Seen the trailer for “Hostel,” the Eli Roth movie that’s coming out next year? Sweet Jesus. Just when we thought that the makers of the “Saw” movies were the sickest people alive, along comes this happy little tale about a group of backpackers who head to this Slovakian hostel because they heard that they can live out their deepest darkest desires. And while that may be true, they have no idea exactly what it entails.
The trailer doesn’t actually show much, except for the tip of a toe in the vice of a very large wrench. And, unlike the “Saw” movies, where the victims of Jigsaw’s games are forced to commit unspeakable acts on themselves, the trailer for “Hostel” suggests that the hapless victims are tortured by someone else, someone who paid for the privilege. The worst part of this premise is that it is allegedly based on true events, though finding documentation of said events is rather difficult.
The success of the “Saw” movies is a great story from a less-is-more perspective, but it’s also a rather disturbing observation of what as a people turns us on. On the plus side, it could mean the end of the snuff film industry, since these movies have rendered them obsolete.
