Director: Eli Roth
Year: 2007
Country: USA/Czech Republic
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Torture Slasher
Plot:
Agreeing to travel to Slovakia, a group of friends find themselves disappearing one by one around their spa getaway and eventually realize they've been targeted by a deadly criminal organization that's torturing others like them and must find a way to stop them from getting away alive.
Review:
This was a massively disappointing effort. One of the film's main flaws is that much like the original there's way too much time spent away from its actual destination in the titular torture room, and as a result, its pacing is just way too problematic in the first half. Its opening is really troubling which scores this no points at all for what happens there, and once they get on track with the remaining part of the film it's at least another twenty minutes before they even get wind of the idea of going to the country, there's a big search through the city to find the place and takes another half-hour after that before any sort of on-screen torture occurs, leaving it's torture scenes, which are the main body of the film, until almost an hour in. That's way too long for the film to get to its big spot, and its beginning is just boring and really hard to sit through.
The last real flaw to this one is the fact that there's just no idea behind how anything works in here. There's no knowledge about how the torture group runs the business, despite the subplot about the one guy offering to bring the new guy in, but even still, that's just about getting him in, not how it works. From the choice of targets to the way it's spread out among those who are interested in the daily grind, the inner workings of the hostel itself are complete blanks and nothing at all is explained or given. There is some good stuff in this one, though, which again like the original comes from the blood and gore. This one is much bloodier than the original, with the kills in here being quite brutal and truly inventive in several graphic scenes that are just chilling in their execution and professional in their lay-out as the manner of brutality not only taken upon by the clients against them as well as their inevitable revenge.
That's not to count out the centerpiece kill, where a nude female victim is strung up over a bathtub, the killer gets in and then proceeds to slice up the body with a hand scythe, which then proceeds to rain torrents of blood down upon the victim in an extended and incredibly graphic sequence that, alone, is better than anything in the original for its mixture of blood, gore, over-the-top disgust, and sleaze, and serves as the highpoint in the film. Also quite fun is the rather well-done forest chase here, which is creepy, suspenseful, and action-packed, making it quite fun to notice the chances of getting away and the overall effect they have. The last plus, though, is the rather colorful and entertaining ritualistic ceremony they attend, which adds a little bit of levity to the film and isn't all-out torturous to get through. In the end, though, this simply ends up feeling like just a remake of the original with the males turned into women but very little change otherwise.
Overview: ***/5
Barely a better sequel to a rather decent original, this one does manage to have a bit more to like about it than what’s going on in the original as its likable factors do keep it going. Those who appreciated the original or are fans of the style presented here while those who aren’t into these factors should heed caution.
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