Hostel: Part 2 – Unrated
Director’s Cut (Blu-ray)
Picture:
B Sound: B Extras: B
Film: D
Rated R for sadistic scenes of
torture and bloody violence, terror, nudity, rape, sexual content, language and
some drug content.
Is this
what the horror-genre has been reduced to?
This same rating description can be given to a large handful of the
recent cycle of ‘torture-porn’ films being released these days and packaged as
form of some type of dysfunctional entertainment. How much of this can one person take? Apparently the studios though enough to not
only make Hostel, but also make a
sequel, which is the subject of this review.
Now, I am not claiming that this is a new practice, anyone who has seen
the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre
can agree that this is nothing new, but where these newer films lack is that
they attempt to take a template and insert a similar formula each time hoping
to get effective results. Instead of
actually being creative, inventive, or intelligent, these films come across as
tired, lame, and disappointing on a whole new level. Of course there are others to blame for this
as well, Eli Roth (director of both Hostel
films) is hardly the only one to blame, Rob Zombie also comes to mind as well
and the Saw series is another culprit
too. In the end it becomes a pissing
contest to see which horror film can mutilate, torture, and violate people in
the most inhumane ways the most and quite frankly audiences deserve better.
I
remember seeing the trailer right before the first Hostel film (reviewed on Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) arrived
and recall them trying to make the film sound groundbreaking and throwing the
name ‘Tarantino’ around like it was the only reason to see this film, but the
film was hardly groundbreaking and having the name Tarantino attached to it
didn’t give it any more leverage in the end.
Although the film does have its following and some people apparently get
off on this type of stuff, it’s disappointing that we are fed another dosage of
the same schlock twice and people are capitalizing on people’s insanity,
stupidity, or sheer curiosity. It’s
while watching films like this that harkens back to the moment in A Clockwork Orange when Malcolm
McDowell’s character Alex is being forced to watch acts of violence on-screen
while hearing the sounds of Beethoven.
There is a device strapped to his head that keeps him from being able to
close his eyes and an attendant is putting eye drops in his eyes to keep his
eyes from drying out. He is strapped in
and has no choice but to watch the screen, this is (as the doctors say) going
to ‘cure’ him. I wonder what ‘cure’
there might be to take away the stains in my mind from watching films like Hostel II?
The same
gimmicks are used this time around, although it’s a shame to see a waste of
talent involved, including Bijou Phillips among many other young bright
actors/actresses. The plot is so thin it won’t even fit into a complete
sentence, so I’ll save everyone the plight and simplify it by saying that they
should have just skipped to the gruesome portions of the film instead of
putting up the false storyline at the beginning just to get us going. These films have hardly any story or
character development that they may as well save us from the trite openings and
just get to the point. Once we get to
that portion the rest is just repeat and rewind until we finally arrive at too
few people left to kill and then usually one person ends up alive, who
inevitably… saves the day.
The
Blu-ray edition of the film is solid in its presentation, but I don’t know how
much more refined, defined, or crisp you really want to see this film. In any event no matter how sharp the picture
or how good the color fidelity is, those things won’t change the nature of this
film and this Blu-ray, despite it’s performance can’t alleviate the disturbing,
disappointing, and humiliation mess of a film that this is. The 2.35 X 1 scope image looks amazingly
sharp considering the films color palette is more muted and organic in nature
giving the film its dark nature. The
darker scenes in general benefit heavily on the Blu-ray format and appear to be
more saturated than what DVD could produce, which allow for a more film-like
presentation. Personally I am not a big
fan of the stylistic color-treatment that these ‘horror’ films are using these
days with washed out color and a grungier palette because it’s become clichéd
beyond belief. The 1080p HD image though
is able to recreate the overall tone quite well and if you were inclined to
subject yourself to this film, this would be the way to see it!
The
soundtrack is presented in 5.1 uncompressed PCM and does not contain the Dolby TrueHD
that was on the first film, which tells me that the studio also knows that this
film does not deserve near the treatment as the first film in the audio
department either. The extras on this
Blu-ray disc are plentiful, but after going through them I was any more
inclined to become a fan and their justification of the film is almost comical
at times. Commentary, deleted scenes,
featurettes, it’s all there, but it would have been better to have spent this
energy making a better film.
- Nate Goss
