Reviews

I really loved Hostel... it is a very, very good movie, regardless of what many people think. People can't seem to see beyond the violence or the gore.

The photography, the editing, the acting, the score, the script... everything was top notch. It is really well made. There are a bunch of 'torture-porn' (but really, TORTURE-PORN) flicks like 'Violent Sh#t' or 'Porno Holocaust' out there with zero production values, just made for the hell of it (which i suppose they're fun in a way, but basically they are pieces of garbage)... People don't seem to realize how well made a movie like Hostel is.

I believe Torture Porn is not fitting at all for Hostel. Hostel is a very tense, very disturbing, nightmarish look at human nature. It's a Horror movie in every sense of the word, and stylistically it's very much like an Italian Giallo.

Right now, in times when you get a lot 'just for the sake of being gory movies', Hostel can't be taken away from that context, but I assure you... Hostel will be a Horror classic, cause it's really well done and it actually has something to say.

Beautiful pacing, acting, dialog, music... everything. Is just one of those movies you get so into that it's hard to get out of. What starts out like a heartfelt drama, spins out of control in the movie's half. Though it's surprisingly NOT out of place.

The first half may be slow for some, it's just taking it's time. We're getting to know this characters, by mannerisms, by dialog, by subtle things. We're feeling safe. Than that damn sack makes a jump (along with a scary as hell sound) in the room. And it all goes downhill from there. Something is wrong. We're not safe anymore.

Then you got all those cool things, like de nightmare sequence, which is AMAZING. Some dude eating puke. And the great, awkwardly touching finale.

Miike is a horror master. No, wait... An all-genre master.

Crazy, visceral, over the top, quirky, violent, gory, silly, extreme and (in it's own way) sweet, are just a few words that can describe this visual extravaganza.

What makes it such a good movie? It's fast paced, it's witty, it's charming... and it is GROUNDBREAKING,it's an important movie of the genre.

Lionel is a loser who lives with his dominant mother. Lionel finds a way out, by hooking up with Paquita (a beautiful Diana Peñalver), but soon Lionel's mother gets bitten by a RAT MONKEY and she gradually starts to decompose (it's hilarious) and turns into a living dead... Lionel like a loving son he is, tries to hide the fact that her mother is a zombie, keeping her sedated with drugs... until, naturally, all hell breaks loose.

Timothy Balme is genius as Lionel, I mean; HE'S SO UNDERRATED, he gives a truly comedic performance that's top notch and really entertaining, so is the rest of the cast.

This is my favorite Peter Jackson film, and maybe one of the best horror comedies EVER. It's so f***ed-up, crazy and over the top it's almost poetic.

Everyone who considers himself (or Herself) a Horror Lover, a GoreHound, a rare-movie seeker or a Three Stooges fan should get their hands on this unusual flick.