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Review

Because of the financial success of its predecessor, the arrival of Hostel: Part II comes as no surprise. Unlike most hastily produced horror sequels, however, controversial auteur Eli Roth – the writer and director of the first installment – helms this equally unsettling project as well. Though it is, in many ways, the same film with a female cast, Roth makes slight improvements by widening the scope of the story, creating well-developed, more sympathetic characters and, of course, providing enough nausea-inducing gore to make the original look tame by comparison.

After a brief opening exposition featuring Paxton (Jay Hernandez), the severely wounded survivor of the first installment, Roth introduces three American girls studying in Rome. Perfectly cast according to type are Lauren German as Beth, the princess-like protagonist, Bijou Phillips as Whitney, her dangerously amorous best friend, and Heather Matarazzo (no stranger to suffering on celluloid) as Lorna, the hapless romantic virgin who they invite along on a trip to Prague out of pity. Their plans change when they meet Axelle (Vera Jordanova), a sultry nude art model who begins a flirtation with Beth and convinces the trio to join her on a trip to a Slovakian spa. Not surprisingly, they are led to a familiar, seemingly pleasant youth hostel where their passport pictures are scanned and sent to members of the Elite Hunting organization – initiating an international bidding war between wealthy psychopaths who will pay top dollar for the opportunity to torture and butcher our three lovely leads. Also introduced are lucky auction winners Stuart and Todd (Desperate Housewives alums Roger Bart and Richard Burgi), two unfulfilled married suburbanites who feel that offing a couple of innocent girls in cold blood will give them a hidden edge in their cut-throat business environments.

With a 10 million dollar budget, Roth is permitted to let his ghastly imagination run wild. He serves up graphic scenes of humiliation, torture, rape, cannibalism and an unforgettable, heavily eroticized lesbian blood bath involving a hay sickle. Considering all of the sadistic ultraviolence, drug use, nudity and sex in the film, it’s downright mind-boggling that it passed the eyes of the ordinarily conservative MPAA without an NC-17 rating. Those with moral objections and/or weak stomachs should, obviously, avoid it at all costs. The less sensitive of us who enjoy being shocked and can find humor in the unrelenting grotesqueries will not likely be disappointed. When all is said and done, Hostel: Part II delivers exactly what it promises in spades.

 -- Robert O'Neill