Director Eli Roth's second stab at horror is, predictably, even gorier than the first, said Kyle Smith in the New York Post. 'œYou come to the film expecting'”hoping'”to be grossed out, and Hostel: Part II doesn't disappoint.' Naked women are disemboweled, men are castrated, kids kick around a severed head, and dogs munch on human entrails. The film has pretty much the same plot as its predecessor, but this time our imperiled American tourists are pretty girls, not frat boys. A fellow traveler convinces the girls to visit a remote Slovakian spa, but when the girls get to the spot, it turns out to be a tricked-out torture palace where rich Americans pay to commit bloody thrill kills. Two of these pay-to-play murderers get their own story line, said Gene Seymour in Newsday. In giving the killers (Richard Burgi and Roger Bart) their own plot arcs, Roth takes his film to yet another disturbing level. 'œHe widens the view to take in not just the slaughter, but the motives behind it; to poke the monstrous impulses asleep within so-called rational minds.' Don't kid yourself, said Tirdad Derakhshani in The Philadelphia Inquirer. This is torture porn, and it's not even any fun. 'œThe scares weren't cathartic. The gore wasn't deliciously, devilishly over-the-top.' You'll leave the theater feeling guilty, unclean, and depressed over the toxic state of American culture.
Rating: R
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