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Hostile
Not my usual cup of tea, but I've read so much about wunderkind Eli Roth, 34, I thought I'd better get behind the sofa and experience Hostel, which is out on DVD in a couple of weeks. I've not seen Cabin Fever, his flesh-eating-virus calling-card, which cost $1.5 million and made around $30 million, but it sounds pretty nasty. Hostel, I've read an awful lot about. Kim Newman wrote a fine think-piece in Sight & Sound about the phenomenon of torture movies, in particular the political ramifications of Americans being tortured. The film is about two American backpackers (plus an older Icelandic companion they've hooked up with), hiking across Yurp in search of kicks rather than museums and art galleries. In Amsterdam - where one of them at least notes the preponderence of American backpackers - they meet an East European who suggests they travel to Slovakia, where the girls are hot and there are no men "because of the war." Because of the war? Now either this is clever satire, or Roth actually doesn't know that the Yugoslav war affected Slovenia, not Slovakia. I'll accept it may be the former, which makes Hostel a clever satire about the geographical idiocy of Americans. It's all foreign to them. It's all "the rest of the world". Naturally, this tip-off proves their undoing, and they are sucked into a gruesome torture ring, about which I'll say no more, even though other reviewers seem happy to go into great detail about the whys and wherefores. It's better if you don't know exactly what's going on until the revelatory third act. That is, if you're interested in the story. If you just want to see some horrible sadism involving tools, such fripperies won't trouble you.
I came away from Hostel slightly troubled. It's not a badly-made film. The tension builds nicely. Sex and death are, as is traditional, interlinked, and as soon as our two idiot heroes get laid, you know they're for the high jump, but at least most of the violence is meted out on males and not squealing females. This is, in itself, refreshing. But if Roth is making any points at all, about xenophobia, or anti-Americanism in Europe, or the need for snuff-style gratification in an increasingly pornographic culture, the very act of making a film that glorifies physical torture completely undermines it. At the end of the day, when the blood's been sluiced down the drain and the butcher's aprons hung up, Hostel is a gorefest for audiences who like that type of thing. It titilates, sexually and viscerally, and parades yet another technically impressive show of prosthetic and latex makeup effects, its mission mostly to top the last gorefest. It's enjoyable on these terms, if enjoyable is the right word. I was certainly gripped, and repelled, and nauseated. (And the craftsmanship of the makeup artists is given a worthy platform in the making-of featurettes on the DVD.)
I would say that it's not as profound as it thinks it is, but then again, it's possible that it doesn't think it's profound at all, and Eli Roth really doesn't know the difference between Slovakia and Slovenia.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 8:01 AM
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8 Comments:
Eurgh. Rather you than me.
In my misbegotten youth, I remember it was a particular badge of honour to dare my circle of friends into the more obscure areas of schlock horror-the first Evil Dead BEFORE it was banned, then unbanned, all the early David Lynch oeuvre, Japanese horror, you name it. I remember dragging my reluctant mates to see "Videodrome" by David Cronenberg, and one individual having to leave before vomiting copiously in the foyer-combination of alternate salty and butter popcorn, and the gun/hand morph sequence, I think. anyway, we weren't welcome there again. Then I had a baby, and since then, I cannot sit through the modern horror genre without covering my eyes-it's like being 7 and seeing the daleks for the first time all over again!
I loved Hostel - I'm pretty sure Eli Roth wasn't looking to make any major point beyond the fact that teenage Americans tend to be really quite dumb.
The Slovenia/Slovakia thing was a major gaff though, I concur.
His horror movies fill that awkward comedy/horror gap so well, in that the gore is ranked up to such an extreme that you can't help but laugh.
He has more in common with the Japanese style of horror movie-making I reckon, in that plot comes second to scares. Let's face it, Ringu is hardly a masterclass in plot-structure, and Audition is a mess with a couple of awe-inspiring moments.
I recommend Cabin Fever, it's incredibly enjoyable, and has a very canny punchline.
On a lighter note I see Not Going Out is in the BBC Autumn schedule booklet, sandwiched between French and Saunders' Jam and Jerusalem and The Royle Family revival.
It's all real now, isn't it!
On BBC1 no less. Or so I heard.
I went to see 'Cabin Fever' on a date back when it came out.
It was moderately funny in a 'Scream' sort of way. But I don't think that the film-makers had intended that effect.
Not great.
On another note entirely, I went to the National Portrait Gallery last night to see the BP Portrait awards.
Not only can I highly recommend it but there's a portrait there called Jaemi that looks like you Andrew.
You can check it out here (along with the others....)
http://www.npg.org.uk/live/bp2006exha.asp
Spooky eh?
For the record, Slovenia's war lasted only ten days and left few casualties, so categorizing this as another Slovenia/Slovakia mix-up doesn't really make that much sense either.
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