Movies That Scarred Me For Life: Hostel
Movies that scarred me for life is all about the movies that keep you up at night. The horrors you just can’t seem to get out of your head. But beyond the monsters, ghosts, slashers and aliens, there are also the cringe worthy films you wish you never saw. Movies that made you wish you had the lost two hours of your life back. There are tons of ways a movie can scar you for life. This series will look at 12 of my personal favorites.
Hostel
I saw Hostel in theaters hoping to have as much fun as I did watching the original Saw. As a horror fan, I was blown away by the moral themes and awesome twist ending.
Sadly, Saw spawned a number of copies and gore-fests that pleased the hardcore fans of blood baths but not this horror fan. Saw wowed me because of it’s story. The ‘torture-porn’ genre emerged. It’s no surprise that a lot of people out there became tired of senseless torture movies. I did at least but not before I gave them one last chance…
When trailers were released for Hostel, I was queasy and curious like many horror fans out there. What a messed up concept!? A horrific place where people pay top dollar to torture tourists from around the world. It looked like a perfect companion to the Saw franchise if the story held up. Would the instruments of death be accompanied by interesting characters and big twists? In a word… No.
XTRA | 10 Flicks: Horror Movies With Great Stories
I think that violence in movies with great stories can be tolerated if you love horror films and the story is worth it. I understand that they aren’t for everyone and films like Hostel certainly push the limits of audiences acceptance.
Hostel scarred me for life because there really was no real reason for the violence. It was there for merely for shock value. Somewhere in the middle of the movie, I realized that Hostel wasn’t about morality. It wasn’t about anything really except trying to gross out audiences as much as possible. (See ‘The Human Centipede‘ for more examples of this.)
Not for me.
The first full torture sequence was chilling and I can admit I was shifting in my seat but for what? What was the point? People will argue that Saw is also violence for the sake of violence but I felt that a villain like Jigsaw at least gave us a reason. A ‘Why?’.
I turned away from ‘Torture Porn’ movies after that. Perhaps another film like Saw will come around someday. (No, not Saw 2-7 either)
Until then, I’ll stick to ghost stories and thrillers.
Which movies scarred you?
Twitter
RSS Feed
Email
Youtube
I remember renting this one and watching it with a friend. It was one of the most boring movies ever. It felt like nearly an hour before anything happened, not counting the morons that were the main characters chasing tail. I was pretty much half asleep when the “torture” started, and even then it was “meh”.
I wondered why there was so much noise around this movie, complete drivel.
You and I are on the same page when it comes to Hostel.
Hostel I like cause I felt – and still feel – it was really powerful & uncompromising
I was brought into the horror & smothered by the weird Slovakian village atmosphere way before the tortures began
The tortures came in when I was already in an eerie, scary, thick atmosphere where I felt the guys were never gonna survive
The violence at the end caught me cause the sense of doom had me from before
So I disagree, I loved that movie!
Fair enough. I totally understand that people found it effective. It made enough money to warrant a sequel. I suppose my expectations were just too high.
What did you think of Hostel 2?
I liked Hostel 2 a lot
I didn’t find it scary at all, just really gory & really well executed
The chicks were super hot & the gory moments were more extreme
I luved the guy who plays the moral friend & then turns repressed maniac in the end
Did you like the movie??
I thought it was cool to get a better look into the actual organization the second time around but it was more of the same for me. I suppose I liked the first one better which doesn’t say much for part 2 but I don’t think the sequel had much of a chance given my feelings on the first.