HOSTEL: PART II

The Motion Picture Association of America, once headed by the late liberal sycophant Jack Valenti, has given HOSTEL PART II an R rating “for sadistic scenes of torture and bloody violence” as well as “nudity, sexual content, language and some drug content.” These words only hint at the graphic nature of some of the scenes in this horror flick, including scenes of full male and female nudity during explicit, pornographic, bloody scenes of torture. After screening this movie, the question arises, why doesn’t it deserve an NC-17 rating, or worse, from the MPAA? On what basis is the MPAA only giving HOSTEL PART II an R rating for its “sadistic scenes of torture”? How does that make any rational sense whatsoever? Finally, why doesn’t the MPAA, or, better yet, the government, step in and prevent this kind of production from being made in the first place, no matter how beautiful the scenery in Iceland, Czechoslovakia and France (where the movie was made) is photographed?

The story concerns a rich girl named Beth who, with her friend Whitney and a nerdy acquaintance of theirs named Lorna, is enticed by a beautiful Eastern European woman named Axelle to change their travel plans. Skip going to Prague, she urges them, and come to Slovakia.

What the three girls don’t know, of course, is that Axelle is part of a secret torture syndicate that auctions off unsuspecting American and other tourists to become torture victims for rich men and women from all over the world. In fact, two rich American men, Stuart and Todd, also have bought a trip to Slovakia for the express purpose of torturing Beth and Whitney to death in the most gruesome of ways. Todd is all gung ho, but Stuart seems reluctant. When, however, Todd and Stuart come face to face with their victims, the motives of both men change. What Stuart and Todd, not to mention Axelle and her boss, haven’t taken into account, is the tenacity and intelligence with which Beth approaches the grisly predicament in which she finds herself.

Like its predecessor, HOSTEL PART II tries to throw in some sex and suspense before it shows viewers the evil, sadistic depths to which writer/director Eli Roth’s disturbed, sadomasochistic mind can sink. Roth obviously knows how to make a movie, but there must be something incredibly dark and evil in his past and in his heart that makes him drawn to truly abhorrent material like this.

Many scientific studies of media violence and psychological profiles of ultra-violent criminals (see “Sex-Related Homocide and Death Investigation” by Roman Catholic Vernon J. Geberth, a retired Lt. Commander with the NYPD and have clearly shown that violent pornographic movies like HOSTEL PART II encourage some people to act out their most horrific sadomasochistic fantasies. It almost makes one wish, if ever so briefly, that Eli Roth and the people running the MPAA would get a taste of their own medicine and become torture victims themselves. Needless to say, if they continue along this path, there are several levels of eternal punishment in Hell that are reserved for such cultural monsters, and the monsters they create.