Parents' Guide to Hostel: Part II

There's a (feeble) argument to be made that HOSTEL: PART II is a "better" film than the original gore-torture hit. What's "better" about this equally sadistic sequel? This time around, the target audience (the sort of fans who instantly recognize the names of Italian gore-movie icons of the '70s in the supporting cast) are already in on the grisly secret. So rather than waste time going through the motions again, director Eli Roth uses Hostel: Part II to address -- a little bit -- the philosophical rationale for the factory and the working operations of the secret society of murderers that maintains it. But there are still gallons of blood and nonstop ghastly violence -- so viewers who thought the first film was an atrocity won't see many redeeming qualities here, either.

When a nude woman takes a blood shower under the spurting, suspended body of a dying victim, viewers will probably be too grossed out to do much thinking, but on a certain level, these Hostel movies do have a grim message: proposing that human nature really is this dark and depraved. (Stuart, having second thoughts en route to the factory, asks "Are we sick?" Todd responds "We're the normal ones!") Eastern Europe -- with its history full of wars, genocide, and Grimm fairy tales -- is portrayed as a place where recreational torture and death can become a profitable business. The factory, with its snarling dogs and gates, recalls imagery from Holocaust movies like Schindler's List. The American girls are somewhat more gracious visitors than the first film's sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll Yankee guys, but the message seems similar, and more than a little xenophobic: "These foreigners and their ways are different. Staying home is safer."