Like
Saw, Friday the 13th, Halloween, and Nightmare on Elm Street,
Hostel was a big hit. Sequels followed. But it left plenty of
people turned off. Some critics called it a prime example of
a new movie category, “torture porn.” Other viewers, more
open-minded, tolerated the torture scenes, but still found it
confusing. They were left wondering, what was the point?
I honestly don’t know if it was supposed to have a point. Yet it struck a nerve for me, hard. I keep asking myself: Could Hostel be showing us a sick part of humanity that we hoped didn’t exist?
Something we hoped was only fiction… but most likely did happen
and still does happen?
Let me explain. This is what we hope is fiction:
If you have a lot of money, and know the right people, you can buy anything. Even the chance to abuse people, maybe even kill them…just for recreation, for a new thrill.
Where there is a buyer, you can find a seller.
Hostel is one of the few mainstream movies to raise this possibility. It gives you its own answer to the question; “Faced with that situation, what would you do?”
In Hostel, the victims are young tourists, who tend to be more vulnerable, less protected and easiest to fool. But they are not poor people, like the teenagers (or younger) in Thailand and other places, sold by their families into the sex-tourism industry. That in itself may anger people who consider themselves social activists.
They have a strong argument. I will answer it in a simple way: The first step is awareness. Hostel does try to give you some of this awareness. One way it does is by telling the story from the
point of view of the victims.
The con job begins in Amsterdam. Three friends; two, Paxton and Josh are American, recent college graduates. Oli is Icelandic, a little older, recently divorced, trying to recapture his youth.
Time is an issue for Paxton and Josh too. This vacation is their last fling, before facing the pressure of growing up. Paxton sees Europe as his chance, not just for pleasure now, but as an experience he can look back on during grueling hours of study (law school).
Josh is headed for graduate school; he is the only reflective one. But none of them are mean people; for example, not guys who’d ever give you date-rape drugs. In most ways, your average college kids.
Amsterdam is what they expected, what they looked forward to. But a random conversation with a Russian tourist promises much more. A hostel in Slovakia; not in the guidebooks. More females than males. Women horny for handsome young Americans
The last time they have before adult
responsibilities take over
It sounds too good to be true, but the photos on the Russian guy’s cell phone convince them. Their journey is uneventful except for a chance meeting with a strange businessman. A good talker…maybe too good. He tells them they are headed to the right place; they will love the Slovakian girls. Some of them will do anything you want. Then abruptly putting his hand on Josh’s thigh, he asks him, “What is your nature?”
Josh is furious right away. The man takes his bag and leaves. He seems harmless enough yet threatening in a way you can’t describe.The hostel turns out to be just what the Russian
described. The lady at the front desk tells them they will
have roommates…very attractive women.She is not exaggerating. The place even has its own sauna and disco, with an attractive ratio of women to men. Only Josh is slightly leery—things seem too good to be true.
But later that night, a woman from the hostel staff takes Josh back to their room. Great sex. Everything the Russian promised.
Women who seem too good to be true–just as promised
Josh wakes next morning to find Paxton grinning back at him. You know he scored too.
But no sign of Oli. They wonder if they knew him well enough; would he tell them he was leaving, or just go off on his own? A beautiful young Asian tourist tells them Oli left a club with her friend, but no sign of them since.
Meanwhile, Paxton reassures Josh, Oli is okay. Josh can’t stop worrying. In the lobby, he starts to feel dizzy. The lady at the desk helps him to bed.
Cut to a point-of-view shot—what looks like a black box with one hole to see out of. A long row of torture implements in a dark ugly room.
You realize it is not a box, it is a black hood over Josh’s head. He is cuffed into a chair. He can see two men. One approaches him with an electric drill.
Josh never has time to think. He begs them, at least talk to me. “I didn’t do anything to you.” One man stays silent, but drills straight into Josh—twice. It takes awhile to recognize him in his outfit, but it is the man from the train.
The man talks now; he sounds insane. He picks up a scalpel. “I always wanted to be a surgeon…” He gashes Josh behind both ankles. Next he undoes the handcuffs and says, “You’re free to go.”
Josh tries to run but both his Achilles tendons are severed; he falls flat on his face. He promises money for his freedom, but the man answers contemptuously, “I am the one paying them.” Without further thought, he cuts Josh’s throat. Through all of it, he is utterly cold; a true monster.
You know Paxton is next. But Paxton knows too…at least he is pretty sure. He is desperately trying to walk the thin line–finding his friends…without getting caught himself.
At an old tavern, he finds the women he and Josh had sex with. They tell him that Josh and Oli went to an art show with two women. Paxton tells them, take me there.
