J Astro Reviews: “HOSTEL PART III” DVD

Images: Sony Home Entertainment

HOSTEL Part III
2011   USA   88min
Director: Scott Spiegel
Starring: Kip Pardue, Brian Hallisay, John Hensley, Sarah Habel, Thomas Kretschmann, Chris Coy, Skyler Stone, Nikola Shreli

Sony Home Entertainment

Review by J ASTRO

As regards the HOSTEL franchise and its peers, I suspect that many diehard readers of Famous Monsters might primarily be more at home with the “classic” monster archetypes such as zombies, vampires, aliens, etc.  In fact, the horror community in general has been rather vocal as of late in hastily brushing aside the “torture porn” trend that has inundated the genre scene in recent years, and which was partly ushered in by Rob Zombie, Eli Roth, and the SAW franchise.  Like all fads, it rapidly engendered a lot of imitators, some passable but most direly inferior, and soon the backlash was apparent in critics’ dismissal of such grisly, one-note affairs as just another one of “those” movies.  And in many instances I can’t say I blame ‘em.  But possibly the most unsettling of all fiends & boogeymen is and always will be the human monster, the guy or gal who seems attractive or nice enough on the outside, but would gladly chop you up into dog food if given the chance.  Heck, they might even pay for such an opportunity.

HOSTEL Part III removes us from the seedy Euro-trash ghettos of post-war Slovakia trod upon by Eli Roth in his first two entries,  Instead, director Scott Spiegel and co. bring the atrocities stateside to that sparkling, overblown bastion of fantasy and debauchery, Las Vegas.  Before diving into this third outing, I would like to mention that I’ve always thought that Roth’s first two entries into the HOSTEL property had one major thing going for them, and that was pure showmanship.  Roth wasn’t trying to present the HOSTEL movies as anything that they weren’t.  There was a clear sense of raucous, juvenile, over-the-top fun about them.  Rampant nudity, bad behavior, a few sick twists, and in-your-face splatter were paraded about onscreen with the sole purpose of getting laughs, groans, and shrieks of disgust.  There was no pretense of in-depth social commentary and not much to really have to think about (other than “Wow, it would really suck to be that guy/girl/”).  We saw the fates of most characters coming a mile away and we still paid to see it all played out like a big yucky farce.  Maybe it’s a modern version of the Grand Guignol sensibility, or some sort of cathartic psychological defense mechanism against the more mundane, real-life horrors we face daily.  But under horror über-fanboy Roth’s capable stewardship, the HOSTEL films operated under a slick veneer of exploitative shock and escapism, with Roth himself as the grinning carnival barker enticing you to step inside by shouting “Hey! You! Wanna see something really gross!?”  It acknowledged right up front that it was pure cinematic junk food, and it all worked simply by not taking itself too seriously.

That being said, I was a little worried that without the benefit of Roth’s exuberance this time around, that sense of spectacle would be lost and HOSTEL Part III would be indeed just another one of “those” films, a rote copy designed to cash in on the recognizable name.  But it deserved the benefit of the doubt, because Scott Spiegel is certainly no slouch or johnny-come-lately in the horror industry.  This is the guy who brought us INTRUDER (1989), a standout slasher effort that has just recently undergone a pretty glorious DVD/Blu-ray resurrection of its own.  He later took a completely unnecessary sequel, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN: TEXAS BLOOD MONEY (1999), and made that fairly enjoyable.  In addition to that, Spiegel has a lot of genre cred going all the way back to his days with Sam Raimi on the EVIL DEAD films and he acted as a producer alongside Eli Roth on the first two HOSTEL flicks and the first 2001 MANIACS sequel/remake (2005).  So if anyone could make a go of another HOSTEL adventure, it should be Spiegel.

