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Avg. Critic Score: 55 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
17 not for kids
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 75
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    It's obligatory for a horror film to feature exploitative sex as an appetizer, but Roth, even as he fulfills the sleaze imperative, does something shrewder: He mocks his heroes, presenting them as cold-eyed horndog jerks who fail to see that they've wandered into an entire country of exploitation. Read full review

  • 70
    Washington Post | Teresa Wiltz

    There's a reason why one goes to see cinematic gorefests like Hostel: to partake vicariously of the bloodfest, to get hopped up on the sickness of it all, the utter degradation, the fall of Western Civilization, yadda yadda yadda, and oh yeah, to hoot at the flying fingers, the guts, the blood, the bare breasts. Read full review

  • 70
    Salon.com | Andrew O'Hehir

    I admired the humor, the tremendous craftsmanship and even the shock value of Hostel, but found the Grand Guignol torture scenes excessive. (Unless you're a hardcore fan of Italian, Spanish and Japanese gore flicks, you've never seen anything like this.) Read full review

  • 70
    The Hollywood Reporter | Michael Rechtshaffen

    Eli Roth turns to modern-day Asian fright filmmakers as inspiration for his latest blood-soaked effort while demonstrating an intriguing, original voice of his own. Read full review

  • 70
    Variety |

    Hostel may become something of a classic among Fangoria magazine's readership, acolytes of George Romero and audiences who thought "Saw II" was for babies. Read full review

  • 60
    Los Angeles Times | Jan Stuart

    Seems to have been tailored to its designated R "for brutal scenes of torture and violence, strong sexual content, language and drug use." Read full review

  • 50
    Boston Globe | Wesley Morris

    Not horrifying enough. Read full review

  • 50
    Austin Chronicle | Marc Savlov

    Hostel certainly delivers in the gore department, and Roth, who knows and loves his favorite genre at least as well as the gang over at the Alamo Drafthouse, peppers the proceedings with various witty in-jokes. Read full review

  • 40
    The New York Times |

    Hostel is motivated by an adolescent urge to shock. And while it's true that no civilized person will remain unscathed by the film's relentless bigotry - this is one of the most misogynistic films ever made - Mr. Roth's gory spectacles are too calculated to deliver the transgressive jolts they so obviously seek. Read full review

  • 38
    New York Daily News | Jack Mathews

    The question is, can a Slovakian lawsuit against the filmmaker be far behind? Read full review

View more reviews for Hostel on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says not for kids Extremely brutal and graphic; not for the faint of heart.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this film is absolutely not for kids. The premise and primary "plot" is torture, specifically, the torture of young travelers by wealthy adults who pay thousands of dollars for the experience. These images are graphic and bloody (severed limbs, penetrated genitals, sliced Achilles tendon, gouged eye, with weapons including scissors, chainsaws, knives, hammers, drills, clippers, guns, cars, and chairs). One character throws herself in front of a train when she sees her disfigurement following torture. These violent scenes are preceded by a sojourn in Amsterdam, featuring girls' breasts and one frontal nudity shot. Characters engage in boisterous sex and a man makes a homosexual pass at an unwilling young man. Characters smoke, drink, and do multiple sorts of drugs. Characters use frequent foul language (over 100 f-words, derogatory terms like "faggot" and, in this context, "gay," slang for genitals, "damn," "hell").
  • Families can talk about the film's rudimentary moral lessons. What lessons is the film trying to convey about backpacking through Europe or class disparities? Or, you might consider the film's evocations of movie conventions, appeals to genre connoisseurs (including homages to executive producer Quentin Tarantino). Are these images cynical responses to a violent world or incisive commentary on violence in media?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Rich people pay money to torture young tourists.
What to watch for
  • violence false5 Violence: Gruesome, ongoing violence, in the form of torture and vengeful resistance to same (instruments include chainsaws, guns, knives, scissors, clippers, drills, hammers, pincers, and cars).
  • sex false5 Sex: Blatant female nudity (including one brief full frontal shot), sexual activity, incessant sexual slang and derogatory language.
  • language false5 Language: Over 100 uses of the f-word in various forms, plus slang for genitals and sexual behaviors, plus assorted uses of "damn," "Jesus," and "hell."
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Bars advertise brands of beer.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false5 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Characters smoke, drink to drunkenness, and do multiple drugs.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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Dave White

4.5

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… childlike surprises. Read full review See Dave White's on MOVIENAME on Movies.com

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