonisitic binge while trying to ignore these things that are obviously on thier minds.  It's enough material to make a passable drama about maturity.

Then, bang, straight into fucked up territory.  The homophobe killed by the man who's advance he violently objected to.  The hispanic having to first deny he's American,  and then he's confronted by the ugly American businessman in the changing room.  Their he gets to see the morally and ethically bankrupt individual concerned with the trappings of power and success that he was aiming for.

Stylistically,  the gore is over the top.  And this is a personal matter.  I enjoy films that have only heavily sanitized violence (Leone's Spaghetti Westerns for instance), but I don't have a real problem with the gore.  If you do have a problem with gore,  then this isn't your movie.

Roth main characters, for me at least,  tend to be just like people I have known.  Unlike standard horror.  Who hasn't known the imbecile,  but massively amusing and somewhat likeable, character like Bert from Cabin Fever?   I knew guys like the two main characters in Hostel in college,  almost exactly.

[jpark]

Not bad flick but did it scare me?  No.  I still re-watch the sci fi flick Event Horizon for a good scare :)

[schild]

Event Horizon might have broken me forever. It's actually far scarier than most would think (those who haven't seen it of course).

But then, I think Congo is scary as hell. I don't do well with gorillas.

[Morfiend]

Event Horizon might have broken me forever. It's actually far scarier than most would think (those who haven't seen it of course).

But then, I think Congo is scary as hell. I don't do well with gorillas.

I thought I was going to have a heart attack during that movie. My friends and I got really really stoned (bad fucking idea) and went to see it. It is now forever imprinted on my brain as one of the most scary movies ever. I think I had nightmares for about 2 months.

[Llava]

I haven't seen the Devil's Rejects yet, but I liked House of 1000 Corpses because it was some funny shit, not because there was omgtorture! Those were actually the weakest parts of the film imo.

This Hostel...just looks stupid. I saw an extended trailer on INHD or something and couldn't be less interested.

I liked House of 1000 Corpses as well.  It was pretty funny.

Rob Zombie decided to take out all the charm and just make a violent, brutal film that's really hard to watch.  I had a particularly hard time with the motel room scene.

[Ralence]

Event Horizon might have broken me forever. It's actually far scarier than most would think (those who haven't seen it of course).

  I'll see your Event Horizon, and raise you an In The Mouth of Madness.  In my 33 years, those are the only two movies that have really creeped me out.

[schild]

Ah, I have In the Mouth of Madness. It didn't do much for me, but I liked it. It takes a special movie to scare the shit out of me. Very few have done it. The Ring did it the FIRST time I saw it. Now Japanese horror doesn't do much to me. Phone got me pretty good, and most Korean horror still does. Maybe it's the language.

But ya, Mouth of Madness is good stuff.

[Lantyssa]

Odd.  For me, Event Horizon was creepy until the end.  When the source of the horror was revealed I was so dumbfounded that it lost all effect on me.  I guess it violated my sense of disbelief.  It's a shame because I really liked it up to that point.

[schild]

That's what happened with Stephen King's it. When it becomes a shitty stop motion animation spider, it loses all appeal.

[Johny Cee]

Ah, I have In the Mouth of Madness. It didn't do much for me, but I liked it. It takes a special movie to scare the shit out of me. Very few have done it. The Ring did it the FIRST time I saw it. Now Japanese horror doesn't do much to me. Phone got me pretty good, and most Korean horror still does. Maybe it's the language.

But ya, Mouth of Madness is good stuff.

The Thing!  Wilford Brimley talking to Kurt Russell with the noose in the foreground, Kurt Russell holding everyone off with a stick of dynamite and a flare,  and the pure paranoia.  Oh,  and the last scene.

I just said it on Some Other Site,  but....  Event Horizon was really, really, really creepy if you went into it not knowing that it was a horror flick and Sam Niell wasn't the main character. 

Mouth of Madness is about the nearest thing we've come to a Lovecraft style horror/wierd fiction movie.  I'd love to see a Shadow over Innsmouth or Call of Cthulthu done right.  (And no, the movie Dagon doesn't count)

Alien.....  I can respect Alien,  because it's an old horror plot done very well.  Like I can respect Ian Mckellan's Richard III. 

[Samwise]

(And no, the movie Dagon doesn't count)

Lies!   

[schild]

Hmmm. Cthulhu could make for some good movies.

And I like Sam Neill. I like Stellan Skarsgaard also. I clump them in the same category of underused actors - or misused.

[Toast]

Here's another vote for Event Horizon. The scene where the square lights start randomly going off in the tunnel. UGH.

[Sky]

It takes a special movie to scare the shit out of me. Very few have done it. The Ring did it the FIRST time I saw it.

I agree. The first time I saw it, the cinematography and soundtrack were spot on for a good chill. I also love the inserted art school style footage.

The second flick did nothing for me, though I enjoyed it better the second time I saw it (it was just making the HD movie channel rounds).

I love movies with good cinematography over just about any other factor, really. I blame art school.

[HaemishM]

Event Horizon was a really good creepy movie, IMO. Other people pan the shit out of it, I think mainly because they expected a sci-fi film.

The Ring Two (American version) was a useless waste of time trying to rehash the first one, only WITH MORE CREEPY GIRL. Here's a hint, American horror directors. Less is more.

[Lantyssa]

Event Horizon was a really good creepy movie, IMO. Other people pan the shit out of it, I think mainly because they expected a sci-fi film.

Considering it was for the first 90 out of 96 minutes, can you really blame us?

[Morfiend]

Event Horizon was a really good creepy movie, IMO. Other people pan the shit out of it, I think mainly because they expected a sci-fi film.

Considering it was for the first 90 out of 96 minutes, can you really blame us?

Thats what made it so fucked up and creepy when the shit did start to get wierd.

[raydeen]

My two pants shitting movies: The Hitcher and Prince of Darkness. PoD doesn't hold up as well (not quite the same chills as when I was 14 or so and saw it in the theatre), but The Hitcher still gets me everytime I see it. Event Horizon was good but didn't quite hit the high mark at the end. As for Stephen King's IT, the book was great, the movie, not so much. The only really good SK movie is Salem's Lot and it was so different from the book that I think that's what saved it. It went different directions and thus didn't have to be really compared to the book. It stood on it's own merits.