And he pulls it off, ably and cleverly, if not exactly spectacularly.  Spiegel and his writers & other filmmaking cohorts employ a number of tricks, and the best twist of the movie happens in the opening moments.  HOSTEL Part III will be most appreciated by those who are very familiar with the first two, because it is that preconditioned target audience who will most recognize when the conventions of the established mythos are being flouted.  After the first sequence clues us in to the new ways of this particular HOSTEL world, we are introduced to four dudes headed off to Sin City for a decadent bachelor party, where they will booze, schmooze, and ultimately lose.  Prostitutes and champagne are the order of the evening, but this being a HOSTEL flick, not everyone makes it home the morning after.  When one of these jerks goes missing, and his amigos set out to investigate, it starts to play out like THE HANGOVER meets FACES OF DEATH… various penetrating implements, stun guns, and ball-gags are employed to nasty effect.  One key difference between this and the previous entries is that Part III focuses less on the individual sickos who pay to mutilate an unsuspecting victim.  Instead, the action on behalf of HOSTEL’s mysterious “Elite Hunting Club” is mostly supplied by a room full of murky, expressionless gazillionaires who sip drinks and observe the various acts of torment from behind a glass window, placing wagers on details ranging from how long a victim (or “asset”) will last before expiring to what kind of pleas for mercy they will resort to in their final moments (i.e. “But I have a family!” versus “Why are you doing this to me?”).  There’s odds placed on all aspects of the carnage.

One might at first be tempted to draw some “rich people are bad” inferences from this scenario, and that’s fair enough, I suppose, given the circumstances.  Yes, these incredibly wealthy, bored, hedonistic villains are thrilling to the agony of the common man.  But you could also liken it to a version of television’s popular Fear Factor show, without all the pesky safety precautions and legal releases.  In the end, HOSTEL Part III posits that just about everyone has a morbid curiosity in them that will keep them glued to the screen while a girl in a cheerleader costume is forcibly fed a glass box full of live cockroaches.  For richer or poorer, the misfortunes of others always seem to hold mass appeal.

The slight change of approach here works well enough for the main subplot of the movie, which concerns the relationship between soon-to-be married nice guy Scott and his best pal Carter (Kip Pardue, star of WIZARD OF GORE ’07).  Spiegel also gets a lot of good performances from some of the supporting characters, such as John Hensley in the role of Justin, a fairly atypical male character with a physical impairment that makes him more vulnerable (but no less of a man) than his cohorts.  Nikola Shreli stands out from the get-go as a boisterous, fighting mad Ukrainian character who ends up being a lot more three-dimensional than the viewer is initially led to believe he will be. Likewise, Chris Coy is notable as a shifty-eyed character who turns all expectations on their head… and also for having a vaguely eerie resemblance, in my opinion at least, to a young Sam Raimi.  Given Scott Spiegel’s past associations, I can’t help but wonder if this was intentional.  Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t elucidate the appropriate appreciation for the real unsung heroes of HOSTEL Part III – the scantily clad, leather-strapped kinky bondage girls who traipse in & out the camera’s view from time to time while serving drinks to the shadowy gamblers.  Keep workin’ it, girls.  Someone’s bound to notice; I sure as hell did.

There are a lot of bright spots in this straight-to-DVD endeavor, but please don’t confuse that with any claims of greatness.  I liked it well enough, but it’s not something I would sit around watching over & over again (my psychiatrist would probably worry if I did).  It’s pre-ordained to be a film of limited appeal, and probably a one-timer for all but the most ardent of collectors who feel a burning need to own every sequel.  Ultimately, when it’s all over and quirks and nice little tweaks aside, it’s still a formulaic hour and a half or so of entertainment, twice removed from its original inspiration, that relies mainly on creating tension and thrills from watching captive characters being lured to excruciating deaths, while the main protagonists have little to do other than avoid their grisly fate and eventually escape to take bloody revenge on their tormentors.  I suppose that still counts as your average “torture porn” set-up and HOSTEL Part III probably isn’t gonna change the mind of anyone who has long since discounted this sub-genre.  But if you are willing to go into this sort of production with an open mind and/or an appreciation of what has been done within this franchise before, I’d hope you agree that this is a fairly satisfying capper and it surely doesn’t do anything to harm the HOSTEL legacy, such as it is.

Other reviews by J Astro:

ROMAN’S BRIDE DVD
HORROR EXPRESS Blu/DVD
DON’T OPEN TILL CHRISTMAS DVD
FINAL DESTINATION 5 DVD