A large rundown building with a huge parking lot. Yet plenty of art shows take place in venues like this.Paxton goes in. Almost immediately, a group of men grab him. His “roommate” watches with satisfaction. “You bitch,” he says.
She says bringing him here will pay her well, “and
that makes you my bitch.”As they drag him to a vacant room, Paxton sees a lot. Rooms with young tourists tied down in chairs.
Josh’s body, the man from the train next to it. Everywhere, what seem to be security guards.
He is strapped to a chair like Josh was. But unlike his friend, Paxton is not paralyzed with disbelief. “Talk,” a man says.
“What the fuck you want me to say?”
The man pulls off a surgical mask. Compared to Josh’s killer, he seems newer at this…less sure of himself. Paxton can speak passable German. He tells the man, if you kill me, you will see me in your dreams the rest of your life. The man slaps Paxton’s face, then storms out.
A security guard comes in, gags Paxton and leaves. The first man holds a gun to Paxton’s forehead and pantomimes shooting it. He puts the gun down, holds a chain saw to Paxton’s face. He cuts Paxton’s hand, slices off two fingers…and breaks the chain holding Paxton’s wrists. Blood spurts all over. The man comes back with the chain saw but slips on the blood and falls, the saw tearing a deep gash into his leg. A second later, he is up again…
Paxton shoots him with the gun he dropped. The guard comes in—Paxton kills him too.
Paxton–Knowing only he can save himself
The room is unlocked, but leaving the building is hard. In his journey, Paxton sees a man chopping bodies up, then burning them in a crematorium. He goes into a locker room. On the floor, he notices a business card reading simply, Elite Hunting.
I don’t want to give away much more. But the next scene is devastating, and ironically, no one gets hurt. A man walks in. He takes it for granted that Paxton is a paying customer like himself.
Paxton is terrified he will give himself away. But the questions he expects never come. With the man talking a mile a minute, Paxton barely needs to say anything.
The customer speaks English with no accent; you’d expect he is from the USA. I expected him to be a spoiled, decadent rich kid. Sure that his family can buy his way out of any problems with the law.
Instead, he is totally down to earth. He would look at home at a tailgate party at any stadium in any state. Or any gym in any city, any major suburb.
But he’s not here to watch a football game. He wants a more intense experience…some heightened reality. The chance to torture and kill, to indulge his fantasies to the fullest. I keep thinking of the line from In the independent American movie In the Company of Men.
“Why? Because I can.”
At first, I felt the moviemakers might have cast someone different, someone with more of a rich, privileged appearance. (Like a young James Spader, back in the 80’s and 90’s) I honestly don’t know if their decision to use this actor was just a matter of chance.
But choosing someone so average actually gives Hostel more sting. It reminds us; these sick fantasies are not only for the super-rich and jaded. They cut across class lines, social lines, political lines.
You keep hoping… Maybe the guy is talking about something else. Maybe he doesn’t know yet what he is paying for…
Minutes later, Paxton sees him again. You realize beyond a doubt: the guy knew what he wanted; he paid for the whole package. A beautiful young Asian woman tied to the same kind of chair. The customer is literally ripping her face off. As Paxton walks in, the guy’s words say it all: “Find your own fucking room.”
I remembered a scene from Chinatown. Noah Cross (John Huston), a powerful man who has committed incest with his daughter for years, talks to J.J. Gittes (Jack Nicholson). Cross tells him: under the right circumstances, people are capable of anything.
And Noah is not apologizing, or even trying to justify what he has done. He feels he has no reason to say he is sorry or to make excuses.
Chinatown was set in the 1930’s, before air travel was popular. Now, people have greater freedom; you can be one person at home with your family. Another person when you are away on business. You may keep that life a secret for years. You find ways to cover your tracks.
You compartmentalize it, keep it separate from the rest of your life. Maybe you tell yourself, it’s my money, I earned it. Or you contribute a large sum to a place for homeless children or some third world children’s organization and tell yourself, this good karma might cancel out my bad karma.
But once you’re talking about child prostitution rather than torture, it’s only a question of definition, a question of degree. Anyone who visits the third world for the chance to have sex with children is a torturer, period.
Back in your own country, you can be a good father, a valued
member of your church or synagogue, start your own personal soup kitchen. But nothing gets erased.
I spent a little time looking at interviews with the
writer/ director Eli Roth, without finding out much about what he
intended in making Hostel.
But still. Hostel’s not the first movie where someone is tied down, helpless by a monster or a human monster.
However, it is one of the best at making you experience, all the way down in your gut, what that feels like.
That helpless feeling they have gone through: Josh, Paxton, and the Asian girl Paxton tries to save —is a short taste of what a kid sold into the sex industry will feel. For me, if Hostel gets you to experience that, it’s done its job and more.