Getting Hostel

Out of all the movies requiring a sequel, Eli Roth’s “_Hostel_”:http://www.hostelfilm.com/ is not at the top of my list. Nevertheless, today marks the release of the torture-porn’s “second installment.”:http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoID=2016363940 America gets what America wants and in this instance that would be, as the “_New York Times_ says,”:http://movies2.nytimes.com/2007/06/07/movies/08host.html?ref=movies “to push the boundaries of exploitative nastiness.”

I don’t intend on ever seeing Hostel II nor do I plan on seeing its prequel. There’s something truly unsettling about watching and enjoying the butchering of others. And while I’m fully aware that this is a form of entertainment, the fact that it is categorized as such disturbs me.

The other night, while flipping channels, I came across Wes Craven’s cheesy original “_The Hills Have Eyes_”:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077681/ (1977), watched for a little while, and realized how hilarious horror was back in the ’70s. But back then, it scared the bejesus out of people. Like, moviegoers fainted from the shocking frights. And with every year, Hollywood has been raising the horror bar that much higher, making the blood more realistic, the torture methods more imaginative, the body count even higher. This is when it occured to me that in 20 years my kids will be laughing at the outdated horrors of Hostel II. And you know what? That scared the s*** out of me.

Just how much further can we push the boundaries of exploitative nastiness? Sadly, Roth will invest his career trying to find that out.

What do you think?