Hostel

[D. Generate]

Originally Posted by horrorview

Tarantino's own enormous sense of self-esteem!!

But he seems so humble and willing to stay behind the scenes...

I see this was written on the 6th, and I went to the Flying Pig hostel in Amsterdam on the 9th. Glad I didn't read this first.

Nothing gory really happened there, but I could tell you some chilling tales of stinky American hippies with dreadlocks.

[horrorview]

Originally Posted by D. Generate

Nothing gory really happened there, but I could tell you some chilling tales of stinky American hippies with dreadlocks.

HAHAHAHA!! YA know, I got your postcard after seeing this flick and I couldn't help but think "Oh crap, I hope Dale didn't go visit Club Vundersexen or anything like that!".

As for the hippy dreads, I can smell the patchouli from here!

[colgate]

I finally viewed this film and found it to be outstanding. Hadn't been this excited to see what's coming next in a film since watching Pulp Fiction the first time. The euro guy who sort of stalks them on the train is my new best villian since Sir Lawrence in The Marathon Man. The guy was truly into his craft. Ill. And the German that wanted an American wheezing in sexual excitement as he got busy, outstanding.

Here's my only beef with the film - the schlocky ending. Could have done without the Japanese girl torture and the American wiseass sadist. That was just too campy. But everything else about the plot and execution was first rate. The villians were great. The hunchback, oh damn, what a beast.

I invented a word during the movie, meatskirt. That's what I call their latex aprons. Really fun evil movie.

[Corona Gigante]

The horror films I've enjoyed the most had strong supernatural and / or fantasy themes. I'm thinking of The Exorcist, Phantasm, the first two or three Hellraiser movies, the Evil Dead trilogy, The Others, Ringu, Ju-On.

There's a particular sub-genre of horror that uses graphic torture as the *ahem* hook. This goes back at least as far as The Silence of the Lambs, through Se7en, Hannibal, Ôdishon, and the two (so far) Saw movies. (I haven't seen either version of TCM)

I remember Se7en as being well made and innovative at the time, and Anthony Hopkins brings style and menace to his role as Hannibal Lector, but the two Saw movies didn't seem to have anything at all going for them except a lot of screaming, prosthetic effects, and buckets of fake blood.

The stills on the DVD box in the video store seemed to suggest that Hostel falls squarely into that category of graphic torture / borderline snuff. Is there anything more to it?

[ResIpsa]

Originally Posted by Corona Gigante

The horror films I've enjoyed the most had strong supernatural and / or fantasy themes. I'm thinking of The Exorcist, Phantasm, the first two or three Hellraiser movies, the Evil Dead trilogy, The Others, Ringu, Ju-On.

I particularly enjoyed Ju-on (the grudge here) and Ringu(the ring here). I found the Japanese originals to be more "atmospheric" in their scariness than their american counterparts which relied more on special effects. The Others is another film good for its use of atmosphere.

About a year ago I read some stuff regarding Phantasm and 'the ball being back", but it seems to be dead in the water now....

[VictimSix]

Originally Posted by Corona Gigante

The horror films I've enjoyed the most had strong supernatural and / or fantasy themes. I'm thinking of The Exorcist, Phantasm, the first two or three Hellraiser movies, the Evil Dead trilogy, The Others, Ringu, Ju-On.

There's a particular sub-genre of horror that uses graphic torture as the *ahem* hook. This goes back at least as far as The Silence of the Lambs, through Se7en, Hannibal, Ôdishon, and the two (so far) Saw movies. (I haven't seen either version of TCM)

I remember Se7en as being well made and innovative at the time, and Anthony Hopkins brings style and menace to his role as Hannibal Lector, but the two Saw movies didn't seem to have anything at all going for them except a lot of screaming, prosthetic effects, and buckets of fake blood.

The stills on the DVD box in the video store seemed to suggest that Hostel falls squarely into that category of graphic torture / borderline snuff. Is there anything more to it?

I really enjoyed Saw because I thought it was more then just screaming and blood. A good mind f*ck movie in my opinion. Never saw (hehe) the second one. After reading all this about Hostel I guess I'm going to have to rent it. I've read alot of bad things about it yet everybody here says it's worth seeing so I'll have to check it out and rack up 5 bucks in late fees because I can never return anything on time.

[Corona Gigante]

Originally Posted by ResIpsa

I particularly enjoyed Ju-on (the grudge here) and Ringu(the ring here). I found the Japanese originals to be more "atmospheric" in their scariness than their american counterparts which relied more on special effects. The Others is another film good for its use of atmosphere.

About a year ago I read some stuff regarding Phantasm and 'the ball being back", but it seems to be dead in the water now....

The Grudge blew. They tried to turn it into a vehicle for Buffy and she wasn't up to it. Keeping her character alive throughout the movie completely runined the premise of the original. I expected better of Sam (Evil Dead, Xena Warrior Princess) Raimi. Well, OK, no, I didn't.

The Ring wasn't quite as bad, just a scene-for-scene remake to cater to a US audience too lazy to read subtitles.

The first (and maybe the second) Phantasm were excellent US B horror movies but Angus Scrimm (the Tall Man) is 80 this year, Reggie is over 60. They're both still making films, but reprising roles they created a quarter of a century ago isn't anything I'd pay money to see.

[horrorview]

Originally Posted by Corona Gigante

but the two Saw movies didn't seem to have anything at all going for them except a lot of screaming, prosthetic effects, and buckets of fake blood.

The stills on the DVD box in the video store seemed to suggest that Hostel falls squarely into that category of graphic torture / borderline snuff. Is there anything more to it?

Hey man, I'm totally with you on the original SAW. I never quite understood the massive appeal of that one as I found it to be a bit of a cheap-looking, poorly acted, and dull film. However, I DID enjoy the sequel, even though it borrowed from the far superior CUBE.

Hostel, however, is a very fun, retro-exploitative movie with many distinct styles meshing to form a very competent whole. It's equal parts "teen sex comedy", slasher, torture flick, revenge film, and thriller. While the torture stuff is definitely there purely for gross out reasons, the film is otherwise light enough to make these scenes less disturbing than in the other films you mentioned.

[mike32312]

Hey I just went to see nude college age girls.

[ky toker]

Originally Posted by mike32312

Hey I just went to see nude college age girls.